Taglines: When it comes to getting even, he’s taking revenge into overdrive.
Joshua Tree – Army of One movie storyline. Wellman Santee (Dolph Lundgren) a former race car driver, whose livelihood is transporting exotic stolen super cars, is involved, with his partner Eddie, in shoot out, resulting in the deaths of his friend and a highway cop. Santee is framed for the cop’s murder and jailed in a maximum security prison.
A few months later, Santee breaks out after narrowly escaping an attempt on his life. He reaches a local diner where he steals a car, abducts the owner, Rita and flees, completely unaware that is hostage is a deputy sheriff. A massive manhunt ensues, spearheaded by Lt. Severance a tough, obessive cop. Santee leads the detective and his men on a dramatic high speed chase, from the desert wilderness to the streets of downtown Los Angeles.
Joshua Tree, also released as Army of One among other names, is a 1993 action film directed by Vic Armstrong, written by Steven Pressfield and starring Dolph Lundgren, Kristian Alfonso, and George Segal. Much of the film was filmed in Los Angeles, Lone Pine, Agua Dulce, and the desert of the Joshua Tree National Park of southeast California. The climax was shot in the Cottonwood Canyon region of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
About the Story
Wellman Anthony Santee is a former race car driver who has turned to a life of crime since the death of his mother. Santee and his friend Eddie Turner bend the law for profit by hauling exotic stolen cars. Santee’s latest assignment is to transport such goods across the desert, but a Highway Patrol officer pulls him over. Turner tries to reason with the cop but then a pair of cops named Frank Severance and Jack “Rudy” Rudisill show up. There is a gun battle in which Turner is killed, and Santee is wounded. Severance murders the highway patrolman, and pins it on Santee.
After recovering in a prison hospital, Santee escapes during transfer to the fictional San Gorgonio Penitentiary in order to escape another murder attempt on him by Severance and takes a hostage named Rita Marrick, not suspecting that she’s a cop, while Rita keeps her identity a secret from Santee.
Rita’s partner Michael Agnos leads the search for Santee and Rita. As Santee eludes capture with the help of Eddie’s widow and child, Severance and Rudisill home in on the investigation. Rita’s sole escape attempt fails and nearly forces Santee to shoot law enforcers, as she begins harboring doubts about Santee’s guilt.
Santee releases Rita and invades Severance’s home, forcing his wife Esther to provide the phone number of former associate Jimmy Shoeshine, from whom he demands payments due to him and Eddie. There Santee is rejoined by Rita, who finds evidence in the house supporting his claims, and they escape, barely evading gun blasts from Esther and a highway patrolman.
At Jimmy Shoeshine’s warehouse, Santee handcuffs Rita out of harm’s way and in a firefight he decimates the car thieves’ lethal mechanics. Finally he gets the money from Jimmy through force. He, however can escape and joins Severance and Rudisill, who arrive. It turns out that Severance and Rudisill are the leaders of Jimmy´s car smuggling ring and that they killed the patrolman because he was on the verge of finding out at that moment.
They also killed Eddie and attempted to kill Santee for knowing too much about the crime. They are forced to kill the interfering Michael and Jimmy for knowing too much. Rita, devastated by Michael’s death she has witnessed, joins Santee in a desperate race for life. As Severance and Rudisill close in, a crime scene officer discovers a surveillance tape that recorded Severance killing Michael.
Joshua Tree – Army of One (1994)
Directed by: Vic Armstrong
Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Kristian Alfonso, George Segal, Geoffrey Lewis, Beau Starr, Michelle Phillips, Matt Battaglia, Bert Remsen, Michael Paul Chan, Khandi Alexander
Screenplay by: Steven Pressfield
Production Design by: John Jay Moore
Cinematography by: Daniel L. Turrett
Film Editing by: Paul Morton
Costume Design by: Richard La Motte
Set Decoration by: Aaron Osborne
Music by: Joel Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, language and some sexuality.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: October 19, 1994
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