Denzel Washington's '90s Action Movie Was Rejected By Clint Eastwood For Being 'Too Grim'

Russell Mulcahy's vicious revenge movie, "Ricochet," wasn't exactly the most memorable action thriller from the '90s that starred Denzel Washington — many probably remember "The Pelican Brief" or "The Bone Collector" more. But it was an effort that helped Washington transition into the genre. As it turns out, however, the original script written by Fred Dekker (director and co-writer of cult classic "The Monster Squad") was meant to be another "Dirty Harry" outing, but Clint Eastwood said no from the get-go after reading it.

As Dekker said in an interview with Fake Shemp, "When Clint Eastwood deemed it "too grim" (which is funny if you've seen a "Dirty Harry" movie), the producer Joel Silver took it in a different direction. I met Kurt Russell about starring in it with me directing, but eventually it became the movie you know."

It must've been a very different screenplay in its initial version before Menno Meyjes and Steven E. de Souza were hired to reshape it, because Dekker also said that he "counted seven things of his in the finished product," adding that he found the final casting great, however. In retrospect, Eastwood might've been right, because the plot of "Ricochet" involves the relentless and hellbent revenge of a psychopath who makes it his mission to destroy the cop who put him behind bars.

Mulcahy's movie follows LAPD cop, later turned Assistant District Attorney, Nick Styles (Washington), who makes a sensational arrest during his rookie days of hitman Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow) at a carnival. The standoff between them is recorded by a bystander, which turns Styles into a local hero. Blake is put in jail, stewing in his anger and the humiliation of how he was caught, plotting a revenge against Styles for eight years with the help of the Aryan Brotherhood. He escapes during a parole hearing and kills the Brotherhood's leader to burn his body and fake his own death since he swapped their dental records in prison beforehand.

It's an elaborate and devilish plan that frees him up to focus on making Styles' life unbearable by slowly stripping everything that matters to him away. Simply killing him wouldn't satisfy Blake because he wants to humiliate him publicly, smear his reputation, and ruin the family he made for himself (he's now married with kids). So he kidnaps him, repeatedly injects him with cocaine and heroin, and even hires a prostitute to rape him while delirious just so he can tape the act and leak it to his wife, insinuating that he's cheating on her. Eventually, Styles has to turn to his childhood friend Odessa (Ice T), who's now one of the biggest drug dealers in the city, to help protect his family and stop Blake.

Considering all that, it's not hard to understand why Eastwood passed on this story as Harry Callahan's next "adventure." "Ricochet" did modestly at the box office (making $21 million worldwide against its estimated $19 million budget), and reviews at the time were rather mixed. Ultimately, it's no coincidence that it's mostly remembered as one of Washington's lesser early thrillers.