General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Malone

Malone is a 1987 American action thriller directed by Harley Cokeliss, starring Burt Reynolds as a retired CIA assassin who breaks down in a small Oregon town controlled by a right-wing paramilitary leader. It was produced by Leo L. Fuchs for Orion Pictures, written by Christopher Frank from William Wingate's 1980 novel Shotgun, and released on May 1, 1987.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Source	Based on William Wingate's 1980 thriller novel Shotgun, about a renegade CIA operative named John Hardacre¹
Release	May 1, 1987, wide release by Orion Pictures; R rating; 92 minutes²
Budget and gross	$10,000,000 production budget; $3,000,000 domestic box office, about 0.3 times the budget²
Opening weekend	$1,377,691, 45.9% of the total domestic gross, on 1,326 theaters²
Principal cast	Burt Reynolds (Richard Malone), Cliff Robertson (Charles Delaney), Kenneth McMillan (Hawkins), Cynthia Gibb (Jo Barlow), Scott Wilson (Paul Barlow), Lauren Hutton (Jamie)³
Filming	August 11 to September 28, 1986, in Hedley, Princeton, and Vancouver, British Columbia¹^•⁴
Reception	29% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (7 reviews); 5.8/10 on IMDb from about 4,100 users⁵^•⁶

Spoilers

Plot

Richard Malone, a former CIA assassin hoping for a quiet retirement, is driving across the United States in his 1969 Mustang when the transmission fails near a mountain service station in Oregon. The station is run by Paul Barlow (Scott Wilson), a widowed Vietnam veteran, and his teenage daughter Jo (Cynthia Gibb). Malone discovers that residents of the area are being terrorized into selling their land. Behind the squeeze is Charles Delaney (Cliff Robertson), head of an ultraright group of "true patriots" with a private paramilitary force and a computer tie line to the U.S. Senate; Delaney believes Malone was sent to kill him, which is not true at first. Lauren Hutton plays Jamie, a CIA operative assigned to kill Malone, and Kenneth McMillan plays the local sheriff, Hawkins.⁵^•⁷^•³

The Washington Post's review described the story as a "Shane"-style setup in which a taciturn drifter reluctantly defends ordinary people and then moves on, and noted that Malone is a CIA killer suffering job burnout who can no longer bring himself to pull the trigger.⁷

Production

The film began as a French project. Producer Leo L. Fuchs, a Paris-based American, optioned Wingate's novel with plans to shoot in France, and Variety reported on January 1, 1986 that he wanted the French actor Gerard Depardieu to star. Because the story and characters felt quintessentially American, Fuchs brought the project to Orion Pictures and had screenwriter Christopher Frank, a noted French filmmaker, revise the script, which he had originally written in French, for an American setting and characters.¹

Principal photography began on August 11, 1986 in British Columbia, Canada, on a nine-week schedule with a $10 million budget, according to Daily Variety. The production shot primarily in the small towns of Hedley and nearby Princeton, and in Vancouver, where a portion of a popular park was transformed into the villain Delaney's estate. IMDb lists filming from August 11 to September 28, 1986. Daily Variety reported on October 7, 1986 that the wrap was being delayed while a new ending was written.¹^•⁴

The crew included cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld, editor Todd Ramsay, production designer Graeme Murray, and composer David Newman, whose score the Los Angeles Times review singled out as heightening the film's fatalistic film noir quality.¹^•⁸

Box office

Malone opened on May 1, 1987 and earned $1,377,691 in its first weekend, ranking 11th, from 1,326 theaters at an average of $1,039 per theater. The Numbers records a domestic total of $3,000,000, with the opening weekend accounting for 45.9% of the gross and an average run of 1.0 week per theater; inflation-adjusted, the domestic gross equals $8,677,745. Daily Variety reported a wider figure of 1,526 screens and $2.5 million in the first ten days of release. The film's worldwide gross equaled its domestic gross, and at roughly 0.3 times its $10 million production budget the release lost money theatrically.²^•¹

Reception

Critical response was largely negative. Rotten Tomatoes records a 29% Tomatometer from 7 reviews and a 36% audience score from more than 500 ratings.⁵ Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times was an exception, writing that the film was saved from triteness because Cokeliss and Frank emphasized its fatalistic film noir quality and treated genre material with respect and care.⁸ The Washington Post called it a "functional, low-key thriller" marked by a restraint uncharacteristic of hired-killer films, while noting that Reynolds practiced a Bronson/Eastwood glare in place of the self-deprecating comedy at which he excelled.⁷ Later critics were harsher: Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy called it one of the duds that continued Reynolds' slide from Hollywood king to VHS rental afterthought, while Chuck O'Leary of Fantastica Daily called it a predictable but watchable modernization of Shane with Reynolds in top form.⁵

On IMDb the film holds a 5.8/10 rating from about 4,100 users.⁶

Home media and availability

Kino Lorber released the film on video on October 13, 2015; estimated Blu-ray sales total $101,913.² As of recent checks, the film streams in the United States on fuboTV, MGM+ (including its Amazon and Roku channels), and Philo, and free with ads on The Roku Channel and Tubi.⁹ The UK cinema and video versions were cut by one second to remove an ear clap.⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026