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The Ambulance (1990)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
31 March 1990 (USA) moreTagline:
You'll be in perfect health before you die.Plot:
Josh Baker meets a very special woman, Cheryl, in the streets of New York. Suddenly she collapses, and she's picked up by an ambulance... more | add synopsisAwards:
1 nomination moreUser Comments:
Low-budget black comedy thriller is just what the doctor ordered. (minor spoilers) more (19 total)Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Eric Roberts | ... | Josh Baker | |
| James Earl Jones | ... | Lt. Spencer | |
| Megan Gallagher | ... | Sandra Malloy | |
| Red Buttons | ... | Elias Zacharai | |
| Janine Turner | ... | Cheryl | |
| Eric Braeden | ... | The Doctor | |
| Richard Bright | ... | McClosky | |
| James Dixon | ... | Detective 'Jughead' Ryan | |
| Jill Gatsby | ... | Jerilyn | |
| Martin Barter | ... | Street Gang Leader | |
| Laurene Landon | ... | Patty | |
| Nick Chinlund | ... | Hugo (as Nicholas Chinlund) | |
| Matt Norklun | ... | Ambulance Driver | |
| Rudy Jones | ... | Ambulance Driver | |
| Stan Lee | ... | Marvel Comics Editor |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
91 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
ColorSound Mix:
Ultra StereoFilming Locations:
New York City, New York, USAFun Stuff
Trivia:
The ambulance used is a 1973 Cadillac commercial chassis with coach work by Miller Meteor. It is a Lifeliner model with 54 inches of rear headroom. The actual movie car is now owned by a collector in California. moreSoundtrack:
Found Another Lover moreFAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (19 total)
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Ambulance (1990)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| This is the funniest movie ever | ryanshock2 |
| The movie car | AutumnRed |
| One amazing scene... | AutumnRed |
| Pictures Of The Movie Car | physgraf78 |
| Question re: Australian DVD | Max_Planck |
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The Ambulance actually turned out to be a pretty funny, yet bizarre thriller. Sarcastic extrovert, Josh Baker (Eric Roberts in a hilarious role), probably regrets the day he talked to a woman that he felt compelled to introduce himself to, having always seen her on his lunch break. The woman, a diabetic, suddenly collapses in the street, and he is there as she is carried away in a hearse-turned-ambulance with a mysterious green glowing light in the back. She gets in the ambulance, and as Josh later discovers, she never arrives at any of the local hospitals.
Josh is convinced something is awry, but doesn't pay too much attention to it at first (in fact, as bizarre as the story becomes, he's so matter-of-fact about everything. Him and everyone else). The more people he confronts about the strange ambulance that conveniently seems to arrive when he's talking to them but never seems to be around when he needs to prove it exists, the more likely those people are going to wind up dead because of the ambulance (actually, because of the people driving it, who are the goons for a strange doctor who is using his victims for a strange medical experiment).
Josh's only hope, besides himself (a guy who will soon be quite immune to pain as he gets hit by cars, jumps through barred doors, is drugged, and finally beat by a junkyard gang), is the red head cop Sandra Malloy who turns up after her boss, Spencer (James Earl Jones in an even funnier part as the disbeliever), turns up missing. And if they don't act fast, the ambulance will show up for them, and the only chance of stopping it will be lost.
All in all, the story is bizarre, but the movie is much more of a comedy than a thriller in sort of that 'After Hours' style of comedy. Josh appears to be absolutely crazy to those around him, babbling about some weird ambulance that is out to murder people. But he seems to dismiss the seriousness of it, just hoping to save the girl and get through the day, and not much else. Eric Roberts and Red Buttons, too, made a good team, albeit a brief one with Red Buttons as Elias Zacharai, the fast-talking newspaper reporter who befriends Josh and has similar convictions about the hospital staff trying to drug up patients and keep them against his will, but in that senile old man kind of way. He plays the reporter that wants the exclusive story on the ambulance.
Loosen up and give it a try. Though cheap, it's got some good action sequences, a decent plot, and is just overall, pretty funny. Except, for maybe the ending. It was just too easy.