Fire Down Below(1997)

After Taggart (Steven Seagal) causes a lot of problems for Hanner (Kris Kristofferson), his henchmen, his son Orin Jr. (Brad Hunt) and Orin’s own henchmen, Hanner comes up to Jackson during a social function that the town is having and meets with Taggart. He tries to bribe Taggart into leaving town, but Taggart refuses his bribe, telling him that he will only leave once he stops poisoning the environment with his illegal toxic waste dumping practices. Hanner then meets with Orin Jr., and after telling him that Taggart is trouble, he orders him to seal up the abandoned coal mine where the waste is being stored and ensure that Taggart is buried in there with it. He then gives him a number that belongs to someone and tells him to call him.

Meanwhile, Sarah (Marg Helgenberger) – Taggart’s love interest who has recently decided to help him build a case against Hanner – has a conversation with her brother, Earl (Stephen Lang), and knowing that he works for Hanner, she tells him that she and Taggart could use his help in the fight against Hanner because he knows which mines are used to store the chemicals. She tells him that he could be a hero if he helps them, but he replies that he doesn’t know about that. Soon after, the townspeople spot a fire burning in the distance, and when Sarah tells Taggart that the flames are coming from where the church is located, they immediately head up there. They arrive to find the entire church engulfed in flames (along with Reverend Goodall [Levon Helm], who was murdered by whoever started the fire because he told Taggart that he knew about the toxic waste being dumped and who was dumping it and that he was ready and willing to testify against the perpetrators if Taggart brought them all to court), and when Earl arrives after them, he tells Taggart that he knows the people who did this and accepted money from them and helped them bury the toxic waste in the mines, and he tells him that he can show him where the dump site is. They agree to meet there in half an hour, with Earl explaining that they can’t go there together because he doesn’t want to be seen leaving with him, and he adds that the villains will be putting another load of waste in there tonight.

Earl takes Sarah back to her house, and Sarah tells Earl that she is proud of him, but then he tells her that Taggart is going to sink them all and he will try to put him in jail. He then asks her if she slept with Taggart before hitting her and insulting her, and he tells her that, when Taggart is gone, things are going to go back to the way they used to be before their father died. Distraught, Sarah tells him that she is leaving, but Earl replies that he will arrange for her to get robbed again, like what happened the last time she moved away. Sarah runs up to her bedroom and starts packing her suitcase, but she soon discovers that Earl has set fire to all of her beehives and destroyed them. When Sarah comes back outside to see what he has done, he admits that he killed Reverend Goodall and set fire to the church for agreeing to assist Taggart with his case. She tells Earl that she is going to the cops to tell them everything about him and about their father, but they get into a fight, and he warns her that he will kill her if it means keeping himself out of jail. Sarah then hides in a closet, which Earl locks on her, and he tells her that Taggart is going to die under the mountain tonight before leaving to go meet with him at the mine.

Earl and Taggart meet up at the mine as planned, and Earl takes him to the mother lode of the toxic waste barrels. Not long after, Taggart points out to him that Sarah gets very nervous whenever she is around him, and Earl replies that that is because she never really got over the murder of their father when she was younger. Taggart then remarks that the reason she never got over that is because she didn’t actually kill their father. He then explains to Earl that he has a theory: When she was a little girl, Earl was molesting her, and when their father found out about it and tried to beat Earl for it, Earl shot and killed him. He then told Sarah that he accidentally killed their father, then told her that, since he was an adult, she would be all alone if he got convicted of the crime and sent to prison, so he convinced her to take the rap for him because she was a minor and the authorities would do nothing to her. Earl more or less admits that that is true, after which six goons appear, along with Orin Jr., who hangs back a distance away. Earl orders one of the henchmen to kill Taggart, but Taggart fights back, killing a few with gunfire and knocking out the others. Orin Jr. retreats back outside the mine and triggers a cave-in of the main entrance using explosives, but Taggart escapes the cave through another exit that he saw on one of Sarah’s father’s maps that she gave him, and Earl gets crushed and killed by falling rocks.

Taggart then goes over to Sarah’s house at sunrise and frees her from the closet, and he informs her about Earl’s demise and how they have to worry about Hanner and his goons, plus he tells her that, if she testifies, they can put all of them in jail. He asks her if she would be willing to testify against Hanner, and she agrees to. He then informs her that he is going to have to put her into protective custody because things are going to get rough around here, after which he calls his friend in the FBI, Special Agent Larsen (Blue Deckert), and tells him about what he found in the mine as well as how he has a witness that needs to be protected. He tells Larsen to send over agents from the Witness Protection Program to the town, and he and Sarah will meet with them at a truck stop on Highway 98. That night, he takes Sarah to the truck stop, where they meet two agents there and Sarah is put into their car. However, Taggart soon notices that the agents are behaving suspiciously, and when he quickly gets out of his truck, the agents take off, revealing them to be corrupt. He chases after the agents in his truck until he manages to disable their car, and he ultimately kills one agent but keeps the other alive so he can interrogate him, after which he takes Sarah back to her house. We then see Hanner take a call from Larsen, who is on his payroll and sent the corrupt agents, and he assures Hanner that he can make sure that any investigation conducted against him goes nowhere because Taggart does not know that he is in cahoots with him. Hanner orders him to oversee the cleanup of the cave-in or else suffer the consequences. The next morning, Taggart tells Sarah that he is going into town to take care of Hanner, then come back and finish fixing her porch like he promised her, but she thinks that he is going to leave her once this is all over.

Hanner gets taken to court, but thanks to Larsen’s influence on the cleanup, all he gets is fines totaling $50,000. Once Hanner exits the courtroom, Taggart gets his attention, and he informs him that, since the EPA has never been very good at punishing criminals, he has quit the agency and now plans to spend every waking moment from here on out trying to make his life miserable. We then see Taggart confront Larsen at the toxic waste site flanked by two FBI agents, and he tells him that he knows that he set up his partner, Frank (John Diehl), to be killed (along with two FBI agents that preceded him), so he is here to let him know that he is under arrest. The agents then seize Larsen and put him in their car. Later on, Taggart goes into Chapman’s Bar, where Orin Jr. and his top henchmen hang out, and he tells Orin Jr. that he wants to talk to him. Orin Jr. tells him to get away from him and that he has nothing on him, but Taggart replies that he does actually have quite a bit on him. However, the current judicial system will not provide adequate punishment for him, but since he feels that he deserves to suffer, he has arranged a way to make that happen. The henchmen then try to attack Taggart, but he beats them all up rather easily. He then walks straight up to Orin Jr. and tells him that it is time for him to step up and be a man, and Orin Jr. – intimidated by Taggart and his fighting skills – asks him what he wants him to do. Taggart replies that he is going to talk to him; he knows that his father is up to things that are no good, so he is going to have to turn state’s evidence and tell him everything he knows about his father and his operations. Orin Jr. timidly agrees to cooperate.

A night or two later, Taggart enters Hanner’s new casino on its opening night with two FBI agents and a warrant for Hanner’s arrest. After taking out Hanner’s guards outside his private gambling area when they try to refuse him entry, Taggart sits with Hanner and first informs him that he lied about quitting the EPA, then tells him that his son has given him a full confession on all of his crimes, and they now got him on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, and racketeering, which adds up to 30 years in prison. Hanner soon tries to shoot him in a surprise attack, but Taggart is quicker than him and disarms him before he can pull the trigger. He then tells the FBI agents to cuff Hanner, but when one of them tries, Hanner pulls out a second gun and elbows the arresting agent before shooting the other one. He then tries to shoot Taggart again, but Taggart is once again too quick for him and shoots him in the right shoulder to incapacitate him. After summoning help for the agent who got shot, Taggart bids Hanner a less-than-sincere farewell and leaves.

The next morning, Taggart shows up outside Sarah’s house with a new set of beehives for her, and Sarah rushes up to him and hugs him. He also completely repairs Cotton’s (Harry Dean Stanton) front porch and steps like he promised him (out of gratitude for him sending the letter to the EPA to notify them about Hanner’s illegal dumping practices).