What Happened to Reindeer Games?

With the holidays in full swing, it’s time to unwrap the sack and ask point blank: What is the all-time Best Worst Christmas action movie? Invasion USA? Money Train? Maybe the recently released Red One? With plenty of gifts to sift through, John Frankenheimer’s Reindeer Games instantly stands out as the ultimate fun, so-bad-it’s-good yuletide action affair. Even the great Charlize Theron, who has become Hollywood’s most hardened action heroine in the interim, told Esquire Magazine in 2008 that Reindeer Games was the worst movie she ever made, stating: 

“Reindeer Games Was a bad, bad, bad movie. But I got to work with John Frannkenheimer. I wasn’t lying to myself. That’s why I did it.”

Indeed, every serious cinephile knows full well that Frankenheimer helmed some of the best cross-genre movies in the 1960s and 1970s, including such minor and major classics as The Young Savages, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, The Train, Seconds, The French Connection II, Black Sunday, and more. Unfortunately, after delivering the terrific De Niro vehicle Ronin in 1998, Reindeer Games marked Frankenheimer’s final theatrical feature film before his demise in 2002. While not necessarily the career ender a filmmaker of Frankenheimer’s calibre would want to go out with, it’s time to get to the bottom of Reindeer Games and find out What Happened to this Movie!

For those who’ve never seen the film, Reindeer Games stars Ben Affleck as Rudy Duncan, an ex-con forced by a gang of criminals to hold up a Michigan casino during Christmastime after posing as Rudy’s dead cellmate, Nick. The case of mistaken identity becomes more complicated when Duncan meets Ashely (Theron), who believes she is meeting her romantic interest Nick for the first time. As Rudy continues posing as Nick, he is forced to rob a casino by a gang led by Gabriel “Monster” Mercer, played by Gary Sinise. When Rudy and Ashley fight back, Monster sics his goons on them, including Jumpy (Danny Trejo), Merlin (Clarence Williams III), and Pug (Donal Logue). 

The first interesting factoid about Reindeer Games is that Vin Diesel was originally cast to play Pug before Donal Logue was eventually cast. Diesel and Frankenheimer did not get along while making the movie and Diesel was fired. While unsubstantiated 25 years later, two differing versions of the firing have circulated publicly. According to lore, Diesel demanded a pay raise and rewrites to flesh out his character. A more outlandish theory from co-star Danny Trejo suggests Diesel was combative with Frankenheimer on purpose so that he would be deliberately fired from the production so he could pursue another part he was simultaneously offered. Wherever the truth lies, the irony is that Diesel left Reindeer Games and instantly played Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious; a character he’s played nine times and counting. It’s safe to say, Diesel is okay with the decision.

Meanwhile, Affleck and Diesel would co-star in Boiler Room together, co-incidentally released one week before Reindeer Games in February 2000. More on the crazy Reindeer Games release schedule in a minute…

First, it’s worth discussing the opening shot of several Santa Clause corpses splayed out in the snowy winter night, which Frankenheimer toyed with during the editing process. According to the director:

“I played around with it, did a version of the film without that opening, just to look at it, and ran it for some people. And they weren’t at all prepared for what kind of movie they were going to see, and they resented it, really. The shots give a tension and another kind of ‘spin’ to the opening. When I decided to use the dead Santa Clauses, which was in Ehren Kruger’s original script, then I did everything around it, had the music written around it.”

Sadly, people resenting the movie would ultimately play a role in the movie’s ill-fated fortune, an all too cruel theme for Frankenheimer to have contend with while making his final theatrical feature.

As for the steamy sex scene between Rudy and Ashley in the cabin following their first dinner date. If the scene feels authentic and impromptu, it’s because it was. According to Theron, the sex scene was spontaneous and shot on the spot, stating:

“The funny thing about that scene was that it was never rehearsed, so what happened really happened. There were no camera setups, we just had two steady-cam operators in the room with us, and they had no idea where we were going to go. John basically said, ‘Wherever those two go, you follow!'”

The racy sex scene was toned down from its original form, which was so intense it had to be heavily edited to avoid an NC-17 rating by the MPAA. According to Frankenheimer in the DVD commentary, the sex scene in the theatrical and unrated versions of the movie is much different than what was originally filmed. 

Backed by a hefty $42 million budget from Dimension & Miramax, principal photography on Reindeer Games commenced on March 15, 1999, and wrapped on June 25th. Although the story takes place in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the film was shot on location in Vancouver and Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Some shots were filmed at Lionsgate Studios in North Vancouver. 

For instance, the scene when Rudy and Ashley fall into the frozen lake was filmed on location and in a studio. Filming took place in a large field, where a hole was filled with warm water and a layer of plastic ice covering the top. The shot of the two underwater was filmed in a large water tank at Lionsgate Studios. According to Frankenheimer, the process is far more ideal than plunging actors into icy water, as he did with Jurgen Prochnow and Roy Scheider in The Fourth War.

The Reindeer Games screenplay was written by Hollywood remake scribe Ehren Kruger, who, until Top Gun: Maverick, was known as the screenwriter constantly hired to rewrite watered-down versions of original horror movies like The Ring and its listless sequels. Although Reindeer Games marked the end of Frankenheimer’s career, Kruger continues to cash in on uninspired Hollywood blockbuster fare, such as the Transformers franchise. 

While Kruger has enjoyed a lucrative career, Frankenheimer had to fight tooth and nail to restore his original vision for Reindeer Games. The obvious elephant in the room is that Reindeer Games is a Christmas movie absurdly released in late February, the result of studio interference following a terrible test screening that required reshoots that pushed back the release date. As Frankenhemier laments in the commentary: “We missed our optimum time to play the movie.”

Get this. More than 20 minutes of original footage was cut from Reindeer Games, largely due to the MPAA’s objection to the torturous human dartboard sequence. The studio overreacted to poor reception from a preview test audience, who sided with their response over Frankenheimer’s vision and long-proven track record for making dark, gritty, riveting thrillers since the 1960s.

Following the poor reception, the studio ordered reshoots, much to the chagrin of Frankenheimer, who protested the preview process in the first place. Although Frankenheimer claimed he should have been more open to the idea of reshoots but maintained, he proclaimed in the audio commentary: “In retrospect, I should not have cut the movie, adding, “I feel the preview process hurt this movie.”

Chief among the complaints, the test audience claimed the movie was too slow and violent. As such, the studio trimmed most of the violence and added lame dad jokes to lighten the tone, including Rudy poking fun at his cellmate’s weight. 

The deleted footage was reinserted into the Reindeer Games Extended Cut, released on DVD in March 2001, a year after the film’s theatrical run. The deleted footage was repackaged as Reindeer Games The Director’s Cut, released on Blu-ray in 2012. 

Frankenheimer declared in the re-recorded Director’s Cut DVD commentary that his uncompromised version of Reindeer Games, stating: “This is the picture I made for me. It’s much sexier and edgier.” Here’s mainly what’s missing between the theatrical version and Director’s Cut.

A longer conversation between Rudy and Ashley in the diner after Gabriel kidnaps them occurs; a much more graphically disturbing display of Gabriel launching darts at Rudy’s body is included, and Rudy’s healing from the dart wounds is also added. A longer casino gunfight occurs, the security guard’s face gets bashed into the window, and more footage of Rudy getting roughed up by Gabriel’s goons is added. 

Another key change in the Director’s Cut occurs in the casino during the final act. The “Love Rollercoaster” sequence has been replaced by a twisty, suspensefully drawn-out chase scene. One final change includes the graphic death of an ice fisherman. In the Director’s Cut, the man falls into the frozen lake after Gabriel shoots the ice at his feet. In the theatrical cut, the action cuts away from the man’s submergence, hinting at his demise without depicting it.

Beyond the steamier sex scene that featured more graphic nudity in the Director’s Cut, Frankenheimer notes in the commentary that an alternate ending for Jack Bangs, played by Denis Farina, was filmed but discarded. A version was filmed in which Bangs lives, although it was changed to eliminate him as a potential witness to the crimes, which would undermine the entire plot. Keeping Bangs alive would not work on the story level and his alternate death scene was filmed. 

One of the most glaring scenes requiring reshoots occurs after Rudy recovers from his dart wounds, finds Ashley and Gabriel poolside at the hotel, and discovers they are not siblings but lovers. Rudy’s return to his hotel room needed to be re-shot for a lighter tone and tightened pacing. 

By trimming 20 minutes of story-advancing plot, and reducing the movie from a two-hour experience to a limp and lifeless 104-minute affair is one of the primary reasons Reindeer Games is more of a lump of coal than a priceless Christmas gift. But hey, the movie does have its fans and supporters even 25 years later as an “Awfully Good” Christmas action bonanza. Indeed, it goes down a bit easier with a few brandy and eggnogs.

However, the past quarter-century has been cruelly prescient regarding a few supporting players. In the opening prison sequence, Rudy is knifed by an inmate nicknamed The Alamo, played by former NFL player Dana Stubblefield. Frankenheimer sought to cast a physically imposing prisoner and after seeing unimpressive candidates, settled on Stubblefield after seeing him play for the then-Washington Redskins. 

When the casting department contacted Stubblefield, he initially balked, citing his $6 million salary as a reason for declining. Undeterred, Frankenheimer personally called Stubblefield and lobbied for him to play the role, suggesting it could lead to a post-football career as an actor. Alas, Stubblefield never appeared in another movie again. 

While filming the prison riot, Stubblefield accidentally slipped and hit Affleck to the ground, knocking him out and causing a concussion that required filming to be postponed. In 2016, Stubblefield was arrested for sexually assaulting a disabled woman. In 2020, Stubblefield was found guilty of rape for the crime and was given a 15-year jail sentence. 

Meanwhile, disgraced porn star Ron Jeremy appears in Reindeer Games as a prison inmate, credited under his real name, Ron Hyatt. In 2020, Jeremy was arrested on multiple rape and sexual assault counts, leading to his mental health erosion. In 2023, Jeremy was sent to a mental health facility after being unfit to stand trial. Neither of these casting choices looks good for Reindeer Games in 2024, despite the eerie premonition of putting Jeremy and Stubblefield in prison where they belong.

Speaking of putting things where they belong, the musical score for Reindeer Games entails a fascinating backstory. Legendary film composer Jerry Goldsmith was hired to score the film but bowed out following creative differences with Frankenheimer. Alan Silvestri was hired to replace Goldsmith and was given only one month to conduct the score. Silvestri began working on the Reindeer Games music in January 2000, one month before the film opened theatrically on February 25th. Early TV ads noted Goldsmith’s involvement, only to have Silvestri’s score replacing Goldsmith’s contributions.

As one might expect from a poor Christmas movie released two months after the holiday, Reindeer Games became a box office bomb upon its theatrical release. The film grossed $32 million globally against its $42 million budget, virtually ending Frankenheimer’s 50-year Hollywood career. Affleck and Theron emerged just fine, despite the latter having no issue calling Reindeer Games the worst movie of her career. In 2008, Theron told Esquire:

“Reindeer Games. That was a bad, bad, bad movie. But even though the movie might suck, I got to work with John Frankenheimer. I wasn’t lying to myself — that’s why I did it. I mean, he directed The Manchurian Candidate, which is like the movie of all movies.

Apart from the movie’s financial failure and Theron’s negative appraisal, Reindeer Games took a critical drubbing during its initial release. The film currently holds a dismal 25% Tomato Meter score and an abysmal 27% Popcorn Meter score, with a pathetic 37 Metascore and C- CinemaScore.

The sad reality of Reindeer Games remains a stark reminder of what can result from misguided studio tampering. Had Bob Weinstein trusted Frankenheimer’s decorated track record and poured faith into his original artistic vision, Reindeer Games could have been a truly terrific Christmas action movie. As it stands, the studio’s decision to take creative cues from the fickle whims of a single test audience that responded tepidly proved to a be a major mistake. Frankenheimer knows it. Theron knows it. Now everybody seeing this video knows it. The movie was edited for the sake of pacing, which Frankenheimer noted as a vast difference between the audience in the 1960s and the 2000s, stating:

“Let’s get a reality check here. Today’s audience may not be confused by how fast a film like Reindeer Games moves, but the intellectual level of the person watching this movie is not nearly what it was, for the person watching The Manchurian Candidate.”

By stripping Frankenheimer of his original vision, Reindeer Games loses the core story elements and character development that drew him to the project from the outset. It also forced the studio to delay the release two months after Christmas, rendering the holiday theme entirely academic. The result is a fun but awkward, out-of-place apparition of what could have been a badass action movie on par with Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Violent Night, and other all-time great Christmas action flicks.