The Fury (1978 film)

Plot

Ex-government agent Peter Sandza was in Israel with his psychic son Robin when they met Ben Childress, a former colleague of Peter's. Peter wanted to leave his old life behind and return to the United States with Robin, but Childress disagreed. To stop this, Childress faked a terrorist attack as cover for kidnapping Robin, supposedly for the boy's own protection. Peter survived the attack, badly injuring Childress in the process, and escaped with serious wounds, but he could not save his son.

Months later in Chicago, high school student Gillian Bellaver discovered she had psychic abilities—telekinesis and extrasensory perception—during a classroom demonstration. When people touched or provoked her, these powers lashed out uncontrollably and hurt them. She agreed to enter the Paragon Institute, a live-in research facility that studied psychic teenagers.

Meanwhile, Peter tracked Robin to Chicago. After dodging Childress's agents, he met his girlfriend Hester, a nurse at Paragon. She told him about Gillian. Peter explained to Gillian that Paragon's director was working with PSI, a secret agency run by Childress that kidnapped psychic children to turn them into weapons for the U.S. government. PSI controlled the children through brainwashing and by eliminating their families.

As Gillian's powers grew, she started having visions of Robin being abused at the Institute. Robin had tried and failed to escape. She eventually made telepathic contact with him. Childress, realizing Gillian knew too much and was becoming more powerful, ordered her moved to PSI headquarters, where Robin was held. Hester overheard this and told Peter, who planned a rescue, hoping Gillian could lead him to his son.

The rescue worked, but Hester was killed. Gillian used her abilities to help Peter find Robin at a remote countryside mansion. There, Childress and his handler Susan had spent months grooming and experimenting on the boy. Robin's powers had grown beyond anything seen before, but the psychological pressure from his handlers made him increasingly unstable. At an amusement park in Old Chicago, Robin saw a group of Middle Eastern men and believed they were part of the terrorist attack that had separated him from his father. He used his powers to sabotage their ride, killing them.

Production

Brian De Palma set up eight or nine high-speed cameras to capture John Cassavetes’s explosion at the end of The Fury. The initial attempt failed because the body parts missed the cameras, leaving the set drenched in blood, and it took nearly a week to prepare for a second try. Most of the movie was filmed in Chicago, with only the opening scene shot in Israel. The Paragon Institute’s exterior was a historic Astor Street District townhouse that once belonged to Robert Todd Lincoln. The indoor amusement park scenes were shot at Old Chicago, and the flophouse where Peter Sandza escapes was the Plymouth Hotel in South Loop, later used in The Blues Brothers. Actress Hilary Thompson, who played Cheryl, had her lines redubbed by an uncredited Betty Buckley, who had previously worked with De Palma on Carrie.

Release

The Fury first hit theaters across the United States and Canada on March 10, 1978, with its New York City and Los Angeles premieres following five days later. A VHS edition came out from CBS/Fox Video in 1984, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment put the film on DVD in 2001. In 2008, the same studio prepared a remaster for a Blu-ray release, but the Great Recession caused a drop in home media sales, leading Fox to cancel the project. The boutique label Twilight Time then obtained the rights and put out a limited Blu-ray in the United States, pressing only 3,000 copies and using Fox’s 2008 remaster. Home media reviewers criticized this disc for its very filmic look and noticeable grain. In October 2013, Arrow Films issued a Blu-ray in the United Kingdom, created from a fresh transfer of the original camera negative. This transfer was supervised and co-financed by the French label Carlotta and Australia’s Shock company. Glenn Kenny of The New York Times praised the Arrow release for having a smoother, less garish appearance compared to the Twilight Time version.

Reception

The Fury debuted in 484 theaters across the U.S. and Canada, earning $1,917,075. The next weekend, it moved to 518 screens and took in $2,777,291, enough to claim the top spot at the box office for that week. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded it three out of four stars, praising it as a stylish, fast-paced piece of entertainment with energetic performances, though he admitted he wasn't sure it made much sense. Arthur D. Murphy of Variety noted the film works well for an audience that doesn't ask too many questions, but pointed out a major flaw: beyond a few vague mentions of government agencies and psychic abilities, there's never a clear explanation for why all the chasing and fighting is happening. The more you analyze it, Murphy added, the less substance the story has, so it's best not to think too hard. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it bigger, more elaborate, more expensive, and far sillier than Carrie, but also described it as mindless fun that only a horror movie pretending to be about the mind can deliver. He felt director Brian De Palma cared more about pulling off a few spectacular set pieces than the film as a whole. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave it one and a half stars out of four, calling it the kind of thriller where you just wait for the big scenes, because there's little to hold your interest between three moments of extreme violence. The story barely develops one character, he said, and for a movie about psychic powers, it contains almost no magic. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film could easily become ridiculous, but De Palma's tight, bravura control makes even the most bizarre and bloody psychic events seem plausible, keeping the audience on edge without lingering gratuitously.