Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995)
action thriller
directed by : Geoff Murphy
featuring : Steven Seagal - Eric Bogosian - Katherine Heigl - Everett McGill - Morris Chestnut
running time : 1 hour 40 minutes
In the original box-office smash Under Siege, action hero Steven Seagal played Casey Ryback, a U.S. Navy SEAL who saved the world from nuclear destruction by outsmarting and killing off terrorists who had commandeered a submarine. In this sequel, Seagal's Ryback character does the same sort of thing aboard a train. Ryback now has retired from the Navy and is taking his niece Sarah (Katherine Heigl) on a vacation. They board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains. Criminal mastermind Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian) is using the train as a control center in his effort to kidnap a top-secret government outer space super-weapon. Dane built the weapon but then was fired by the government before it was deployed. He has hooked up with shadowy Middle Eastern terrorists who have offered him $1 billion to use the satellite to blow up the Eastern seaboard by targeting a secret nuclear reactor underneath the Pentagon. Dane shows the Pentagon that he's got control of the weapon by blowing up a Chinese chemical plant. Officials can't stop him because they can't locate his headquarters. As long as the train keeps moving, his location can't be fixed. Ryback learns of the plot and enlists a porter named Bobby (Morris Chestnut) to help him in his battle.

A fired government techie (Bogosian) wants revenge. He hijacks a passenger train and commandeers the top-secret satellite weapon that he designed for the U.S. He demonstrates his device, which is capable of generating Non-Terrestrially Originated Seismic Events (man-made earthquakes), by destroying part of China. He targets the States, but a hero stands in his way. Under Siege 2 is the return of Casey Ryback, Seagal's fearless Navy Seal-turned-restaurateur. A passenger on the captured train, Casey saves the day and helps make Under Siege 2 as entertaining as an action sequel should be. Its good guys are tougher. No time is wasted on "the cook who's really a martial artist" jokes. Casey is respected as a well-trained killing machine from start to finish. His sidekicks — his aikido-trained niece (Hiegl) and a loquacious porter (Chestnut) — are both capable and sympathetic. Its bad guys are meaner. Bogosian's vainglorious villain is the quintessential megalomaniac, complete with a sadistic team of underappreciated henchmen (one can use mace like breath spray, another has two sinister sleepy eyes). Most importantly, its action is better. Director Geoff Murphy cleverly uses the confines of a train — the baggage car, the dumbwaiter, and, of course, the kitchen — for each trick and fight sequence. The final battle is thoroughly exciting, if entirely unbelievable. Under Siege 2 may not be Under Siege but it lives up to expectations.