FAQ for
Midnight Run (1988) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Midnight Run can be found here.

In bounty hunter slang, a midnight run is an easy job. The phrase has been used from time to time on the TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter.

At the start of the movie, when Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) brings Monroe Bouchet (John Toles-Bey) to the police station to be booked, a policeman says to Jack, "Hey Jack, the Soda machine's been out for a week and a half." Jack responds to this comment with a contemptuous smirk.

Most likely the policeman means it as a sign of disrespect to Jack. He is saying something like "You must be here to fix the soda machine, because you sure don't work here." It's an acknowledgment that Jack used to be a cop, but has now fallen on hard times, and has no real business in a police station.

It is most likely a nickname which originated in his real name - Jonathan Mardukas. His surname is pronounced Mar-Duke-Is, with the stress naturally falling on the second syllable (Duk), hence the nickname of the Duke.

Jack finds Mardukas (Charles Grodin) relatively easily by checking his police booking slip, and finding the number Mardukas called immediately after he was arrested. Jack then has his police contact find out where the house is to which the number belongs. Jack then taps the phone line in the house and calls the house pretending to be an FBI agent looking into the Mardukas case. This prompts the woman who lives in the house to immediately call Mardukas himself. However, because Jack has tapped the line, he is then able to discover exactly where Mardukas is staying.

As such, Jack is able to find Mardukas easily, in contrast to the FBI and the mob, both of whom are unaware of what city Mardukas is even in. Obviously, in reality, this is preposterous, the FBI would easily have been able to do what Jack did, and the Mob, one would imagine, would have their own contacts with access to police files. However, in the context of the film, the incident is simply a way of presenting Jack as resourceful and determined, whilst the FBI and the mob are shown to be quite inept, always a few steps behind Jack.

Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) is able to cancel Jack's credit card simply by calling the credit card company, giving his name, the card number, and saying he has lost his card, therefore, it needs to be cancelled.

The first question is, how could Marvin have known Jack's credit card number. Whilst no direct answer to this question is ever provided by the film, some hints are given. Marvin is shown several times during the movie as being thoroughly unscrupulous, and always ready to screw Jack over to serve his own needs. Jack also mentions at one stage that the bounty hunting business is a nasty business, where everyone is looking out for themselves. As such, it is highly probable that Marvin simply got hold of Jack's number at some stage in the past, and kept it for just such an incident as is seen in the film.

As to the question of whether he could have cancelled it as easy as he did, the answer is no. He is never asked anything other than the credit card number; never asked for the expiry date, his date of birth, or the CVV number. If one were to cancel a card over a phone, more information would be required than simply a name and the card number.

Because, as Mardukas says, it's not a bribe, it's a gift; Jack has already let Mardukas go before Mardukas gives him the money, so taking the money from Mardukas does not violate Jack's moral code in any way.

The R1 US DVD, released by Universal Home Entertainment in 2003, contains the following special features:

An untitled 7 minute behind-the-scenes featurette made in 1988, featuring interviews with Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Dennis Farina, Richard Foronjy, Robert Miranda, Martin Brest and George Gallo.

Original Theatrical Trailer

The R2 UK DVD, released by Universal Home Entertainment (UK) in 2003 has the trailer, but loses the featurette.