In a lot of ways, 1996’s Eraser marked the end of the “classic” era of Arnold Schwarzenegger action movies. Following its release, he would infamously turn up as Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin, before taking a few years off. He would re-emerge in 1999 with a new slew of action films, none of which managed to recapture the time when Arnie was arguably the biggest movie star in the world. However, when Eraser hit theaters in the summer of 1996, no one was bigger.
Schwarzenegger was coming off of True Lies when he signed on to do Eraser, in which he’d play another larger-than-life character, U.S. Marshal John Kruger, the titular “Eraser” who erases the identities of people going into witness protection. If they’re found by the people hunting them, Kruger is there to dispense justice. Here, he would be paired with former Miss America Vanessa Williams, with the legendary James Caan playing his mentor turned nemesis. The Mask director Chuck Russell would direct, and no expense was spared in order to make this into an action extravaganza that would please Arnie’s fans – and they mostly turned out in droves with this his last big hit (although domestically it’s performance was considered a little soft in comparison to his other films).
In this episode of Reel Action, written and narrated by Travis Hopson, edited by E.J Tangonan, produced by Adam Walton and executive produced by Berge Garabedian, we dig into one of Arnie’s last great actioners. Watch previous episodes below and let us know what you think of Eraser!