Trespass is great and intense Action-Thriller that I have loved since I saw it as a kid on home video in 1993. In my opinion,this movie is an underrated,overlooked and entertaining Action-Thriller one of Walter Hill's best films.Trespass is the story of two Arkansas firemen named Vince(Bill Paxton) and Don(William Sadler) who when trying to put out a fire are given a treasure map by a man who kills himself in the fire. Vince and Don sees that the treasure map locates a money's worth of gold in a abandon factory in east St. Louis,Illinois. When Vince and Don get to the factory, the two witness a murder by a crew led by local crime lord King James(Ice-T). After the murder, Vince and Don Kidnap King James' little brother Lucky(De'Voreaux White)and are caught in a standoff with King James and his crew where it's not about who's good or bad but about survival on both sides.Trespass was originally supposed to come out in the summer of 1992 and was called Looters,but because of the L.A Riots that happened that summer the film was pushed back to a later release date and renamed Trespass. It's a shame that Trespass was pushed back because Trespass is an excellent film that works so well. Trespass is the kind of Action film that you don't see anymore,a fast,brutal Action film that gets more and more intense as the film goes on. I love the fact the film takes place in one setting,the setting being an deserted,dirty old warehouse where you feel like that no one can escape or get out and you feel like the walls are closing in on the characters. The film is very dark with intense claustrophobia and urban atmosphere that just comes off the screen when you watch it and when you look at the film you will feel like you are in the warehouse with the main characters going through the same things they're going through. With The characters in the film no one is depicted as good or bad,but somewhere in between with a gray area,whether it's Vince and Don looking for the gold and trying to survive or King James and his crew trying to take out Vince and Don. The issue of race is brought up in the film,but,only briefly with the Black characters calling Vince and Don White boys. Now,I can see why Universal pushed the film back to a Winter release instead of coming out during the dark and violent Summer of 1992,because this film would've added fuel to the fire and to the racial tensions at the time of the L.A. riots. Walter Hill has said that every film he's made is a Western and that applies to Trespass,whether it's the standoffs and confrontations or Vince and Don looking for some buried treasure.It's not the 1870s or 80s,but you can see the Western influence all over this film. The movie is said to be an update of the John Huston classic The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre which depicts desperate men looking for gold and running into corrupt Mexican lawmen. It's pretty much the same story,but the differences between Trespass and that film is that this one takes place in the big city,the desperate men are firemen and the corrupt lawmen are tough gangsters. The screenplay by writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale is well-written with good dialog. You wouldn't think the creators of the Back To The Future would write an urban Action-Thriller,but Zemeckis and Gale succeed with this film. This isn't the first time Hill and Zemeckis worked together,both directors were producers of the Horror show Tales From the Crypt,so this collaboration makes perfect sense. The Action in the film is fast and explosive and you will see the Walter Hill trademarks in this movie,slow motion,use of glass and guns that are loud and make an impact. The ending of the film is Action-packed,intense and very surprising and it is a wonderful and memorable conclusion to Trespass.The actors do a wonderful job as well. Bill Paxton does an excellent job as Vince who's optimistic and somewhat naive,but likable. Ice-T does a fantastic job as King James and is believable as the crime boss. William Sadler is wonderful as Vince's friend Don,bringing a fiery anger to the performance and portrays Don as a guy who wants the gold at all costs. Ice Cube great as Savon,one of King James' associates and a hot head who wants to desperately take out Vince and Don for being witnesses. Art Evans gives a wonderful standout performance as Bradley a homeless person who becomes an ally with Vince and Don and brings most of the humor to the film. De'Voreaux White gives a wonderful performance as Lucky,King James' little brother. Stoney Jackson is fantastic as Wickey,King James' right hand man. Bruce A. Young is great and memorable as Raymond,a man that supplies King James with some of his big guns. Glenn Plummer(Luther),T.E Russell(Video),Tiny Lister(Cletus),John Toles-Bay(Goose)and Bryon Minns(Moon) give good performances as well.Walter Hill's direction is great,giving the film an intensity and atmosphere and Hill does a great job with the Action scenes which are excellent,explosive and well-done. Great job,Walter.Ry Cooder's score is wonderful and gritty and adds to the film's intense story. The film also has great Hip-Hop songs on the soundtrack from Ice-t and Ice Cube(Trespass),Public Enemy(I gotta do what I gotta do)and Sir Mix A Lot(I Check My Bank).If you're a fan of Walter Hill and Action films I highly suggest you check out Trespass and watch it. You won't regret. Highly Recommended. 10/10.

i've always been a fan of this flick. as a kid it was a blast and it's held up well ever since. director Walter Hill (a truly underrated director) brings his hard-ass, tough-talking schtick to this dark, claustrophobic action flick that deserves more love than it gets. when two Arkansas firemen, Vince (Bill Paxton) & Don (William Sadler) uncover a treasure map in stolen gold, they decide to collect. it leads them to an East St. Louis project building and all seems easy enough, until they witness a crew of sharp drug dealers, led by King James (Ice T), kill a traitorous punk. this sets off a showdown between the firemen and the crew, turning bloody and maddening as true sides and desperation surface in midst of greed and gunfire. this thing really gets moving once both worlds collide and the final showdowns between certain characters were certainly not what i expected (and that's a compliment). in between is when it's most interesting. Don's greed clashes with Vince's desire to escape in one piece; James, looking to save his brother (taken hostage by don in the commotion) wants an easy solution, angering his vicious, trigger-happy henchman, Savon (Ice Cube); and homeless vagrant, Bradlee (Art Evans) ends up an unwilling participant caught in the middle. Paxton and Sadler, always reliable in everything they do, hold the film together, their dynamic providing the overall moral of the story. Evans provides the comic relief and comes off as the film's most sympathetic character. Ice T is terrific as the controlled villain while Ice Cube steals scenes left and right as the violent wreck-loose (i've always wished these two would be in another film together). it's not a perfect film, but hill's direction and a solid cast keep this fast-paced bad boy together. at worst, it's a b-movie with a lot of class to back it, but at best, it's a decent action movie that's sure to please. it's tense, loud, violent, and dark; everything an urban action movie should be. i love Walter Hill and i love this cast.

I'm a fan of director Walter Hill and have been since I discovered he made some of my favourite films including 'The Warriors,' '48 Hours,' 'Extreme Prejudice,' 'Red Heat,' and this beauty, 'Trespass.' His films since the beginning have been nothing short of uncompromising and often unsettling action suspense thrillers rooted deep in the heart of both classic and contemporary forms of the crime genre and most often left deep in the hearts of their audiences. His talent for contrasting old and new styles of film-making is what sets him apart from the rest as a true auteur. What you most often get is a classic, thoughtful, picturesque film noir feel of the 40's and 50's ground down with the social politics, grit and attitude of the modern day. Unfortunately, all of the above doesn't cut it with the blockbuster crowd, even though it's also a world apart from art house cinema.'Trespass' is one such film that proves in true Walter Hill style that the perfecting a man's craft does not always result in sweeter fruit. By this I'm saying that as awesome as this film is, it hasn't been widely welcomed and was one in a line of his later films that made him not want to bother anymore.'Trespass' is a clever little action suspense thriller that melts down and pours another forgotten original into the mold of Menace II Society and Boyz N The Hood. Based on the 1948 Humphrey Bogart film 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre', Hill's tale is about when necessity turns to opportunity and inevitably to greed.Or more simply, it's about gold! In broken down East St. Louis, gang-banger Goose is spotted murdering one of violent African-American King (Ice T) James' loyal gang members. King James vows revenge. Meanwhile in Arkansas, two firemen - Don (William Sadler - The Shawshank Redemption) and Vince (Bill Paxton - Aliens) attempt to save a man from a burning building. Before his demise he hands over a map leading to a hidden stash of gold, worth millions, and material proof that it exists.Don is an ordinary working man in a hard situation and wants to pay off his debts but then Vince is just excited at the prospect of going on a treasure hunt and the two men take leave to head to where the map leads them to. A run down old abandoned estate in East St. Louis where King James has set up a trap for Goose. Inevitably, the two worlds collide when the two firemen witness Goose's murder.Trapped in one apartment, a homeless old man's squat, with said old man Bradlee (Art Evans - Die Hard 2) before they've even found the gold and with King James' crippled drug addict younger brother as their only form of collateral, things go from ridiculously bad to nightmarish as the borderline psychotic white man-hating gang grows quickly in numbers and guns are aimed at every window, preventing their every attempt to escape.But when it comes to their attention that Don and Vince are here hunting for hidden gold, agendas change, loyalties falter and the situation becomes unbearably volatile for everyone involved.Hill's film is remarkably upbeat and mildly comedic in places considering the dark and daring tone of 'Trespass.' It's style can almost pass for horror because of it's theme of helplessness in danger and desolation in one of America's most famous cities and the entire mise en scene of the abandoned estate is dark, dank and hellish.The acting talent in the film is remarkable and original for its time, as can be said of most if not all Hill's films. Before 'Trespass,' Sadler and Paxton had rarely been thought of as leading men, let alone protagonists as opposed to the villains they'd played so far. They play their characters to the limit as naive and sometimes gullible non-heroes in over their head.But the villains steal the show, and so they should as the East St. Louis location is their territory and the predominant plot is all about the territory. Ice T, Ice Cube, Glenn Plummer, Tiny Lister, Stoney Jackson and Tico Wells are but a few of the rapping and acting talents characterising the hot-headed and unpredictable gun-toting criminals.Never has an on-screen gang put the s**ts up me more than the gang that turned up at the football match at the end of 'The Wanderers' because these are the last kind of people you ever want to meet. Only they do exist because I've read about them in so many feature reports in magazines and on the internet over the years.They're realistic. Instead of being mindless killing machines, they actually care about themselves and their own people and so when the usual roles are reversed and it's the protagonists that have initiated a hostage situation, only bad can come of their efforts to survive the nightmare they've got themselves into.Also notably, Ry Cooder produced the music, a constant mêlée of distorted baritone slide guitar and hellish ambiance tracks reminiscent of the sniper scene in 'Full Metal Jacket,' which is what I'm sure the film reminded him of when he saw the original cut.I won't spoil the outcome for you. Just watch it and enjoy it in your own time. Pick out the parts that most likely inspired 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' - the dialect, the cars, the music, the hairstyles - and appreciate the one and only truly effective film of its kind.

Eager beaver Vince (a fine performance by Bill Paxton) and his more cynical buddy Don (the always excellent William Sadler) are two Arkansas firemen who stumble across a map to a fortune in gold. Vince and Don go to a rundown derelict factory located in a dangerous East St. Louis ghetto neighborhood to retrieve the loot. They find themselves in considerable jeopardy when they run afoul of a lethal gang of drug dealers led by the ruthless King James (a superbly menacing Ice T) and his hot-tempered right-hand man Savon (Ice Cube in peak surly form). Don and Vince manage to abduct King James' crippled junkie brother Lucky (a nicely twitchy De'voreaux White), which leads to a tense cat and mouse stand-off between the two opposing groups. Director Walter Hill relates the narrative hurtling along at a constant breakneck pace, expertly milks a maximum amount of suspense from the absorbing story, and stages the stirring action scenes with his trademark fiery brio and striking style. The tight, edgy script by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis makes a bleak and potent statement about how greed and power lust bring out the worst in people while making a radical departure from the standard action picture formula: There are no clear-cut distinctions between the good guys and the bad guys in this dark tale of betrayal and disloyalty; instead we've got a handful of desperate folks who all find themselves neck deep in a whole lot of trouble. The film further benefits from the uniformly sound acting from a tip-top cast: Paxton and Sadler have a sturdy, relaxed rapport, Ice T and Ice Cube spar with each other with rip-snorting gusto, plus there are stand-out turns by Art Evans as bitter, hapless old bum Bradlee, Stoney Jackson as the suave Wickey, Bruce Young as smooth gun dealer Raymond, Tommy "Tiny" Lester as the hulking Cletus, and Gwenn Plummer as itchy trigger man Luther. Lloyd Ahern's slick cinematography and Ry Cooder's rattling, rousing bluesy score are both solid and effective. The last third of the movie is especially gripping and exciting. A bang-up little beaut.