''Knockin' on Heaven's Door'' is a 1997 German

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

film by

Thomas Jahn Thomas Jahn (born 9 July 1965) is a German film and television director. Filmography Feature films * ''Knockin' on Heaven's Door "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, written for the soundtrack of th ...

, starring

Til Schweiger Tilman Valentin Schweiger (; born 19 December 1963) is a German actor and filmmaker. He became known in the 1990s for films such as '' Manta, Manta'', '' Der bewegte Mann'' and '' Knockin' on Heaven's Door''. He went on to star in international ...

Moritz Bleibtreu Moritz Johann Bleibtreu ( is a German film actor, voice actor, and film director. He has been a successful actor in many movies such as ''Run Lola Run, Das Experiment, The Baader Meinhof Complex'', and Atomised (film), ''Elementary Particles''. ...

Jan Josef Liefers Jan Josef Liefers (born 8 August 1964) is a German actor, producer, director and musician. Life Liefers was born in Dresden, the son of director Karlheinz Liefers and actress Brigitte Liefers-Wähner. After his apprenticeship he studied at th ...

and

Rutger Hauer Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor, with a career that spanned over 170 roles across nearly 50 years, beginning in 1969. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. H ...

. Its name derives from the

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

song which is also on the film's soundtrack. It was entered into the

20th Moscow International Film Festival The 20th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 19 to 29 July 1997. The Golden St. George was awarded to the American film '' Marvin's Room'' directed by Jerry Zaks. Jury * Oleg Menshikov (Russia – President of the Jury) * Georgi ...

where Schweiger won the Silver St. George for Best Actor. In the film, two hospital patients with

terminal disease Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, rather than fatal injur ...

s befriend each other. Wishing to see the

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

before it is too late for them, they steal a roadster and start their quest. After several delays and criminal misadventures, they finally reach the ocean's shore. One of them dies soon after, while the survivor gazes at the ocean.

Plot

Two patients (Martin Brest and Rudi Wurlitzer) meet in a hospital, just after learning that both have untreatable diseases with short life expectancies. They start talking about their death that is to come very soon. When they find a bottle of

tequila Tequila (; ) is a liquor, distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, Jalisco, Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (''Los Altos (Jal ...

, Martin learns that Rudi has never seen the sea. Martin tells Rudi that all they talk about in

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

is how beautiful the sea is. Drunk and still in their pajamas, they steal a

baby blue Baby blue, also known as light blue, is a tint of azure, which is one of the pastel colors. The first recorded use of ''baby blue'' as a color name in English was in 1892. Variations of baby blue Beau blue Beau blue is a light tone of ba ...

Mercedes-Benz W113 : ''See Mercedes-Benz SL-Class for a complete overview of all SL-Class models.'' The Mercedes-Benz W 113 is a two-seat luxury Roadster (automobile), roadster/coupé, introduced at the Geneva Motor Show#1963, 1963 Geneva Motor Show and produced ...

classic roadster and embark on their last mission - to see the sea. The car belongs to a crime boss. They find a gun in the glove compartment and use it to rob several small shops along the way, only to find that there is a million deutsche marks in cash in the trunk of their car. As they progress closer to their destination, they are pursued by both the police and the gangsters. Eventually, the two find themselves trapped on a remote country road blocked by police units on one side and gangsters on the other, pointing their guns at each other. The stand-off finally erupts into a big shoot-out while the two make a desperate escape through a corn field. After that, Martin buys a pink

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

of the same model as the one which

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

gifted to his mother. His wish is to give the same present to his own mother. As he fulfills the wish, they get ambushed by police near Martin's mother's house. Martin pretends to have a seizure and falls on the ground. He is taken to the hospital in an ambulance with Rudi sitting by his side. En route, Martin and Rudi hijack the vehicle to continue their quest. On the way to the ocean they stop by a brothel, where Rudi wants to fulfil his wish to have sex with two women at the same time. By coincidence, the brothel is owned by the boss whose money they had found in the car they stole at the beginning of the journey. They are spotted by the two gangsters who were after them throughout their journey. The gangsters take Rudi and Martin to their boss who demands his money back. Martin says that the money has been spent and mailed to random recipients, which drives the criminal boss insane. Enraged, the boss points a gun at them ready to shoot, but Curtiz, the top-dog criminal to whom the money was meant to be delivered, joins the scene. Having listened briefly to their story, he says "Then you better run, before you run out of time." The film ends as Martin and Rudi arrive at the ocean's shore. They walk to the sandy beach and Martin falls dead on the ground. Rudi imperturbably sits down beside his friend, facing the ocean and watching the surf.

Cast

as Martin Brest *

as Rudi Wurlitzer *

Thierry Van Werveke Thierry van Werveke (23 October 1958 – 12 January 2009) was a Luxembourgish actor. He appeared in over 60 films and television shows between 1988 and 2009. He starred in '' Hochzäitsnuecht'', which was screened in the Un Certain Regard se ...

as Henk, The Belgian *

as Abdul, The Turk *

Huub Stapel Hubertus Wijnandus Jozef Marie (Huub) Stapel (born 2 December 1954, in Tegelen) is a Dutch actor. He is especially known from the films '' The Lift'' (1983), '' Flodder'' (1986) and '' Amsterdamned'' (1988) by Dick Maas. He also appeared in the ...

as Frankie "Boy" Beluga *

Leonard Lansink Leonard Lansink (born 7 January 1956) is a German actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films since 1983. Selected filmography References External links * 1956 births Living people German male film actors German male telev ...

as Kommissar Schneider * Ralph Herforth as Assistant Keller *

Cornelia Froboess Cornelia Froboess (; born 28 October 1943) is a German actress and a teen idol of the 1950s and early 1960s. During that time, Froboess appeared in many West German and Austrian musical films, especially after the rock and roll wave had hit Germ ...

as Frau Brest, Martin's Mother *

as Curtiz *

Christiane Paul Christiane Paul (; born 8 March 1974) is a German film, television and stage actress. Career Paul first worked as a model for magazines such as '' Bravo''. She was 17 when she obtained her first leading role in the film '. Prior to her acting c ...

as Shop Assistant In A Boutique *

Xenia Seeberg Xenia Seeberg (born Anke Wesenberg; 4 April 1967) is a German film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Xev Bellringer in the science fiction television series ''Lexx''. She also debuted as a singer in 1996 on the E ...

as Policewoman

Reception

The film opened on 522 screens in Germany and opened at number one at the box office with a gross of $3,035,034 for the four-day weekend. It was the fifth highest-grossing film of the year in Germany (and the highest-grossing German film) with a gross of $21,288,865. Worldwide, it grossed $23.8 million.

Remake

A Japanese

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

was announced to be released in February 2009 under the title '' Heaven's Door'' (directed by

Michael Arias Michael Arias (born 1968) is an American-born filmmaker active primarily in Japan. Though Arias has worked variously as visual effects artist, animation software developer, and producer, he is best known for his directorial debut, the anime fea ...

and with music by Plaid). In contrast to the original, the protagonists in the remake are a 28-year-old young man and a 14-year-old girl.

References

External links