In Defence Of Last Action Hero

7. A Most Peculiar Production

Even if you're (somehow) not a fan of Last Action Hero, you can probably appreciate just how much worse the movie could've been if the script wasn't given a late, uncredited revision by legendary novelist William Goldman.

Originally, warm-hearted projectionist Nick (Robert Prosky) was going to be the Devil who wishes to steal Danny's soul, there would be a scene where Danny has a phone call with his dead dad, and according to McTiernan, the script featured "150 toilet jokes" which Goldman removed.

The real trouble began after the script was locked down, though, and the entire process from pre-to-post-production lasted just 9.5 months, an unfathomably fast turnaround time for such an expensive, lavish project. Shooting only finished barely a month before its premiere, and reshoots took place less than three weeks ahead of release.

According to McTiernan, this resulted in the final movie basically being the assembly cut, with insufficient time to take multiple passes at the edit. This may explain why one of the most common criticisms of the film is its 131-minute runtime, which could've been ironed out and trimmed down with more time.

Given the clear pressure McTiernan and co. were working under from an obstinate Columbia who refused to push the movie to later in the summer, it's honestly pretty miraculous that the movie's as entertaining as it is, warts and all.

Now that the context of its release is laid out, though, let's take a deep dive into exactly why Last Action Hero is such a damn great movie...