Fire Down Below

"One man. One secret. One chance in hell."

Steven Seagal is featured in Fire Down Below as his most colorful character to date. His character, Jack Taggart, is an Environmental Protection Agency agent who has gone deep undercover in a backwoods Kentucky mining town. His cover - a church carpenter.
Taggart is there because of an anonymous letter sent by an old weirdo who believes that toxic waste is being dumped in the old mines and making the townsfolk sick. Taggart's plan is to blend into this small mountain community by going around fixing up folks' porches and roofs and such. Once he gains the trust of a good witness he can pump them for info and take down the scum that's infecting this helpless little town. It doesn't take long for Seagal to figure out that the town is run by a big coal tycoon Orin Hanner, and his son Orin Jr. It also doesn't take long to figure out that Hanner is the only person capable of polluting the mines so vastly. Unfortunately Hanner is no fool. He's onto Taggart even faster than Jack is onto him. Hanner Jr. is in charge of taking care of things and making sure Jack doesn't outstay his welcome.
First Jack runs into an ambush and is surrounded by armed hillbillies. He thinks quickly though, and tells one of them "You gotta pretty mouth boy." and then kicks the shit out of him and his 2 friends. Next Orin Jr. has his cronies toss a couple of pissed off rattle snakes into Taggarts living area. Jack catches the two rattle snakes with his bare hands, and the next day puts them in the two guys' truck which makes them freak out and crash. Meanwhile, Jack is still blending in beautifully, with his big fancy leather jackets and snake skin boots. He has honed in on two particular townsfolk. The first is some woman, Sara Kellogg who no one likes because they think she killed her daddy. The second is an old coot named Cotton Harry who eventually confesses to being the anonymous informant. Orin Jr. is pretty pissed about his failed attacks and so he decides to try to get Taggart into trouble with the law, seeing how the sheriff is on daddy's payroll. Jr's boys start a brawl outside of a country store and Jack finds himself surrounded by a dozen or so rednecks. Seagal keeps his cool and beats them all senseless with nothing but a wooden dowel and his bare hands. In the fight he breaks 2 guys' noses. When the sheriff comes to arrest him, the reverend vouches, on Taggart's behalf, that it was self defense. Now Jr. decides to up the ante. He has his boys throw a beating to Cotton Harry and frame Jack. The sheriff shows up with about 5 of his deputies and tell him he's under arrest. Now it's personal. Taggart tells the sheriff that he knows he's with the EPA and that he can arrest the sheriff just as easy as the sheriff can arrest him. Now the deputies draw their guns and it's on. Segal beats the hell out of the 6 local cops, choking one by pushing his gun down his throat. Orin Jr. has been keeping his old man updated and with each failed attempt to scare off Taggart he becomes more impatient. Old Hanner decides to do things the hard way. He sends a big rig driving assassin after Taggart. The guy in the 18 wheeler is slamming Seagal's truck and trying to run him off/into cliffs. Jack gains some space and then stops his truck at the edge of a cliff. The driving assassin tries to ram seagal, but he gets out of the truck and dodges the oncoming rig just in time, sending the assassin plunging down into a deep quarry.
While searching for clues, Taggart has been falling for the outcasted chick and he's even agreed to take her to the dance. Jack arrives with his lady at the dance and for some reason the country band lets him take a little guitar solo. While Seagal is shredding on guitar and flirting with the band leader, Orin Jr. is harassing Sara. After Jr. talks some trash, Seagal turns around and punches him in the balls. Then he tells him "now you can sue me." Taggart then turns down a bribe from Orin Sr. who in turn burns down the town's church. This puts the townsfolk into a frenzy and Jack takes Sara's brother to show him the mine where the toxic waste dump is. When they get there Jack discovers that its a trap. Sara's brother is a bad guy who molested her as a child and killed their dad because Sara told him about the molestation. Jack is trapped in the mine now and surrounded by hillbillies with guns. He starts fighting and shoots a toxic waste barrel which spills it's contents all over Sara's brother's face. Seagal chokes another bad guy to death with his own arm. Orin Jr. has rigged the mine to explode and Taggart only narrowly escapes before the whole thing collapses. Taggart now has the location of the waste along with Sara as his witness, so he calls his boss at the EPA to send some US Marshalls to take Sara into protective custody. Of course, Jack's boss is on Hanner's payroll too and he sends a couple of phony Marshalls to make the pick-up. Jack takes chase and runs them into a gas station. One of the guys is hurt real bad, but the other takes Sara and leads Jack on a short chase. Taggart sees the assailant duck out a door with Sara and so he shoots through a wall at the moving target and hits him in the head, killing him instantly. Now it's time for Jack to deal with the other guy in the gas-soaked crash scene. He tosses a lit road flare at the guy but he catches it. Then Jack shoots the flare in half so that the lit end is sent flying. Taggart is merciful man though, and so he shoots the lit part of the flare which extinguishes it Not a single spark hits the gas-covered ground beneath the guy.
On the legal side of things, Jack's boss hooks Hanner up with some B.S. pollution charge and even after a guilty plea Hanner only gets fined 25 grand. Taggart wants real justice so he approaches Orin Jr. After karate chopping through an oncoming pool cue and into a bodyguards face he convinces Jr. to testify against his dad. Taggart goes to Orin Sr.'s casino and deals with Hanner's bodyguards by breaking one guys arm and smashing his face into another guys head. Next Jack kicks another guys leg into the third guys balls. Finally, he meets with Orin Sr. and tells him not to worry because he has "a dear friend named Tyrone who's promised me when you hit prison he'll take you under his wing and teach you the most intimate social graces of prison..."

This was a pretty sick movie. It is probably Seagal's most ridiculous character ever and there's a ton of over-the-top action. The movie had 3 broken noses and 2 broken arms. I felt that if there were another 10 minutes of the film captain planet probably would have made a cameo, but there was no such luck. Just Seagal's covert abilities to blend in to this small Appalachian town earn this movie a good rating. Definitely a 5 ponytail flick.

Fire Down Below: 5 Ponytails