Two-Minute Warning (1976) User Reviews

A faceless gunman shoots innocent bystanders in a tower overlooking a Los Angeles football stadium

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 21 July 2012]

Thrilling and entertaining disaster movie but full clichés and stereotypes with enjoyable performances from Charlton Heston and John Cassavetes . This catastrophe movie blends action , intrigue , disaster spectacle, suspense and emotional byplay . ¨Two-minute warning¨ was a successful film that grossed at box office . A psychotic sniper wielding a rifle with telescopic sight plans a massacre during a major championship game . The two protagonists , the police Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT commander Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), learn of the plot and spend most of their time devising various ways for avoid to psychopath sniper carries out his aims : a massive killing spree in Los Angeles football stadium filled to capacity . As our heroes get stuck in the stadium before it blows up and when slaughter takes place they go into action ; as they pay tribute to policemen . There takes place a struggle between two forces , the cops and the sinister assassin and ultimately erupts when the crowd turns almost effortlessly and devours itself in a climax of panic .

Exciting film that contains noisy action , unsettling scenes , thrills , emotion and turns out to be pretty entertaining . This formula suspense movie belongs to catastrophe genre of the 70s , being the undisputed king , ¨The towering inferno¨ along with ¨Earthquake¨ , ¨Roller coaster¨ and many others ; this formula disaster movie was widely developed by Irwin Allen , previously winner of numerous Oscars for ¨Poseidon¨ until the failures as ¨Beyond Poseidon¨, ¨Swarm¨ and ¨When the time ran out¨ . ¨Two-minute warning¨ results to be an intriguing and suspenseful film , there was a later version released that had footage not shown in theaters , in the original theatrical version, the sniper's motives were not known. In the later television version, it was revealed that the attack was done to cover an art robbery next door . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of a strong acting by starring trio Charlton Heston , John Cassavetes and Martin Balsam . Succeeds in combining various talented actors , an all star cast came together that tie for film's top casting honors ; furthermore a top-notch secondary casting such as Gina Rowlands, Beau Bridges , Jack Klugman , Marilyn Hasset , Pamela Bellwood , Mitch Ryan , Brock Peters, David Janssen and Walter Pidgeon as a pickpocket who formerly co-starred in 'Harry in Your Pocket' , a film about pickpocket s. This edgy , paranoid film was deemed too violent to show intact on broadcast television, so they re-wrote the story and added a heist element , the re-written material minimized both the main storyline and the subplots . Colorful and gripping photography in Panavision by Gerard Hirschfeld , including persistent high-angle shots , subjective camera-work and use of long lenses . Intriguing and atmospheric score by Charles Fox . This big-budgeted disaster movie was professionally though coldly directed by Larry Peerce , an usual TV movies director . Rating : Good and entertaining , it's a fairly watchable disaster movie.

The American Dream gunned-down for all to see.

[political-terror · 7/10 · 28 May 2009]

I just watched Two Minute Warning on DVD, and believe the film can be viewed from two different perspectives, either as a schlocky popcorn flick or as I prefer a stinging indictment of the American dream.

The film presents a collection of reflective ciphers of or chasing after: The American dream, set against a backdrop of an important Super bowl game which acts as thematic frame upon which to hang parallel characters. The sniper is a metaphorical cultural surgeon, as the film opens with him snuffing out a middle-aged cyclist, replete in synthetic modern tracksuit, the cyclist is of course still chasing after the American dream. An injury burnt ball-player with vivacious young and demanding girlfriend can be viewed as a dream casualty; initially hungry exploiter now almost exhaustively exploited for the purpose of entertainment to which American football occupies one of many sporting dream pinnacles.

Jack Klugman is desperately chasing his vision of the dream via high risk stakes gambling, with money which is not his own, putting his life at risk as he literally tries to get rich whilst almost dying, trying. Then we have David Jansen and his girlfriend who are entangled within a tired and respect-less relationship with Jansen more interested in running off to Las Vegas for some gambling after he proposes to his beleaguered girlfriend with what in all probability will be a quick and doomed marriage.

Archetypal young family guy: Beau Bridges heads the prototypical dysfunctional family that decades later would be fodder for: The Jerry Springer Show, as we witness father chastise his barely long haired youngest son for being wise when the kid rebukes his dad's imposing conservatism with "everyone can see" in response to being told that his hair is too long. Bridges later attempt at model citizenry by informing the police that there is a sniper in the coliseum backfires on him with the brave boys in blue attempting to cart him off somewhat ambiguously for further questioning, do the police believe he may be a suspect in cahoots with the sniper or are they just trying to stop a panic situation, too late, as by this point the dream culture cleansing has begun with Jansen's girlfriend arbitrarily spared a prolongation of their mutually unsatisfying relationship.

The enclosed and insulated television crew, media spinning the ball-game with their customary brand of all-American labelling; as we are all too aware of today, their egos quietened as the carnage unfolds; reality crashing through their subjectively controlled and packaged, vicarious version of reality. An unsuspecting long haired teenager who has clambered up, out of the designated seating area makes himself a target of the now twitchy, prior hung-ho, swat boys who heavy handedly remove him from his perch, upon suspicion of what may be contained within his rucksack, triggering fear that he may be the snipers accomplice; supplicate topical paranoia. Long-haired young men do not fit the profile as signed up card carrying pursuers of the American dream.

Assorted ill reflections upon the dream pop up through-out the picture. Robert Ginty (who would later play a similar kind of Exterminator) as the happy-go-lucky yet avaricious novelty hat seller who fleeces cash-strapped Bridges, embarrassingly obligated to fulfil expectations of the dream when his youngest son announces that his father has no money; plays out the father to son baton handing of the dream, be who you want, have what you want, when you want it.

The lone alcoholic proffering his poison for the solicitation of Jansen's eager to facilitate lady-friend, her eye on her dream, garments of wealth and prosperity, coverting her true longing. The respectable looking Walter Pidgeon failing to pickpocket the film's singular paid up ball-game viewer to be held in esteem by the filmmakers, that of a doctor beguiled by a female onlooker acting as chaperon to an insecure male counterpart who wishes not to be seen in public without requisite female date, trappings of his American dream. During the ensuing human crush we witness said doctor saving the life of his new found lady fan; clinging to life from a stairwell of white concrete.

The sniper's supposed target, that of the man who sits atop the American dream, never arrives. When the bullets begin raining down on this most veneer thin picture of national conservative pride the true spirit of American humanity bulldozes through in an everyman for himself helter-skelter stampede; as a supposedly civilised gathering reverts back to the days of the rush for land the gold rush the oil rush the arms rush the space rush the global greed rush of collapse.

Little wonder why this film bombed on its theatrical release, striking a deep resonant chord within the American psyche. Witness today American's on IMDb's discussion boards label up the film with outraged impotent cries of "Utter Crap" The picture of themselves reflected back through this now time-capsule piece of effective culture and ideal mirroring.

What of Charlton Heston I hear you say, well he represents moderate conservatism, committed by a sense of duty, but willing to provide the trigger happy swat'ers their neccessitation for existence of pumping lead kicks' as a final solution. The larger than life Heston is surrounded by this carnival of human frailty.

Terror At the Coliseum

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 8 December 2006]

The Seventies was the decade of the disaster film, but oddly enough Charlton Heston has never been credit for being King of the genre. We know Heston for his work in big budget spectacles like The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, but he's probably appeared in more disaster films than any other player.

Think about it, Heston during the seventies starred in Earthquake, Grey Lady Down, Skyjacked, Airport 75 and this film Two Minute Warning. All of them with a cast of well known players put in harm's way of a terrible act.

In this case it's some psycho freak with a rifle with telescopic sight who decides he's going to take out a whole load of people at a championship football game at the Los Angeles Coliseum. As in all disaster films the guessing is as to who among the cast will survive until the end of the movie.

We're not sure what the freak's motivation is, we do know that as the film opens for target practice he shoots down one of a pair of bicyclers driving past his motel. On some level I really don't care. The time for societal soul searching stops when the bullets begin to fire. After that it's only one thing, get him.

Charlton Heston is the police captain at the precinct where the Coliseum is located and John Cassavetes is the SWAT commander assigned to kill or capture. By the way it is also shown earlier Cassavetes SWAT team actually taking a suspect alive, so it's not that they are just looking for an opportunity to use the weapons.

Among the crowd at the football game there are some performances I especially liked, one of them being Beau Bridges as a young father out with his family for the game who spots the sniper and tries to warn the already informed police. Also Mitchell Ryan and Jack Klugman have some nice scenes as a priest who happens to be sitting next to a gambling addict who literally has his life riding on the point spread.

Two Minute Warning is not the best or worst of the Seventies disaster films. The cast is competent enough, a bunch of real professionals without a sour note among them.

Terror is real, an evil unto itself without reason and Two Minute Warning dramatically drives that point home.

Closer to reality now

[TSMChicago · 30 December 2002]

A determined sniper is discovered by a TV crew in a scoreboard tower at a football game and how will police deal with the situation. The placement of S.W.A.T. sharpshooters on the light towers to take out the gunman would be the logical response since sneaking up on the guy might provoke him to shoot into the crowd.

I find this film to be a bit slow as stock characters are introduced and placed at the game. Once the sniper takes his position and becomes a threat, this film turns exciting, gritty and violent as shots are exchanged.

The fact that the shooter is faceless adds to the scariness of the situation. Who is this guy and what is his major malfunction?

The recent events in the Washington D.C. area add an air of reality to the movie. Previously no one would have believed that people were capable of such an ugly crime.

"Two-Minute Warning", aside from the formula melodrama, is a creepy thriller that might be a little too real now.

The whole place is a "kill zone"!

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 17 August 2009]

**SPOILERS** The movie "Two Minute warning" is by far one of the best disaster movies to come out out of the disaster-ridden Hollywood studios of the 1970's. It's also one of the most restrained in its holding back the impending disaster, a deranged sniper opening fire in a packed sports stadium, for almost the entire length of the film!

We get glimpse of the sniper whom we only see from the neck down until he's spotted by a camera from the Goodyear Blimp that's broadcasting the championship football game between L.A and Baltimore at the packed, with over 90,000 in attendance, Los Angles Colosseum. It's then that both the L.A police and a SWAT team are called in to surgically, with as little violence as possible, take him out in order to avoid a mass panic at the stadium.

In charge of the LAPD detail sent to stop the sniper is Capt. Peter Holly, Charlton Heston, who despite his being in law enforcement is very reluctant to have his men use violence to take the sniper out. The SWAT team squad leader Sgt. Chris Button, John Cassavetes, is more then willing to use all the fire power available to him to put an end to the snipers plans. It's that reason that creates tension between the two to the point where the sniper is given a free hand, because of Capt. Holly and Sgt. Button squabbling, to get his shots off that in effect ends up killing scores of people, by being shot or being stampeded, by the time the film is over.

What makes "Two Minute Warning" a superior disaster movie is not really the explosive action that happens when the sniper opens fire on the crowd, as well as members of Sgt. Button's SWAT team, but the nerve wracking and nail biting tension that slowly builds up to it. What the audience gets to see is just how difficult it is to subdue, or take out, a determined homicidal, as well a suicidal, maniac when he gets himself into a secure bunker-like position to open fire in a crowded sports stadium! Where in taking him out with deadly force can cause far more damage to the unsuspecting and innocent people in attendance there then even the damage that he could do! We see that in the body count were those killed-in the wild stampede- during the pandemonium a the L.A Colosseum far outnumbered those who were shot to death by the sniper!

P.S The film "Two Minute Warning" was re-edited, for TV, with some 30 minutes inserted into it about the real reason for the sniper's insane actions. In that he was part of a hold-up team, who's job was to distract attention, who were robbing a jewelry store just outside the Los Angles Colosseum. It's as if those responsible for this alternative ending had to give the sniper a reason-like he really needed one-for his actions to make the movie believable to the TV audience. It never occurred to them that a person dead set to murder possibly hundreds of innocent people needs any reasons at all to do it! Besides what, in its original release, the movie made him out to be: A mindless and deranged homicidal lunatic!

Suspense, Action and Football

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 14 September 2014]

A psychotic sniper plans a massive killing spree in a Los Angeles football stadium during a major championship game. The police, led by Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT commander Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), learn of the plot and rush to the scene.

This film probably maintains a level of popularity (if it has one) due to its cast, as the film itself is largely forgotten. But it should not be, as it takes the threat of a sniper (much like with Dirty Harry) and puts him into a crowded, confined area:a football stadium. Security today may never allow such things to happen, but the thought is scary.

There is plenty of action, but even more suspense. And that is what makes it more than just an action film. Who will be targeted? What is the sniper's motive? So much unknown.

Very surreal and a different spin on the seventies disaster film

[Robert_duder · 7/10 · 10 October 2007]

There can be a lot of bad said about 'Two Minute Warning' but you have to give it a lot of kudos for it's style and it's very surreal tone which speaks more loudly than ever to us now than it probably did thirty years ago. This film could be classified in a number of genres but ultimately it fits into a very distinct classification of films that were enormously popular in the seventies and that is the disaster film. Although a very different type of situation it still follows the close recipe for the disaster film by showing several different characters and their lives before, during and after the cataclysmic event which in this case is a rogue sniper. The problem that many have with this film and I do understand where they are coming from is that these characters don't have a lot of depth despite the various stars and talent in the film. The makers of the film use far too many characters instead of focusing on one or two of them to make an impact. The story fortunately focuses more on the police and their actions in taking out this sniper. I have read that there is an alternative version of this film that involves some sort of robbery that explains the sniper but I think that entire idea would ruin this film because part of the intensity and surreal nature is that we don't know why this sniper is doing this or even if there is a reason...it's an act of random violence.

Charlton Heston sort of leads the cast as Captain Peter Holly. He doesn't seem to be his larger than life, screen capturing, loud self in this role. It feels back seat even when he does come onto the scene. His performance is not nearly what Heston is capable of but he does up the ante of the cast for sure. Beau Bridges is the unemployed Dad who is one of the only spectators to discover what is going on. Bridges is an outstanding actor and he still stands out in this role given the little he has to work with. John Cassavetes is the head strong leader of the SWAT team sent in to remove the sniper. Given better writing his character could have really been good but they don't give him a lot either. David Janssen is one of the more interesting characters and he does a good job as the grouchy, sarcastic business man and he's one of the only characters you actually become attached to. Jack Klugman also gives a pretty decent performance given the sub par character development. Gena Rowlands, Brock Peters, David Groh, Mitch Ryan, and Martin Balsam all play different characters with different problems and things going on around them and they are all terrific actors but the script doesn't give them anything to work with unfortunately.

Despite the lack of character development the film really does still hold it's own with a lot of suspense and a great build up the actual disaster. The story itself is well written and would have done better without focusing on any of the characters in the crowd and just focused on the sniper and the team trying to stop him. I don't think any suspension of belief is required to believe he could perch himself up there during a championship football game because it happens...it happens every day. Regardless of the issues with the film it still makes for a great suspense film and a good Sunday Afternoon classic. It has it's moments and still widens your eyes to see something horrible like this happen. 7/10

20 minutes movie stretched to 2 hours

[shinsrevenge · 4/10 · 2 June 2015]

I thought that a movie with Charlton Heston can't be bad. Apparently it can. For two reasons. 1) You barely see him in the movie. 2) Most of the movie is filler.

It's mostly the later that makes two-minute warning a below average action movie. You spend your time learning a few details about some of the visitors. Most of them (and some cops as well) are surprisingly charmless. Maybe that's part of the problem. However, you don't feel any sympathy for them. And you don't care about what happens to them. In fact, I was rather relieved when they finally died because, whenever they started acting like jerks I thought to myself "oh god, kill them already!".

Which is not going to happen until the end. Then the movie actually takes up some pace. The sniper gets hit quite a few times but that doesn't stop him from shooting more. While others die with a single shot. And what a shot! They look like they got hit by a balloon filled with red color. I've seen better effects, even in movies as old as this.

Altogether two-minute warning has no suspense, hardly any action for most of the parts and the ending can't make up for the rest. So that's 4 out of 10 from me. My recommendation: Skip this one.

Undervalued thriller.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 18 September 2008]

A lone gunman has his sights set on a sell-out crowd at a championship football game. Captain Peter Holly leads the desperate fight to try and stop the maniac from picking people off at will. Perched high on top of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the gunman has his pick of the targets, the Mayor -the President - or merely the innocent? Either way he has to be stopped before all hell breaks loose.

Much like "Rollercoaster" a year later, Two-Minute Warning is wrongly lumped in with the disaster movie genre that flooded the 1970s, and just like Rollercoaster, Two-Minute Warning is an excellently taut thriller. The build up is paced to precision, all characters are introduced to us to give us something to associate with should things go very wrong. As this is happening we get little POV snippets of our killer, accompanied by Charles Fox's harshly impacting music, the killer is never seen but we feel the dread, the impending sense of murder is a constant presence.

Once we are at the game and the authorities are aware that a sniper is on the roof, the film shifts up a gear and lays on the suspense thick and heavy. Captain Holly (Charlton Heston in authoritative scene commanding form) is joined by the SWAT team, led by the cool and serious Sgt. Chris Button (John Cassavetes), whilst stadium security manager Sam McKeever (Martin Balsam) prays that disaster can be averted. Then the final third of the picture is a ripper of heart pounding stuff, a final third that rewards the viewers patience for having invested in the film and the key characters. Filling out the cast is Gena Rowlands, Jack Klugman (brilliant interplay with Mitch Ryan's priest), Beau Bridges, Walter Pidgeon and David Jansen.

Two-Minute Warning is a quality thriller that is sadly undervalued on the big IMDb site, go on, give it a go and you might just be pleasantly surprised. 7.5/10

Footnote: I should point out that my thoughts are on the original unedited cut of this film, I have never seen the watered down TV cut and have no plans to ever do so.have never seen the watered down TV cut and have no plans to ever do so.

Not bad at all.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 18 March 2012]

"Two-Minute Warning" is a good, enjoyable thriller made in the style of the popular "disaster film" cycle of the 1970's, with a large cast of familiar faces, playing characters with their own little stories. Many of them, however, take a back seat to the action in this story (based on a novel by George LaFountaine) about a sniper spotted above the scoreboard in L.A. Coliseum during a championship football game. The cops can't be sure of who this person is targeting, and have to figure out how best to approach the situation. It's only towards the end, in the last half hour, when the action really gets cranked up, the stakes are raised, and things get pretty violent. One nice element of mystery is that we never get that good a look at this sniper (Warren Miller); we learn his name at the end but little else about him (although one of the characters believes that information will come out soon enough). People can take issue with the inefficient security at this place, or the fact that the cops are most often not too effective here, but the movie is basically decently made entertainment, with a very good music score by Charles Fox. Some of the actors get a good showcase: Charlton Heston as take-charge police captain Peter Holly, John Cassavetes as S.W.A.T. team commander Sgt. Button, Martin Balsam as stadium security head Sam McKeever, Beau Bridges as family man Mike Ramsay, Jack Klugman as shameless gambler Sandman, and David Janssen & Gena Rowlands as argumentative couple Steve & Janet. Other familiar faces and prominent character players in the cast include Brock Peters, David Groh, Mitch Ryan, real-life football star Joe Kapp, Robert Ginty, Tom Bower, Carmen Argenziano, Michael Gregory, and Harry Northup. Unfortunately, the great Walter Pidgeon is wasted as an elderly pickpocket. Filmmaker Andy Sidaris ("Stacey", "Malibu Express", etc.) plays the TV director, and TV personality Merv Griffin sings the national anthem! A sufficient amount of tension and excitement is created, the aerial photography is very good, and the visceral quality of the movie is undeniable; things get effectively bloody before the movie ends. There's even a touch of grim irony to the proceedings. The climactic action is both gripping and frightening, showing how bad things can get when a lot of people are in a panic. Overall, this movie is a decent diversion, if not terribly substantial, and keeps from ever getting boring. Seven out of 10.

Lackluster Sniper Saga Shells Out Little Suspense

[zardoz-13 · 4/10 · 21 March 2005]

The "Two Minute Warning" (** out of ****) qualifies as a thoroughly pedestrian police potboiler about a mad sniper who holes up behind the scoreboard at the Los Angeles Coliseum during a championship football game, crunches on a candy bar and patiently bides his time until the title climax. Arguably, the best part of this contrived clunker is the last 30 minutes. Director Larry Peerce, who went on the helm more television shows than movies, spends the first 90 minutes introducing us to the sniper as a random shooter ensconced in a high-rise hotel that kills a college professor (Tommy J. Huff) on a bicycle. Afterward, Peerce alternates between point-of-view shots from the sniper's perspective and a motley cross-section of the sniper's potential targets as they file into the stands to watch the game. Unfortunately, most of these characters aren't sympathetic. First, Stu Sandman ("Odd Couple" TV star Jack Klugman) plays an obnoxious gambler down on his luck who needs for his team to win or the mob will kill him. Earlier, they dangled him by his heels from the balcony of their hotel room. Second, Beau Bridges is a snotty, out-of-work father with two bratty kids and a long-suffering wife. David Janssen of the TV classic "The Fugitive" is cast as Steve, an arrogant, out-of-town car dealer who cannot stand his clingy girlfriend Janet (Gena Rowlands of "Gloria") who wants to marry him. Former MGM leading man Walter Pigeon plays a pickpocket who has a field day putting his paws into other people's pockets. Of all the potential targets, we learn the least about Pigeon's generically named 'Pickpocket.' Of all the targets, the most interesting is a trio of fans: Lucy (Marilyn Hassett—she starred in Larry Peerce's "My Side of the Mountain" made before the "Two Minute Warning" and "My Side of the Mountain, Pt 2," made after the "Two Minute Warning" and later married Peerce); Jeffrey (Jon Korkes) who appears to be her nominal date after her roommate stood him up, and Al (David Groh of TV's "Rhonda") the curly-haired guy who sits on the other side of them and attracts Lucy's attention.

The chief problem with the "Two Minute Warning" is the lack of characterization. Charlton Heston's police captain is a non-entity, and John Cassavetes is just a nudge or two away from being just as one-dimensional. Cassavetes gets the best dialogue in a concluding commentary about how the media will treat the sniper. This movie would have been a lot better if they had given the heroes and the villain some kind of personality.

Around 53 minutes into the action, the Goodyear blimp spots the sniper, and Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) finally gets off his butt and eyeballs the problem. When a disgruntled stadium employee (Brook Peters of "Ace High") tries to enter the bunker-like station behind the electronic scoreboard, the killer strikes him with the butt of his automatic weapon and sends him falling to his death 60 feet below. Now, Capt. Holly calls in the S.W.A.T. team headed up by Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes of "The Dirty Dozen"). Holly wants to wait until the last minute to take out the sniper, while Button complains that the longer that they wait the worst the situation will become.

Others here in this comment section have already commented on the irony of future NRA President Charlton Heston clamoring for restraint, while liberal-minded actor Cassavetes plays a trigger-happy cop.

Once the shooting starts, the "Two Minute Warning" turns into a mini-disaster epic as the crowd of between 90 and 100-thousand fans panic and scramble for the exits. Of course, our heroes ice the sniper but learn little more than his name. Talk about an interesting trivia question: what was the sniper's name? The "Two Minute Warning" lost money and later he was re-edited by nervous television executives who felt the theatrical version did itself in because of its murderous sniper character. Gee, guess none of those guys ever saw Peter Bogdanovich's "Targets" (1968) or Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" (1971). Mind you, sniper movies go back at least as far as the 1952 Edward Dmytryk movie "The Sniper." Peerce generates moderate suspense, but you won't be sitting on the edge of your seat. Instead, you'll be juggling your remote control trying to decide whether to fast-forward. Oh, yeah, the sniper's name is Carl Cook, and he is a transient. Our heroes never learn his motives.

Incidentally, soft-core porn director Andy Sidaris plays the TV sports director, and his assistant is none other than future sports movie director Ron Shelton. Another major complaint is with the game itself. It's hard to keep the teams straight, especially because they are fictional teams and their uniforms bear no markings. About the only use for this movie is as a time capsule. Nobody who pull off what the sniper did in the opening scenes, especially with his jacket that was modified to conceal the various components of his rifle. A better version of this movie appeared a year later in 1977 with a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl in director John Frankenheimer's "Black Sunday."

A bleak and cynical, yet still gripping thriller

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 6 February 2006]

A very bleak and cynical 70's all-star cast suspense thriller about a crazed motiveless sniper who for no rationale reason decides to blow away a bunch of spectators in a crowded stadium during a football game. It's up to ramrod police chief Charlton Heston, assisted by coldly efficient SWAT team commander John Cassavetes and antsy stadium manager Martin Balsam, to stop the mysterious lunatic before it's too late. Among the many folks in jeopardy are Beau Bridges as an unemployed dad who's trying to show his wife Pamela Bellwood and kids a good time, David Janssen and Gena Rowlands as a pair of middle-aged lovers, Jon Korkes as a pathetic jerk whose date with the lovely Marilyn Hassett goes disastrously awry, Mitchell Ryan as a gentle priest, Walter Pigeon as an elderly pickpocket, and Jack Klugman as a hapless compulsive gambler who's bet what little money he has left on the big game.

Director Larry Peerce relates the tightly streamlined plot in a fiercely stark and unsentimental manner, artfully using subjective camera-work, long lenses, and high angle shots to stoke the gut-wrenching tension to a nerve-jangling fever pitch. The set-up of said suspense tends to be a bit laborious at times and the background exposition on the many secondary characters is likewise a tad extraneous (and even a bit tedious, too), but the final climactic eruption of raw violence and sheer pandemonium (the crowd explodes in a frenzied blind panic when the sniper starts shooting them) is both gripping and disturbing in comparable measure. But what really gives this film an extra unnerving edge is its bitter cynicism and surprisingly upfront amorality, especially when it comes to the frequently brutish tactics used by Cassavetes to nail the sniper. The scene where Cassavetes gives an innocent spectator a severe beat-down and doesn't even apologize to the poor guy after-wards is particularly unpleasant and upsetting. This guy is the iron lung of law enforcement who's portrayed with a wired intensity and seething psychosis by Cassevetes that's genuinely frightening to behold. Whether intended or not, it's this nice nihilistic blurring the line between the cops and the sniper which in turn makes "Two-Minute Warning" a distinctly 70's kind of gritty and absorbing dead serious thriller.

It's a great day for football And random sniper-killing!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 26 December 2009]

In more ways than one, "Two-Minute Warning" is very reminiscent to that other 70's movie "Rollercoaster". They're both quite obscure in spite of the famous names involved, they both qualify as paranoid disaster movies and they both could and should have done more with their potentially brilliant basic plot outlines. I use the terms paranoid thriller and disaster movie to describe these films because they are mixtures of both. In paranoid thrillers a psychopath usually selects random innocent targets to agonize and in disaster movies large masses of people suddenly find themselves trapped or in great inescapable danger. "Two- Minute Warning" is a nearly perfect amalgam, with its premise of a lone sniper – whose motivations and even his face remain unknown throughout the film – hiding in the scoreboard tower of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the football championship finale; when the stadium is at its full 91.000 maximum capacity. His motivations may be unknown, but the stone cold and brutal opening sequence, in which the shooter target- practices against an innocent man on a bicycle already manifested that he's merciless and extremely dangerous. When a TV-camera spots the sniper in his hideout, a large-scaled police operation unfolds behinds the scenes of the ongoing football game, with police Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) preferring to wait and SWAT commander Burton (John Cassavetes) insisting on prompt action.

Overall, I would say that the suggestive power and ideas behind "Two- Minute Warning" are far more disturbing and nightmarish than the actual execution. But perhaps it's also better this way, because the actuality of the subject could still cause large-scaled mass hysteria even nowadays. Strictly talking in terms of cinematic value, "Two-Minute Warning" nevertheless benefices from a very powerful first half hour and an astonishingly tense climax. Apart from the aforementioned target practice sequence, the opening contains many more sequences that literally ooze with suspense. For example the scenes in which the sniper observes the crowd through the telescopic lens of his rifle, and occasionally stops to zoom in on a potential victim, are literally nerve-wrecking. The POV camera angle increases the intensity and this sniper just happens to be crazy enough to shoot anyone, and thus the level of tension remains quite high. The finale, last 15 to 20 minutes or so, are sheer disaster movie genius, with devastating images of chaotic escaping attempts and unsettling footage of people getting overrun on their turbulent journey to the emergency exits. These massively staged sequences obviously aren't pleasant to look at, but you simply have to admire any film that mobilized such large crowds of people. The middle section is slightly overlong and drags in places, as it particularly focuses on the police interactions and the slightly more detailed introduction of a handful of football fans in the stadium. The script focuses on certain people, like a bickering elderly couple, a family of four, a man with huge gambling debts and a woman openly flirting with the man in the seat next to her, but we don't really get to know them. These short interludes might have worked very effectively in the novel ("Two-Minute Warning" adapted from a novel by George La Fontaine Sr.) but in a film they merely just serve to fill up some time. The violence, like the impact of the rifle shots, is quite harsh and shocking. The acting performances are decent but certainly not outstanding, with routine roles for disaster movie veteran Charlton Heston ("Earthquake", "Skyjacked"…), Martin Balsam ("Psycho"), Beau Bridges, David Janssen and Jack Klugman. Recommended, in a double- feature with the aforementioned "Rollercoaster" perhaps, but for genuine disaster movies check out "The Towering Inferno" and "The Poseidon Adventure" and for genuine paranoid thrillers check out the first "Dirty Harry" (also with a sniper).

Two minutes of entertainment...

[JasparLamarCrabb · 2/10 · 7 July 2012]

An exciting final two minutes to be sure. Unfortunately you must sit through nearly two hours of absolute boredom to get there. A crazed sniper perches atop the time clock at the LA Coliseum during a football game. He scopes out various audience members while cop Charlton Heston and SWAT commander John Cassavetes figure out what to do. There's zero suspense until the film's final moments when gunfire begins. The stars populating the under-developed story lines include Jack Klugman, David Janssen, Beau Bridges and Walter Pidgeon. Director Larry Peerce shows little flair for suspense despite having directed the dynamite NYC transit thriller THE INCIDENT ten years prior. Heston grits his teeth, barks "damn" and "bastard" a few times while Cassavettes looks bored senseless. Gena Rowlands, Marilyn Hassett and Martin Balsam are in it too and there are lots of ariel shots from the Good Year blimp.

A very likable and suspenseful film!

[williampalmer552 · 9 June 2001]

As a fan of suspense, I definitely have rated this film as a classic edge-of-your seat cliffhanger. It contained all of the elements of a real-life thriller. The actual mounting of the suspense itself up until the end is the most rewarding effect this film possesses. As frightening and terrifying as the climax was, it nevertheless demonstrated how the actions of one individual can cause a catastrophe to unfold.

Lloyd Braun?

[ty5663 · 7/10 · 18 November 2009]

Saw this really late last night on one of the Cinemax channels. I'm a sucker for 1970's films plus it had John Cassavettes so I needed to see it. I thought it was suspenseful, probably resonated more today due to the recent execution of the Beltway Sniper.

Anyway, comments I wanted to make was a couple of items made me chuckle. For one, the QB for the Los Angeles team, am I remembering right and it was Lloyd Braun? Same name as the character from Seinfeld. If it was, could it really be a coincidence.

Plus the scene where the loan shark thugs hang Klugman out the window...classic.

Decent 70s feel, but not enough here to sustain a 2 hour movie

[goods116 · 6/10 · 25 February 2013]

If you like 70s movies (which I do) or Charlton Heston (which I do, as an actor only) this movie has much too like. I enjoyed just looking at the outfits and cars and the old LA Coliseum. But there is not much to this movie. Sniper sets up in stadium. He gets noticed and rest of movie is trying to get to him. A helicopter should have been dispatched immediately with 4 snipers on board sending withering fire at this guy. Of course this does not make for a movie but off the bat the idea that this guy is protected is annoying. But that's the whole movie, did it really need to go on for almost 2 hours? There is no twist, no motive, no background here. It would have been interesting to see more about the sniper and why he is doing this. Too many football scenes padding the film. The riot scene at end is well done, but that's about it. Overall kind of weak, which is why this movie is not too well known.

Of its time

[tvspace · 6/10 · 16 August 2011]

What's most interesting to me about Two-Minute Warning is that it's exactly the sort of middle-of-the-road Hollywood flick that they simply will not make anymore. It isn't in the least bit arty, it's not a great script, it doesn't require method acting of its actors, nor a Ph.D. in psychology to understand. What it is, is blunt, brutal, and matter-of-fact. It's almost completely untainted with sentimentality (just a touch here and there), and it isn't trying to orchestrate your feelings as if your emotions were a violin section. It's just telling a sort of ugly but gripping story, and goes about it a step at a time.

Today when you go to a movie that covers similar thematic territory, the script is almost always overwritten, and badly written. (Both, with each amplifying the other's ugliness: because scripts are so overwritten -- that is, because you so loudly hear the voice of the author over the voice of the characters -- you are all the more painfully aware of the mediocrity of that voice, and of its allegiance to bland corporate values instead of specific human ones). The studios have gotten storytelling down to such a maudlin formula that they will keep bringing new "writers" onto the project until every box on their list of heart-tugging, tear-welling, triumph-savoring emotional epiphanies is represented and over-represented in every script. The end result as a viewer is sort of the storytelling equivalent of watching a two-hour tape of, um, climax shots from porn -- you are so oversaturated with "excitement" that all you see is the ridiculous falsity of everything.

So, even though Two-Minute Warning is not a great movie, even though no-one would likely get nominated for an Academy Award for writing it, it is a movie worth seeing, because it demonstrates that you can tell a story without pretense, and that a solid story, told without pretense, is far more enjoyable to sit through than a grandiose one, told with pretensions that seem to emanate from a supernaturally limitless well somewhere beneath the Earth's crust in Burbank.

When I come grousing out of another horrible summer action movie, and the anti-intellectuals in the crowd sneer that "not everything has to be Bergman", I want to tell them, "no, but everything could at least be Two-Minute Warning -- is that setting the bar too high for you?" The film is entertaining, suspenseful, violent, disturbing, and it has some pretty good actors just playing rather ordinary cops that are fun to watch (John Cassavetes? Are you kidding me?). I sure wish they'd make more movies like this to fill out the schedule these days.

It's definitely a disaster film.

[BrettErikJohnson · 1/10 · 14 May 2002]

"Two Minute Warning" is one of the most incompetent films I have ever seen. It does almost nothing to be realistic and believable.

As you probably know, "Two Minute Warning" is about a sniper who is perched atop the scoreboard at a championship football game in Los Angeles. What you may not know, however, is how awful the scenario is handled. Hmmm...Where do I begin?

Perhaps I should give a condensed version of the problems with this film. If I were to be more detailed, this would take all day. First, the President of the United States is possibly going to show up at halftime. That alone should have the security at the football field to be of the highest order. It's not though. Second, this movie contains one of the most ridiculous pieces of dialogue of any movie made in the past century. Charlton Heston plays Police Captain Peter Holly. How does he think the situation should be handled? He thinks they should try and sneak the 91,000 people out of the LA Coliseum without the mad gunman noticing. I am not kidding!!! Really...I'm not! Eventually, after a LONG time, the LA SWAT team makes its way to the game. You would think that a couple of highly trained police snipers could take the mad gunman out with a shot or two, right? Well, you would be wrong! There is actually a scene where the SWAT team member has his sniper scope trained on the gunman. What happens? The gunman sets up his gun, picks out a target in the crowd, aims and shoots the football fan. The SWAT team member never even attempts to shoot the sniper. Why? I have no idea whatsoever.

This movie continues in this inane fashion. It attempts to make some sort of statement at the end but falls flat. One of the sloppiest and insulting movies ever made.

Not a far fetched film after all!

[greene515 · 10/10 · 30 March 2008]

Two minute warning is A crime thriller-disaster film, laden with an all star cast with Charlton Heston as the head of the LA Police Department and John Cassavettes as the leader of the SWAT team, at a major-league football stadium (the LA Coliseum) filled with 91,000 fans during a championship game between Los Angeles and Baltimore, and an anonymous psychotic sniper with a high-powered hunting rifle perched on the top of the stadium's scoreboard. This cliffhanger brought suspense to film-goers and mass panic among the spectators as they stampeded in the film's finale. in light of recent events such as 'the Washington sniper ' this film proves that the incident is Not a far fetched after all!

A 1970s disaster flick that emphasizes horror and hopelessness

[MBunge · 6/10 · 29 July 2010]

Two-Minute Warning is a typically sprawling 1970s disaster flick that is decidedly untypical in its explosive brutality and cold remorselessness. It's like a fusion of The Towering Inferno and the original Assault on Precinct 13 or The Poseidon Adventure and the original The Last House on the Left. Death and destruction are a staple of the genre, but I'm not sure any other disaster film of its era presented the audience with such shocking and disconcerting carnage.

The story is set in what is clearly meant to be the Super Bowl but is referred to as "Championship Ten", and we're introduced to a large cast of characters at the big game. There's Charlie Tyler (Joe Kapp), the aging quarterback looking for one last moment of glory. There's Sam McKeever (Martin Balsam), head of the stadium where everything happens. Steve and Janet (David Janssen and Gena Rowlands) are a pair of squabbling, middle aged cohabitators who've flown into Los Angeles to watch their hometown team try and win it all. Mike Ramsay (Beau Bridges) is a man out of work who's taking his family to the game to try and forget all his troubles. An old pickpocket (Walter Pidgeon) and his pretty, young partner (Julie Bridges) show up at the stadium to steal as much as they can. An inveterate gambler (Jack Klugman) who has literally bet his life on the outcome of the championship winds up sitting next to a priest (Mitch Ryan) who's an old friend of Charlie Tyler. A beautiful woman (Marilyn Hassett) who got lassoed into attending the game winds up sitting next to a charming stranger (David Groh). And then there's police captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), two men who have to overcome their mutual distrust and resentment to try and keep everyone alive.

That's because there's one more person at "Championship Ten" who really shouldn't be there. He's a deranged sniper with a high-powered rifle. This man (Warren Miller) is a mystery. It 's never clear why he's there or what he wants, only that he could unleash murder, panic and mayhem at any moment.

In one way, Two-Minute Warning is like every other disaster flick. I t establishes who all of its characters are and then flits back and forth between them, giving us a bit more of their individual stories as it does. There's nothing unusual about any of it, though it's done reasonably well.

In two ways, however, this film is unlike any disaster movie I think I've ever seen.

First, the build up to the disaster is stretched out to the breaking point. I n other films like this, the big event (fire, earthquake, etc.) happens in the first half of the story or at least by the middle. Everything after that is the characters having to deal with the crisis and overcome various deadly challenges. Two-Minute Warning takes that pacing and throws it out the window. For a long time, the audience are the only ones to know the sniper is in the stadium. When he's finally discovered by an errant TV camera, the tension just keeps building as the authorities try to figure out what to do and then move into position to do it. The disaster here happens almost at the very end of the movie. But trust me, it's more than worth the wait.

Second, there's a viciousness to this catastrophe epic that is unlike the rest of the genre. People get killed in those films, but not like they get killed here. People are trapped in helpless situations, but not as unsettlingly helpless as they are here. There's a whiff of horror to the last 15 minutes of so of this movie that is starkly different from the uplifting conclusions disaster flicks normally strive to deliver.

From what I gather, Two-Minute Warning was a box office bomb when it was released. The movie-going public of 1976 apparently didn't find mass murder at the Super Bowl an appealing concept. That's a shame, because there's some gripping, nerve-wracking cinema on display here. It's hard and sharp and well worth watching.

Long on spectacle, short on plot.

[alexanderdavies-99382 · 5/10 · 22 June 2017]

It is quite hard to enjoy "Two Minute Warning." I felt I needed a two minute warning before I saw this film! The story of a sniper killing members of the public?? I'd like to kill the bloke who wrote this! The plot is a senseless one and poorly put together. The action doesn't begin properly until about 25 minutes before the end so we have 85 minutes worth of the football crowds roaring themselves silly at the game they are watching and a bunch of actors with little to do. Walter Pidgeon was completely wasted - he didn't have a word of dialogue and was only in a few camera shots. What on earth was the point in having him included in the first place? David Janssen (T.V's Richard Kimble) doesn't look very well in his wasted appearance. He only lived another 4 years after the release of this movie and was becoming largely forgotten. Perhaps his agent could have steered him clear of making rubbish like "Two Minute Warning." Jack Klugman (minus the dead animal on his head) was making his hit television show "Quincy M.E" at the time, so at least he had something of genuine quality to focus on. Charlton Heston only has to show off his He-Man look and you know he shall save the day! Having rather nasty violence thrown into the mixture isn't enough to compensate for a poor story. Someone associated with this film clearly thought that to include repellent details of people being wasted by a mad sniper, was enough to guarantee good box office. Well I'm sorry but that was not the case here! I couldn't have cared less once some of the crowds were being wiped out, good bloody riddance to them. The 1977 Hollywood movie of "Black Sunday" with the one and only Robert Shaw, had a very similar scene involving a football match. However, that latter film has a darn sight more going for it as well as having a good plot and suspense. "Two Minute Warning" may well satisfy your average,cheap thrill-seeker but I look for something a bit more substantial.

Another so-called "what if" disaster movie of the '70s

[Katz5 · 8/10 · 8 August 2005]

Like Black Sunday, which came out a year after this movie, "Two-Minute Warning" was billed as a disaster movie that used the "what if" basis of other genre examples of the '70s (and I'm including "Towering Inferno" and "Earthquake" along with the "mad bomber" movies like "Rollercoaster" and "Juggernaut"). "Black Sunday," "Two-Minute Warning" and "Rollercoaster" are really the three most believable now--the disasters are man-made and show us how vulnerable we really are (I, for one, am praying members of terrorists group don't watch the movie "Rollercoaster"). In Two-Minute Warning, a sniper with no apparent motive climbs to the top of an LA football stadium and starts shooting at the two-minute warning. It is possible the sniper had political assassination on his mind as the President was scheduled to come to the game. But it's never really explained, which bothered many critics including Roger Ebert. But after the events in the DC area in the fall of 2002 (which I lived through--I'll never forget having to pace back and forth quickly while pumping gas, to avoid being a target), snipers are never really understood--they're psychotic, plain and simple. "Targets," the early Peter Bogdonavich film, which Two-Minute Warning reminded me of, spent a good part of the movie explaining the alienation of its sniper. To a degree---you saw his family, his interaction with his wife, and saw what appeared to be his isolation. It's certainly not a justification for killing innocent motorists, but the film did show his face. "Two-Minute Warning" doesn't even show the face of the sniper until the end. The point of the filmmakers is clear: The sniper is unknown and deadly. This movie goes a little over-the-top in the gratuitous violence (unlike most other '70s disaster movies), but is absolutely suspenseful and the acting is very good (especially by John Cassavettes as the leader of the SWAT team). Gena Rowlands, Cassavettes' wife and muse, also appears as a spectator.

Two-Minute Warning (1976) **1/2

[JoeKarlosi · 6/10 · 28 April 2008]

And the '70s trend of star-studded disaster flicks continues! This one's pretty good, with Charlton Heston playing the part of a regular cop who steps in when a crazed sniper sets up shop inside a crowded football stadium. John Cassavetes has the best part, as the no-nonsense leader of a SWAT team who works with Chuck to try and apprehend the maniac before too many innocent sports fans get riddled by bullets. What's interesting is seeing Heston as the character who wants to try everything possible to avoid gunfire, when considering his staunch reputation in later years as an advocate of firearms; he's the one who has to try and keep the potentially trigger-happy Cassavetes character at bay. Among the then-famous potential targets this time are Jack Klugman, Beau Bridges, Martin Balsam, David Groh, David Janssen, Gena Rowlands, and Walter Pidgeon. The exciting climax of the movie is worth the wait, but a long wait it is indeed, as this is a picture which easily could have lost a good half hour or so and emerged all the better for it. **1/2 out of ****

You have been "Warned"

[jrs-8 · 2/10 · 9 March 2005]

Make no mistake about it. "Two Minute Warning" is a dumb film with a big cast of actors who either should have known better or needed the money.

The... ahem.... "story" is well known. A sniper in a football stadium on Championship Game Day. That's it. We get introduced to the characters (gambler, father, pickpocket, etc) and then wait to see which of them will be killed. Director Larry Peerce uses the sickening transition device of re-introducing his characters by showing them in the scope of the sniper's rifle. Wouldn't you think with 91,000 people in the stadium he might set his sights on more then the half dozen supporting actors? It's cheap and contrived.

Let's talk a little about the sniper. We never find out anything about him or his motives. Why does he kill the bicyclist at the beginning? Perhaps as target practice before the big game? Your guess is as good as mine. And why does he pick the championship game to go to? Your explanation would be as believable as mine since the filmmakers choose not to tell us (well they do hint that the President is going to attend but that plot point is quickly forgotten). And why does he wait until the two minute warning to open fire when he has been ready and waiting for hours beforehand? Because of the contrivance of the script. How else could they introduce Charlton Heston as the police captain and John Cassavettes(?) as a S.W.A.T. commander? (Incidentally I hope Cassavettes used his salary to help finance one of his own films).

The whole movie is ridiculous. Basically we sit and wait to see who will live and who will die. As other astute viewers have mentioned in their reviews the dialogue is equally as bad as the story and acting. My favorite moments is near the end when Heston is talking to a wounded Cassavettes and suggests he go to the hospital. Cassavettes (despite bleeding from the arm from a gunshot wound) claims he is OK to which Heston responds "Come on. Don't be a hero."