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Five the Hard Way (Prison Break episode)
"Five the Hard Way" is the 64th episode of the American television series ''Prison Break'' and was broadcast on October 6, 2008 in the United States on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Network.
Plot
The episode starts with Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwel ...
''
''The Sidehackers'' (also known as ''Five the Hard Way'') is a 1969 American
action film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include l ...
about motorcycle racing with a twist. Each motorcycle has a sidehack (a
sidecar
A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''.
...
with a rail but no sidewalls or seat), in which a passenger rides and tilts to one side or another when going around curves. The credits thank the "Southern California Sidehack Association"; sidehacking is also known as
sidecarcross
Sidecarcross racing, also known as sidecar motocross, is a branch of motocross. Regular motocross riders use solo machines, but a sidecarcross outfit has a different type of motorcycle chassis operated by a team of two people, a driver and a s ...
or "sidecar motocross racing".
Plot
The film centers on Rommel, a mechanic at a motorbike repair shop who works alongside his partner Luke, and competes in sidehack-style races. He and his fiancée Rita plan to get married soon. One day at work, he meets J.C., a hot-tempered entertainer and his crew, when he brings in his bike for repair. He sees a sidehack bike in the shop and takes a liking to it. Rommel offers J.C. and his group to join him in a sidehack event the upcoming weekend. At the event, J.C. enjoys watching Rommel race on the sidehack. Rommel offers J.C. to give a ride on a sidehack with him at his and Rita's cabin, and he accepts.
After a fun day of racing on Rommel's sidehack, everyone has a get together dinner party in the cabin. The party soon escalates when J.C. desperately offers Rommel to join his gang, who politely declines, and quickly loses his temper when Dirty John (one of his henchmen) tries asking
him a question and Nero (another henchman of J.C.’s) tries to calm his anger. After trying to seduce Rommel into joining again, his girlfriend, Paisley, reminds him that he's not interested. Further infuriated, everyone walks out of the cabin and J.C. takes out his anger on Paisley. The next day, while Rommel and Luke are working on a bike, Paisley comes over and tries to seduce Rommel into getting with her, wanting to get away from J.C., but he rejects her and sends her away crying. Later, when J.C. and his men return to their hotel, they find Paisley drunk and her clothes tattered, claiming that Rommel raped her. Angered, J.C. and his gang find Rommel and Rita in their cabin making love, and they beat Rommel unconscious. With Rommel out cold, they proceed to rape Rita, eventually killing her as a result. Luke finds out what happened to Rommel and his now-deceased fiancée and informs the police. J.C., now on the verge of being a wanted man, has to hide himself in isolation.
Despite Luke's warnings to let the police handle the situation, Rommel refuses to let go of what happened to his former fiancée and wants revenge. Planning to kill J.C., he gathers a group of men to back him up, consisting of one of J.C.'s (now former) henchmen Nero (who joined Rommel after finally having enough of J.C.'s abuse), muscle-bound Big Jake, bailed out criminal Crapout, and another one of J.C.'s henchmen, Cooch (who's secretly working undercover for J.C.).
With some help from Cooch, Rommel and his gang head out into the canyons where J.C. is hiding. Despite his wife Lois’ concerns about his safety, Luke goes after Rommel to stop him from getting his revenge. Meanwhile, Rommel discusses the plan on what they're going to do to kill J.C., which involves being stealthy, using their hands and no guns in spite of the risk that J.C.'s men may have some on them. They're reluctant on the plan, knowing the possibility of J.C.’s men having guns, but they stick to it regardless.
The next morning, Cooch sneaks over to J.C.'s hideout while everyone is still asleep and fills him in on what Rommel plans to do, and after he takes off, J.C. celebrates his victory with Paisley, thinking he has Rommel all figured out. However, Paisley breaks up with J.C. after putting up with all of his abuse and tries to escalate his fury with Rommel. Angry, he strangles Paisley to death, and then apologizes to her dead body and chides her for making him so angry. Luke, now caught up with Rommel, attempts to talk him out of getting his revenge on J.C., but he refuses and sticks with the plan. Suddenly, everyone sees Cooch sneaking back into the spot where they were sleeping, and Rommel, Big Jake, Nero and Crapout gang up on him trying to find out what's going on. Cooch feigns ignorance, and they beat him up to get him to talk. Finally giving in, he tells Rommel J.C. is hiding in a rock quarry in the canyons, and Rommel orders Crapout to tie him up. Rommel goes over to Luke and asks him to call the police to let them know where J.C. is hiding, finally acknowledging that going after J.C. isn't worth it. However, he still keeps a tied-up Cooch to his side while keeping an eye out on J.C. to make sure he doesn't escape from his hideout, as Rommel's men stick with their intended plan, resulting in Big Jake being shot and killed after taking down two of J.C.'s men through stealth. Cooch escapes from Rommel, pleading J.C. not to kill Rommel while tumbling down a hill, only for J.C. to shoot his former weasel multiple times for being caught, killing him. With two of Rommel's men already dead, Nero and Crapout decide to play by their own rules and escape on a bike as the latter kills all of J.C.'s men with a gun instead of a battering ram as he originally planned to use, while J.C. attempts to shoot Rommel after Cooch exposed him.
With Rommel and J.C. left in the quarry, no guns on them, the two men brawl. When Rommel manages to gain the upper hand, he elects to walk away when the police are about to arrive, but J.C. picks up a gun and shoots Rommel from behind. The last images of the film are a flashback of Rommel and his fiancée rolling about in a grassy field, superimposed over a shot of Rommel's dead body.
Cast
*
Ross Hagen
Ross Hagen (born Leland Lando Lilly; May 21, 1938 – May 7, 2011) was an American voice actor, actor, director, screenwriter and producer whose television acting credits included ''Daktari''. His film credits included ''The Hellcats'' in 1967 a ...
as Rommel
*
Diane McBain
Diane J. McBain (May 18, 1941 – December 21, 2022) was an American actress who, as a Warner Brothers contract player, reached a brief peak of popularity during the early 1960s. She was best known for playing an adventurous socialite in the 1960 ...
as Rita
*
Michael Pataki
Michael Pataki (January 16, 1938 – April 15, 2010) was an American actor.
Early life
Pataki was born in Youngstown, Ohio. His parents were Hungarians. He was the youngest of three children - one older brother and one older sister. He atten ...
as JC
*
Robert Tessier
Robert W. Tessier (June 2, 1934 – October 11, 1990) was an American actor and stuntman who was best known for playing heavy, menacing characters in films and on television.
Early life
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, of Abenaki and French des ...
as Big Jake
* Dick Merrifield as Luke
* Claire Polan as Paisley
* Hoke Howell as Crapout
*
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, dancer, producer, and singer. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Go ...
Spectator (Uncredited)
''Mystery Science Theater 3000''
On September 29, 1990, ''The Sidehackers'' was featured and lampooned on ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000''. The episode (Season 2, Episode 2) includes one of the few occasions
Cambot
Cambot is one of the fictional robot characters on the ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' television series. It is through Cambot's "eye" that viewers watch Joel Robinson (later Mike Nelson and subsequently Jonah Heston) and the other robots as th ...
actually interacts in a way other than filming the experiment, by placing an
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
-like score graphic during the movie's racing scenes.
The episode was released on DVD by
Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus.
History
Founded in 1978, Rhino was originall ...
as part of the third volume of ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
box sets. The collection also included the MST3K versions of ''
The Atomic Brain'' (episode #518) and ''
The Unearthly'' (episode #320) plus a disc of six MST3K shorts. The four-disc collection was later re-issued by
Shout Factory
Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...
in September 2016.
Edits
The writers were unaware of the film's darker content when they selected it for the show, only watching it in its entirety during their usual joke-writing sessions. They were horrified to discover the scene in which Rommel's girlfriend Rita is raped and killed, juxtaposed with shots of Luke and Lois' children playfully roughhousing. This scene, and the discovery of Rita's nearly nude body, were removed from the episode. To make up for the missing plot point, the character of
Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...
later remarks, "For those of you playing along at home, Rita is dead." According to the series'
head writer (and future host)
Michael J. Nelson
Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origi ...
, "We were all traumatized, the scene got cut, and from that day forward, movies were watched in their entirety (for such potentially offensive content) before they were selected."
[The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, pg 21 (1996).] Earlier in the episode, the dinner scene at Rommel and Rita's cabin is also edited slightly: when J.C. flies into a rage and Nero tries to calm him, J.C. pushes him away, saying "Take your hands off me, you dirty
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
!" The latter half of the line is muted while
Joel Joel or Yoel is a name meaning "Yahweh Is God" and may refer to:
* Joel (given name), origin of the name including a list of people with the first name.
* Joel (surname), a surname
* Joel (footballer, born 1904), Joel de Oliveira Monteiro, Brazili ...
and the bots loudly rebuke J.C.
Soundtrack
The movie's soundtrack LP was issued in 1969 in the U.S. by
Amaret Records (ST 5004). The music was composed by
Mike Curb and Jerry Styner, with lyrics by Guy Henric,
[''The Sidehackers'']
LP Cover Lover and performed by the
psychedelic,
West Coast,
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band The New Life.
Track listing:
# "5 the Hard Way"
# "Love Theme (Only Love)" (instrumental)
# "Strollin' Sunday Mornin'"
# "5 the Hard Way" (instrumental)
# "Ha Lese (Le Di Khanna)"
# "Only Love" (instrumental)
# "Sidehacker"
# "Psychedelic Rape"
# "I Wanna Cry"
# "5 the Hard Way" (reprise instrumental)
# "Only Love"
The New Life were formed from the ashes of another band, The Cindermen, who were a
garage rock group signed by
Moonglow Records
Moonglow Records was a small record label in the 1960s. They were famous for signing The Righteous Brothers before they were signed by Phil Spector for his Philles Records. The label was initially independently distributed, but they became an At ...
in 1965. The New Life was formed by Don Whaley; Alan Shapazian (ex-member of Raik's Progress); Phil Reed; and Duane Scott (also ex-member of Raik's Progress) who was the original keyboard player.
[''Sidehackers'' LP auction details]
''popsike'' online auction results Steve Wood, who had been in an
Oak Cliff
Oak Cliff is a neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in 1901. It has since retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older established neighborhoods.
Oak C ...
, Dallas, band called The Penthouse, replaced Duane Scott after about a year into the band. Besides the ''Sidehackers'' soundtrack, they also scored songs for a film called ''Black Water Gold''.
[ The New Life broke up in 1970.][
]
See also
* List of American films of 1969
This is a list of American films released in 1969.
''Midnight Cowboy'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
__TOC__
A–B
C–G
H–M
N–S
T–Z
Documentaries and shorts
See also
* 1969 in the United States
External links
19 ...
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidehackers, The
1969 films
1960s action films
American action films
American auto racing films
Crown International Pictures films
1960s English-language films
Films scored by Jerry Styner
Motorcycle racing films
American rape and revenge films
1969 directorial debut films
Films directed by Gus Trikonis
1960s American films