Chris
The 1980s were the era of the buddy cop movie. While the genre arguably started to pick up traction in the seventies with movies like Freebie and the Bean, and TV’s Starsky and Hutch, in the ’80s the genre went into overdrive. There was 48 Hrs., which twisted the formula as one of the team was a crook, Miami Vice on TV, the Beverly Hills Cop movies, Running Scared, and most explosively, Lethal Weapon on the big screen.
In fact, it was the shocking success of Lethal Weapon that made the genre ubiquitous. After it hit big, you had all kinds of buddy cops flooding theaters. There were wacky buddy cops like Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez in Stakeout, macho cops like Tango & Cash, duos where one cop was human and the other was an alien—such as The Hidden or Alien Nation—and at least two where the buddy cops were a human and a dog, like Turner & Hooch and K-9. Heck, there were even zombie buddy cops in the cult classic Dead Heat, with Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo.
Walter Hill Returns to the Genre He Invented
Enter Walter Hill, who had basically given birth to the genre with 48 Hrs. After a rough couple of years following that movie’s success, he had a few bombs. Streets of Fire, despite being awesome, wasn’t a hit, nor were Crossroads or Extreme Prejudice. It was time to return to the genre he pioneered—but with a twist.
With glasnost in the air and the Cold War winding down, Hill decided to make a buddy cop movie that would pair a Soviet cop with a wisecracking American. That movie was Red Heat.
Walter Hill: Writer, Director, and Genre Architect
Red Heat was Walter Hill’s baby through and through. While mostly known as a director, he was also a very strong screenwriter. He penned Steve McQueen’s The Getaway, and a pretty crazy, hyper-violent Bill Cosby–led action movie no one besides yours truly seems to remember, Hickey and Boggs, which honestly deserves more attention.
Hill also helped write the final screenplay for Alien, and fatefully was the one who decided Ripley should be a woman—paving the way for Sigourney Weaver to play one of the greatest action heroes of all time.
Casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Soviet Cop
Hill had suffered a few flops and was looking to do something commercial—something he could also cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in, as the two were friendly. Hill didn’t think Arnie suited American roles, so he figured his Austrian accent could pass for Soviet.
When Hill approached Schwarzenegger, he didn’t even have a script—just a basic premise. Arnie would play a proud Soviet hero who notably does not defect at the end, and there would be a scene where he rips off a henchman’s leg to find cocaine stuffed inside it. That was the pitch.
A More Grounded Schwarzenegger Performance
Interestingly, Hill’s version of the Schwarzenegger persona is more grounded than in other eighties action movies like Raw Deal and Commando. In Red Heat, his character Danko—despite being introduced naked in a very homoerotic bathhouse sequence (though there are a few women around)—feels more human.
Early in the movie, when he takes the villain Rosta back to Russia, he’s overpowered and beaten up. He spends the rest of the film with a bruise on his face that never heals, which was unusual for an Arnold action movie at the time.
Why Red Heat Feels So Uneven
As a finished film, Red Heat is highly uneven. It feels schizophrenic, with a hard-core action thriller stapled to a rather stale buddy comedy. James Belushi plays the wisecracking Chicago cop Ridzik, partnered with Danko, in what was clearly an attempt to recapture the magic of 48 Hrs.
It doesn’t work. Either Danko on his own or Ridzik on his own should have been the lead.
Part of the problem is the script, which was worked on by multiple writers, including Hill himself and Troy Kennedy Martin, who had a major hit with the Edge of Darkness miniseries. The result is a movie that feels episodic and—crucially—lacks either big laughs or big action.
James Belushi Wasn’t the Problem
Many people blame James Belushi for the movie not quite working, but that’s unfair. He’s saddled with the wise-guy cop role, but Belushi isn’t Eddie Murphy. While he could be funny, straight comedy was never his strength.
He was better in dramatic roles with a comedic edge, like Salvador and the underrated The Principal. Even in K-9, he’s more or less the straight man to the dog. In Red Heat, he plays a tough, competent cop, and on rewatch actually seems more capable than Danko, who is constantly taking ridiculous risks or losing the bad guy.
Direction, Tone, and Missed Opportunities
Hill’s direction doesn’t help matters. He always had a tendency to make his movies dark and grim, and this one could have used a bit more levity. The tonal clash between grim action movie and buddy comedy is never fully resolved.
Still, despite its flaws, Red Heat remains very watchable.
Supporting Cast, Score, and Standout Elements
Ed O’Ross is terrific as the villain Rosta and is arguably the most credible Russian in the film. He later played Russian again on Six Feet Under. The supporting cast is stacked, with Peter Boyle, Gina Gershon, and Laurence Fishburne all turning up.
James Horner’s score is essentially a self-remix of his 48 Hrs. soundtrack—he was infamous for ripping himself off—but it’s so effective that John Woo lifted chunks of it for The Killer the following year.
Cold War Context and Historical Significance
Red Heat also has real historical significance. When it was made, the Cold War was winding down, and the crew was actually allowed to film in Moscow for a few days. Most of the Moscow scenes were shot in Austria and Budapest, but the opening credits and the finale—where Schwarzenegger salutes the camera—were filmed in Red Square.
With glasnost on the horizon, Russia is portrayed somewhat sympathetically, which was a stark contrast to Rambo III, released just weeks earlier by the same company, Carolco.
Box Office Performance and Legacy
Despite being released at a high point in Schwarzenegger’s career, Red Heat wasn’t a major box-office hit. It earned about $35 million domestically—on par with The Running Man, but well below Commando or Predator.
Perhaps the movie would have fared better if it had been released in 1989. Just six months later, Twins became a massive blockbuster and elevated Schwarzenegger to global superstardom, tripling his average box-office grosses.
Today, Red Heat is one of the more obscure Schwarzenegger films, but it’s still well worth watching—especially if you’re an Arnie completist.
