Fugitive Detective Reviews Manhunt Scenes, from 'Joker' to 'Thelma & Louise' | Vanity Fair

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- [Narrator] This is Chris Anderson,
a retired fugitive investigator
who spent 25 years hunting down violent criminals.
- Most of the guys that we look for
were usually murderers, robbers, bank robbers.
We ran the gamut of the most violent crimes
that we have in our society today.
- [Narrator] Today, Chris is going to review
some of Hollywood's greatest manhunt scenes
to determine what they get right and wrong.
[suspenseful orchestral music]
- So today we'll be looking at some clips.
These clips will be of movies
that we've all seen or heard of.
And we'll take about how some of those clips
relate to real life fugitive investigative experience
and some of it relates to more of movie magic.
[television static blaring]
First up, "Joker."
In this scene, cops are chasing the Joker
through the city.
- Arthur!
[man yelling] [car horn blaring]
[tires screeching]
- I've seen that happen so many times
it's ridiculous.
Some of the guys can get up and go right back to running
just like Arthur did,
and then some of them can't.
[announcer muffled by loudspeaker static]
[tense orchestral music]
[passengers muttering]
As a fugitive investigator,
this is probably your worst nightmare.
The person that you're pursuing
gets on a crowded train
and everyone is, in some way, almost dressed alike.
But you still have to pursue that person.
You have to find some way to take the person into custody
because now he knows that you are after him.
- Police, police!
[passengers yelling]
[tense orchestral music]
[police yelling muffled by passengers]
- I would never pull my weapon out in the place where
I didn't have as much control as possible.
As fugitive investigators we train to have your gun
down and low ready,
close to your body where you can have as much control
over it as possible.
You don't go through a train
full of people and a huge crowd
with your weapon pointed out in front of you.
That's a tactical error.
- Go, go, go!
[passengers yelling]
[passengers yelling]
[laughing]
- You see where that tactical error
caused him to be jumped on by the citizens
that are inside of that train
who really don't know that these guys are cops.
And they are doing what they know in order to keep
themselves from being his next victim.
They take him down, they take his weapon
and they begin to, to plummel him.
But that mistake is what causes the Joker,
who's the fugitive in this case, to get away.
[television static]
[mysterious orchestral music]
Next up, "The Fugitive".
In this scene, Tommy Lee Jones chases Harrison Ford,
the fugitive, through a very crowded substation.
[mysterious orchestral music]
Tommy Lee Jones, to me, is the perfect example in this role
of what a fugitive investigator is.
Kinda brash, kinda cocky, extremely confident
in everything that he does.
And that's the type of mindset that you need.
[intense orchestral music]
Any fugitive investigator, that sees a person that he's
investigating or sees a convict that he's looking for,
if he's worth his salt, he's gonna pursue him.
He should pursue him.
That's a part of the job.
There have been plenty of vehicle chases,
there have been plenty of foot chases
that I've been involved in, but I don't chase 'em
nearly as far as I did back when I was much younger.
[tense orchestral music]
- Officer, officer, there's a man in a blue top coat
waving a gun and screaming at a woman.
- Stop that man!
Get his coat!
- Now I could see that happening.
Got someone that looks normal,
doesn't look like he could be into anything.
He comes out and says,
"There's a guy that's screaming at a female."
And then you see a guy screaming.
You know, you gonna automatically respond.
So that's not a stretch of the imagination.
[intense orchestral music]
- Hold it!
[shots blasting]
[intense orchestral music]
[shots blasting]
[alarm blaring]
Open the door!
- That is a stretch.
That should not happen.
In 1985, Tennessee versus Garner, the Supreme Court ruled
that no officer can use lethal force
in order to subdue or take into custody a fleeing fugitive.
You shouldn't see an officer firing a weapon at a person
who's simply running away from him.
That shouldn't happen.
[television static blaring]
[tense orchestral music]
Next up, "The Legend of Billie Jean".
[retro pop music]
- Oh I see her, you just sit and you let her walk on in.
- In this scene, police confront a person they think
is Billie Jean, the fugitive.
[retro pop music]
[crowd yelling]
As you can see in this scene, there is a possible hostage
in play.
Hostage taking is something that goes with the territory.
I mean, you have to be ready for it
as a fugitive investigator because
that's where your tactical mindset should come into play
because, whenever you have a fugitive,
you wanna take that person into custody
where you'll have the least amount of casualties.
[crowd yelling]
[tense orchestral music]
The fact that law enforcement is allowing
all of these people to crowd up on the beach,
that's not gonna happen.
You know, if we have our tactical unit in place
out in an area that could be crowded
with a bunch of citizens,
you wanna negate any outside influences.
So they would've had those folks
way way back and
not even having the officers in the line of fire.
So for this situation, this clip is inaccurate.
- Shutup dork!
[crowd yelling]
[gun firing]
- The tactical officer with the sharp shooter,
he has the right to use lethal force,
because he's using it in the protection
of another person.
So that portion of the scene
is not too far fetched to believe.
It can happen and it has happened.
[television static]
[tense orchestral music]
Next up, "Dirty Harry".
In this scene, Dirty Harry, a detective,
is pursuing a fugitive who's just hijacked a bus.
[car horn blaring]
- What the hell you doing?
Pass the VW!
Pass it, will you?
[engine roaring]
- When I look at this clip I see Dirty Harry
and he's pursuing this guy alone.
That's something that, in this day and time,
that does not happen.
You got yourself, this convict or this fugitive,
and he has about 10 to 15 potential hostages.
So that, you don't want that.
[gun shot firing]
[screaming]
[gun shot firing]
[screaming]
[gun shot firing]
[screaming]
[children crying]
In the situation like this, the proper protocol would be
to back off, give this person some space,
hopefully the bus'll break down and run out of gas
or he'll stop, someway we'll get him stopped.
Maybe even blow to the tires on the bus.
Just to get him stopped.
But what you don't want to have is him
with 15 potential hostages, inside of a bus.
Really he's putting the lives of the kids in danger.
[children screaming]
[door crashing]
At the end of this clip, you see the fugitive
jump from the back of the bus and that's probably
the best thing that you could hope for.
Now all of the kids are in a place where they are safe
and away from him,
and you can begin your pursuit there.
[television static blaring]
[suspenseful orchestral music]
- Step out of the bathroom!
- Next up, "Catch Me If You Can".
In this scene, the fugitive tricks law enforcement
into believing that he's not the guy they're looking for.
- Five seconds-- - Shutup!
- Just pop out the ball.
- Put your hands on your head. [plates crashing]
Put your hands--
- You know, he's got over 200 checks here, a gallon
of India ink. - Hands on your head!
- Drafting, even has little payroll envelopes.
- Put it down. - Addressed to himself.
- Put it down.
Drop it! - Relax!
You're late, all right.
My name's Alan, Barry Allen.
United States Secret Service.
Your boy just tried to jump out the window.
My partner has him
in custody downstairs. - I don't know
what you're talking about.
- In a case like this, set in this time,
I can imagine that happened,
probably more than most cops wanna even admit to.
You know, now most investigations are more technology based.
We would have stacks and stacks of intel
on the person we were pursuing
and that intel would have picture after picture
after picture after picture.
But during this time, these guys were barely
taking photographs, you know?
They didn't have access to the type of technology we have.
- Take a look outside, look.
Look out the window.
My partner's walking him to the car as we speak, look.
Old guy almost pissed in his pants
when I came through the door.
He jumped right through the window
onto the hood of my car.
Hey, Murph?
- Yeah?
- Call the LAPD again.
I don't want people walking through my crime scene.
- When Leonardo pulls Tom Hanks over to the window
and says, "Look my partner is walking him out the window,"
you know, how,
that just doesn't happen.
Now, I would have questions as to, why is this joker
not in handcuffs?
You know.
Why are you walking him out to a car?
I wasn't a cop back then, so I don't know
what the mindsets were back then.
But if I think about it now, it doesn't resonate.
- LAPD should be here any sec.
- Wait.
Your wallet.
- You hang onto it for a minute.
I trust ya.
- Most cops don't wanna let any case get personal,
but, you know, when you a fugitive investigator,
your pride, the ability to investigate cases, you know,
part of ya, it's woven into your DNA
to catch that person.
[whimsical orchestral music]
- Hey!
Oh god dammit!
- So yeah, I can see him getting a little pissed off
about it, I can see him getting very pissed off about it.
[television static blaring]
[suspenseful orchestral music]
Next up, "Thelma and Louise".
- Let me talk to Slocumbe.
- She wants to talk to you.
- [Chris] In this scene an investigator is trying to get
the fugitives to turn themselves in.
- Hello, Louise.
- Hi.
- [Investigator] How are things going out there?
- Weird, we got some kind of a snowball
effect happenin' here or somethin'.
- You're still with us though.
- Mmhmm.
- Despite what most people think,
there have been quite a few times where the fugitive
will call into police and talk to 'em.
I personally have had fugitives to contact me
and I've talked to them over the phone
and tried to get them to turn themselves in.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it didn't, but you have to at least try.
- I know what's making you run.
I know what happened to you in Texas.
[uplifting synth music]
- C'mon Louise.
- The investigator, in this case, is trying to get Thelma
and Louise to surrender themselves without any harm
and what he's doing is he's trying to draw on something
that she's connected to emotionally, to make her start
realizing that, hey maybe turning myself in
may be the best thing.
So here is something that's very very important
and this is actually right.
You always want to try to have as much of a connection
with the person that you're trying to take into custody
as possible because it could be important.
It could save the lives of a private citizen,
a life of an officer, or the lives of the people
that you're trying to take into custody.
- You gotta take me there.
- No I cannot do so.
You've done a good job. - I'm the only one
she's ever--
- You're no good to me now, you're no good to me.
There's nothing you can do for me now.
- I don't want anybody losing their heads.
You know what happens.
Volume gets turned way up and the next thing you know
these girls are going to get shot.
- At the end of this clip, what you're seeing
are the two sides of an investigator.
See, you have the negotiator that wants to go and
try to talk Thelma and Louise into turning themselves in.
But you have also the tactical side
of the office that wants to go in,
take them down by any means necessary.
[television static blaring]
[suspenseful orchestral music]
- [Chris] Next up,
- Any sign of Bourne?
- [Chris] "The Bourne Ultimatum"
- [Man On Radio] No sign of target.
- [Chris] In this scene Bourne,
the fugitive,
outsmarts the cops who's waiting for him to arrive
to a location. [phone ringing]
- Noah Wilson.
- [Jason Bourne] This is Jason Bourne.
- I was wondering when you were going to make this call.
- What most people don't know is
this does happen.
There are times where you have a fugitive who is
almost taunting police.
He'll call, he'll talk to 'em, he'll tell 'em
that he's not turning himself in,
which we've had that before.
And, you know, he'll hang up before a certain amount of time
because they think the phones may be traced
or something to that effect.
- [Jason Bourne] Where are you now?
- I'm sitting in my office.
- I doubt that.
- Why would you doubt that?
- If you were in your office right now
we'd be having this conversation face to face.
[suspenseful orchestral music]
- Here's where it gets a little bit far fetched,
because Jason Bourne is a spy
and he's been trained in these tactics,
as a fugitive, you never wanna go to the police station
and break into the police station so
I won't say I can see this happening,
but I can see why television made it this way.
- This is a code 10 abort.
I want everyone back in the vehicles.
There's a code 10 abort.
- Let's go, let's go!
- What we just saw is the law enforcement calling
it a code 10 and telling everybody to abort.
What we would say,
"This is a double lot, we need everybody
"that can hear the sound of my voice to respond
"to this location."
We call it a double lot, double zero.
[television static blaring]
[suspenseful orchestral music]
- [Chris] Next up,
- First of all,
- "Boondock Saints".
- I'd like to thank whichever one of you
donut munching, barrel-assed, pot pulling
sissies leaked this to the press.
- I have friends of mine that are in the press
and they will call about information from time to time,
just to see whether or not they can talk to somebody
about it, or if I know something about it
and I don't leak information because,
as an investigator, you want to keep as much information
private as possible,
because fugitives read newspapers.
The more information you give to the press,
the more they print, the further ahead he gets away
from you.
- These two are not heroes.
They're just two ordinary men
who were put in an extraordinary situation
and they just happened to come out on top.
Yes, nothing from our far reaching computer
has turned up diddly on these two.
All we know is what we found out from the neighbors
and the general consensus is
they're angels.
- Our lead investigator in this case
is giving intel to his guys that are out there
looking for these two fugitives.
He's telling them that,
"Hey I do think that they are dangerous,
"I don't know if they're armed."
That's vital information.
So what you want, as an investigator, you want them to have
as much information as possible
if they're going to bring this person into custody safely.
- They're scared like two little bunny rabbits.
Anything in a uniform or flashing blue lights
is gonna spook them, okay?
So the only we can do is put a potato on a string
and drag it through South Boston,
thanks for comin' out.
[officers laughing]
- You'd probably have better luck with the beard.
- This has happened to me before.
I had a homicide suspect that I was looking for
for about three or four days after the murder happened.
I'd done everything investigatively
that I could do.
And one night, I was working late, going back over
some paperwork,
looking over some notes,
and I get a call from our front desk.
And they said I had a visitor.
I walk downstairs and low and behold,
my suspect is sitting in the front of our building.
He's injured himself, so he decided to turn himself in to me
and I took him into custody.
[television static blaring]
[suspenseful orchestral music]
- [Chris] Last up, "US Marshals".
In this scene, a US Marshal chases the fugitive,
who's been accused of committing a double murder.
- Sheridan!
Sheridan!
Turn around!
- After chasing someone into a position
where you think you have them in custody,
the next thing, as an investigator, you should be
thinking about is
making sure you can get him into custody safely,
making sure he doesn't fall or
if he doesn't commit suicide or he doesn't jump off
the side of the building.
But the main thing is, you wanna get him to turn around,
you wanna get him off that ledge,
get him in a safe position
where you can take him into custody.
[suspenseful orchestral music]
[traffic horns blaring]
- Can't!
I can't be caught.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[train driving]
[dramatic orchestral music]
- In my career, I have seen cases where guys
are willing to do whatever it is to escape
from being arrested.
One guy that I had, he jumped off a five story building
and broke both of his legs, his hip
and I think he cracked a couple of his vertebrae.
Was it worth it?
No, he'll never walk again.
But I guess in Wesley Snipes' case,
flying outside of the building was what he wanted to do.
Me, as an investigator, I would've definitely let him go.
I am not pursuing him down the side of no building.
We'll catch him another time.
Let's go on, let's move on to the next case.
[dramatic orchestral music]
When you see Wesley Snipes' character,
who's the fugitive, jump from the building
and then jump onto a train,
as an investigator, your mind should be immediately
go onto the next steps.
I would love to have a helicopter following that train.
I would love to have some of my guys following that train
inside of a vehicle to see where the next stop is.
I would love to have
law enforcement waiting at the next stop
to see if they can take Wesley Snipes into custody.
But Tommy Lee Jones stays up at the top of the building
'cause, number one, he is probably amazed
that he was able to pull that escape off.
The escape itself, was a little bit of movie magic.
I've never had a guy play Tarzan in the middle
of a downtown street.
[funky jazz music]
Overall, Hollywood does a pretty good job
of their depiction of a fugitive investigation.
But I have a few tips of the trade
that I can share with y'all,
if y'all give me a call.
[dramatic orchestral music]