Before there was Bigfoot, there was ogre-like Silas McGee, and his shadowy twin Ian, to provide virtually unfindable scary primates in the nearly uninhabited BC outback. The opening scene, involving a murder, by pick ax in a narrow mining tunnel, gives us a glimpse of how much of the film will play out. From Silas's later conversation, we can assume that the murderer was Ian and that the victim was the mysteriously missing George, mining company bush pilot boyfriend/husband? of Andrea(Kim Basinger).The McGee brothers remind me of nothing so much as Ted Kaczynski: the Unibomber, who somehow eked out an existence in the wilds of Idaho as a hermit, while making bombs to explode upon reception in the mail. Like Kaczynski, the McGees were murderous psychopaths, but also had an obsession with finding the underground source of gold occasionally found in nearby rivers. The McGee's claimed silver veins were apparently a sham. However, their tortuous and deep mine tunnels served as a perfect place to dispose of bodies, as long as no outsider entered the relevant tunnel regions. So, where did they get their funds to sustain their existence and mining activities for the past 30 years?? The film doesn't go into this, but the reviewer must assume that either they were finding a bit of gold, or they scavenged what they could(like planes) from the occasional murdered curiosity seekers. Although not usually classed as a film noir,to me, this is a rather extreme form of this genre. After the first part of the film takes us flying around the spectacular sunny backcountry of BC, and we enter the McGee's cabin, the action mostly takes place in the dimly-lit cabin or narrow mine tunnels and shafts, mirky underwaters, or in the often misty or dark nearby forest. For a claustrophobe and aquaphobe like me, I often felt uncomfortable.
Jean Dupre(Nick Mancuso)is a devil-may-care adrenaline junkie, doing stunt pilot flying tricks while on a business run for the Mollyco mining company, often flying just above the surface, like a crop duster, and returning to explore the McGee's tunnel system, after he was told to stay out or else. He recklessly jumps out of the company plane he has just landed, leaving it to taxi in front of a plane trying to take off, with a passenger still inside. He must have more than 9 lives, as he should have died that many times in the film. ...Kim Basinger, as George's wife/girlfriend?, Andrea, becomes his partner in their adventure to try to find George, while looking for gold. She is mostly a passive partner, serving mainly to add eye candy and someone for Dupre to rescue from the McGees.... John Marley, as outback fisherman Elijah, has a small, but very essential role, acting as the young couple's saviour when their plane's engine quits, and when they need a quick way home after eliminating the McGee menace.
According to producer Fraser Heston's DVD documentary, the crash landing of the float plane on the lake we see was unplanned, but provided a perfect excuse for Dupre and Andrea to go scouting around the wilderness for someone to help them get home... The mine tunnel system was all fake, although very well done. Care was taken to make its essential features realistic, based primarily on Fraser's experiences in exploring old mines in the Death Valley region.
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