IMDb RATING
7.0/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
After being kidnapped for ransom by four criminals, a schoolteacher and her students flee into a cave and build fortifications in anticipation of a decisive battle with their captors.After being kidnapped for ransom by four criminals, a schoolteacher and her students flee into a cave and build fortifications in anticipation of a decisive battle with their captors.After being kidnapped for ransom by four criminals, a schoolteacher and her students flee into a cave and build fortifications in anticipation of a decisive battle with their captors.
- Awards
- 1 win
Marc Aden Gray
- Tommy
- (as Marc Gray)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film is loosely based on the 1972 Faraday School kidnapping of a teacher and her class by Edwin John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland. Eastwood later escaped from prison and repeated the crime with another teacher and his class in 1977. The Faraday kidnapping was in turn a real-life copycat crime based on a scene in the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry (1971) where the Scorpio Killer holds a bus driver and several schoolchildren hostage.
- GoofsAfter Sally emerges from the water while she's exploring, for an instant her hair seems swept back and pressed down, clearly drenched. During the next shot, which is a close-up, her hair looks as if it had been hastily dried with a towel, even though we never even see her touch her hair.
- Quotes
Father Christmas: Get in the Van!
- Alternate versionsThe ending of the Hungarian VHS release of the film differs from all other versions. An alternate take of the policemen's questioning of Sally is used in the children threaten them with spears, which contrasts with other versions, which uses a take in which they are unarmed. During this sequence, a unique flashback also plays, in which Sally and the children are shown butchering "Father Christmas" to death, the action of which was cut away from in other versions.
- ConnectionsReferenced in A Bicentenary with Bite: Revisiting 'Dark Age' (2017)
Featured review
Another movie from my childhood that has stayed with me...
I had the same experience other members had with this film. I saw it on HBO when I was eight and it's since become part of me. Like them, I Googled, queried, etc. Unfortunately, my memory failed on the major points and I came up empty-handed. Finally, another member of IMDb came through. Anyway, this film is a lost jewel. It scared the hell out of me as a kid and I hope to see it again if I can find a used copy of the VHS somewhere. The premise is pretty simple. A group of Aussie thugs take a young teacher and her charges hostage, their escape and subsequent fight for survival turns bloody at the end. I still recall holding my breath during the underwater cave scene and never quite being able to hold it long enough. If you get a chance to watch this flick do so. Its ultra-rare and unforgettable.
helpful•424
- slouchingpoet
- Oct 12, 2004
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- På liv och död
- Filming locations
- Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia(environs)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 28 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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