Danny Stewart's Silent Trigger: Shooting the Film

A book that's all about the 1996 Dolph Lundgren film Silent Trigger.

Back in the 1980s, Sergio Altieri wrote a screenplay for an action thriller that would eventually be called Silent Trigger (the title on his script was The Algonquin Goodbye), and while the project had Rutger Hauer attached to direct (it would have been his feature directorial debut) and star at one point, when it made it into production in the 1990s, it was directed by Russell Mulcahy (best known for Highlander) and starred action icon Dolph Lundgren. The movie seems to have mostly come and gone when it was released in 1996 and has faded into history for many viewers – but, as you can glean from the fact that it has a 5.3 out of 10 rating on IMDb, it does have a cult following. And that made it a prime choice for Danny Stewart to focus his latest film appreciation book on.

Stewart specializes in writing about the underseen and the under-appreciated. With his previous books, he has dug into Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Soldier, and The Blood of Heroes. Now, with his book Silent Trigger: Shooting the Film, he has put together a 160+ page book that’s all about the ‘96 Mulcahy / Lundgren adaptation.

If you’re interested in learning about what went into the making of this action thriller and how the finished product turned out, this book contains pretty much everything you could hope to find out. From the beginning, with Altieri writing the script The Algonquin Goodbye, to fan write-ups, it’s all in here.

Along the way, Stewart examines the careers of Mulcahy, Lundgren, and Lundgren’s co-stars. He conducts interviews with Mulcahy, cinematographer David Franco, composer Stefano Mainetti, visual effects artist Francois Aubry, props provider Erik Gosselin, stuntman Jason Cavalier, and dedicates chapters to every element of the film’s production and story. The cinematography, the sound, the music, the visuals, the production design, the psychological elements, the flashbacks and non-linear storytelling, the weapons, snipers in film and reality, post-traumatic stress, government assassins in film, etc. Rarely has a film ever received such a thorough dissection filled with so much praise in the pages of a book.

I’m not a big fan of Silent Trigger, I have only seen it a couple of times and feel that it’s a “just okay” movie, but it was interesting to go through Shooting the Film and read about the movie from the perspective of a fan who obviously loves it and everything about it.