Striking Distance (1993)

The Police Boat movie that put Sarah Jessica Parker on the path to greatness

I often wonder what I’d do differently were I to go through life again.

And I keep returning to the time I almost worked for McDonald’s.

It was the early 90s.

A friend who worked at the Golden Arches near Mavis and Derry Rd had arranged for me to personally hand my four-page application to the assistant manager.

After a very stern interview where I was repeatedly asked where I saw myself in five years, I was told I could start that very day.

But I declined, having already accepted a job at a grocery store that paid five cents more hourly and dispensed cheques weekly rather than twice a month.

I thought nothing of this at the time, but in university I encountered several ambitious and extroverted people who credited a part time job at McDonald’s for providing them with everything they needed to succeed.

Oddly, this was a trend that continued throughout my life and it was only days ago that I witnessed a martini sipping barrister stare into the middle distance and opine that their character had been shaped, not in law school, but over a deep fryer.

It seems I really missed out on the McDonalds thing, especially when the list of luminaries who worked there is taken into account. It includes everyone from Jeff Bezos and Star Jones to Mark Hamill and Pink.

But I can take some solace in knowing that Sarah Jessica Parker never worked there.

And she is nothing to dismiss. In 2022 Time Magazine declared her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Parker is famous for playing Carrie Bradshaw, the prim and promiscuous heroine of popular TV serial, Sex and the City

But Parker Only landed the career defining role after two decades of playing parts that were comparatively odd and minor.

And I concede that it is very possible one of these jobs was to Sarah Jessica Parker what working for McDonald’s clearly was for Jay Leno or Paul Ryan.

One of those roles got her ready to face the world and be a leader.

But which?

Was it Patty Greene, the music loving nerd in Square Pegs? Sarah Sanderson, the evil witch in Hocus Pocus? Dolores Fuller, Ed Wood’s girlfriend in Ed Wood? Betsy Nolan, girlfriend to Nicolas Cage in Honeymoon in Vegas? Was it Nathalie Lake, the chihuahua with a human head in Mars Attacks?

It was none of these.

I believe Parker’s most seminal role was Jo Christman, the River Rescue Squad officer who helps a fellow boat cop played by Bruce Willis, track down a nautical serial killer in the early-90s action flick, Striking Distance.

If it seems odd to you that Sarah Jessica Parker was in an action movie with Bruce Willis, you should remember that the very first person to fight crime alongside the future John McClane was Cybill Shepherd.

The Plot: Fifth-generation homicide detective Tom Hardy (Bruce Willis) is driving against traffic down a busy Pittsburgh highway, but that doesn’t stop him from having a spirited debate with his partner, (John Mahoney) who is also his dad, about whether or not he should have kids.

Both men are in a police chase that involves at least twenty vehicles trying to apprehend a serial killer. But just when Hardy has the killer cornered, he is tricked into flipping his vehicle.

Before Hardy can climb free of the wreckage, the serial killer kills his dad!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Hardy gets demoted to boat cop by his captain (Denis Farina) who is also his uncle.

Confined to a marina and forced to wear humiliating waterproof shorts, officer Hardy feels he’s truly hit rock bottom, but then he’s assigned a female partner, Jo Christman (Sarah Jessica Parker)!

Christman and Hardy initially dislike each other because she plays by the book and he doesn’t like writing speeding tickets.

But they gradually bond over their determination to catch the serial killer and a mutual fondness for combat with flare guns.

Soon they are lovers but before you can say “conflict of interest”, the serial killer turns it up a notch by targeting every single woman in Hardy’s life from his prom date to the boat dispatcher who was nice to him one time.

Hardy is so full of rage he can’t see straight, but Christman has his back

…..but she may have secrets of her own!

Striking Distance has all the tropes of a cheesy 90s action film from car chases to boat chases to villains who die 14 times, 14 different ways, but aren’t truly expired until forced to swallow a taser.

It’s tempting to dismiss the film as a mindless pot boiler.

But if you watch Sarah Jessica Parker banter with Tom Atkins¹ you can see Carrie Bradshaw in her embryonic state.

There would be no Sex in the City without Striking Distance.

Just as there would be so many less all-purpose captains of industry and sophistication had they not started by offering to supersize the fries of the 69 million customers McDonalds serves daily

I probably should’ve worked at McDonalds

Alas, Life only make sense in hindsight.

I’m Lovin’ it.

1. Yes, Tom Atkins is in this film, he plays a supporting river cop.