Fled is a 1996 action/thriller starring
Laurence Fishburne and
Stephen Baldwin. Charles Piper and Luke Dodge are a group of prisoners who make their escape to collect some money and a disk with valuable information.
Tropes
- Assassination Attempt: The witness at the beginning who's planning to give his testimony against Matajano is killed alongside his lawyer when one of his men drop off a block of C4 disguised as Chinese food.
- Big Bad: The Cuban mob boss Matajano, whom Dodge unknowingly steals money from and has proof of his money laundering schemes on a computer disk and he wishes to receive said disk as authorities are looking to take him down.
- Big "NO!": Dodge after finding his dead girlfriend before getting captured by Santiago's men.
- Cable-Car Action Sequence: The climax takes place in a cable car with Piper and Dodge going up to Stone Mountain to give the disk to the Attorney General. But then the cable car gets stopped by Schiller, so he can get the disk for himself.
- The Cameo: Creator/RuPaul makes a brief appearance when Piper and Dodge borrows his car while on the run from Santiago and his men.
- Celebrity Paradox: Dodge asks Piper if he's ever seen What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), a film Laurence Fishburne starred in as Ike Turner.
- Chained Heat: Both Piper and Dodge are cuffed together throughout the first half of the movie.
- Cool Bike: Piper and Dodge get a pair Ducatti motorcycles left by Puffy to ride on. One of them even has the location of the disk hidden inside.
- The Cracker: Dodge is a computer hacker who stole millions of dollars from a greedy company, and he even uses some of it to donate to a recreation center. Unknown to him, however, is said company is ran by the Cuban mob boss Matajano.
- Dirty Cop: U.S. Marshal Pat Schiller, who's quite ruthless in dealing with enemies and has no qualms about innocent civilians getting killed. And later on, he's revealed to be working for Matajano.
- Disposable Woman: Dodge's girlfriend Faith has only a couple scenes before getting killed by Santiago's men.
- Disney Villain Death: Schiller meets his end when Piper throws him out of the cable car.
- The Dragon: Santiago, a dangerous hitman working for Matajano.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: The original plan was to have Piper and Dodge make their escape as the guards fire their weapons with blanks. But everything goes to Hell when an Ax-Crazy prisoner named Milliner takes one of the guns with real bullets and massacres all the prison guards.
- Good Luck Charm: Piper's harmonica, which he gives to Dodge when he heads out to arrange a meeting with his friend Puffy. Subverted when it's later on revealed to be a Tracking Device.
- MacGuffin: The computer disk.
- Moe Greene Special: Dodge's girlfriend Faith gets killed after one of Santiago's men shoots her through the door while she looks through the peephole.
- Not Quite Dead: Schiller is seemingly killed at the shootout at the Georgia Dome with Piper, Dodge and Gibson against Santiago and his men. But later, it's revealed he survives due to wearing a Bulletproof Vest.
- Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: Piper and Dodge leap off the bridge into the river when both end up on a path of an oncoming train.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Schiller snipes off Milliner, despite the latter surrendering. While Schiller was cold-blooded for killing him off, no one will be mourning Milliner since he massacred all the prison guards.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Piper makes a pun of his name to Schiller before throwing him out of the cable car to his death below: "Time to pay the piper."
- Running Gag: Dodge and Piper referencing past movie scenes to each other.
- Sniping the Cockpit: Piper kills Santiago by shooting at the windshield as he tries to run him down, making the car flip over.
- Southern-Fried Genius: Detective Gibson, a Southern Gentleman of a cop, who accurately guesses the scheme involving Dodge isn't all it seems and Schiller is Evil All Along, while he aids Piper and Dodge in getting the disk.
- Title Drop: Piper makes a couple lines to Dodge while on the move, saying "We gotta fled".
- Undercover Cop Reveal: After Piper rescues Dodge's from Santiago and his men while being tortured, Piper reveals that he's really a cop. He shares his backstory of him being a former narcotics cop whose division was under investigation, which resulted in Piper being sentenced to prison and Schiller making a deal with him to get Dodge to lead him to the disk so he can walk. But of course, it's revealed later on Schiller is working for Matajano, making him an Unwitting Pawn.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Dodge's friend, Puffy, whom he meets at the massage parlor to ask about the disks, when then immediately gets killed by Santiago and his men.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Cora, the woman Piper and Dodge meet while hiding out and change clothes, aids them when they all go to the Georgia Dome and pretends to be a pregnant woman who wants her husband, which has the staff cater to her while Piper and Dodge head to the utility room to get the hidden disk.
