Black Cat Run is a 1998 mystery-thriller made-for-television film starring Patrick Muldoon, Amelia Heinle, and Peter Greene.
In the desert area of the Southwestern USA, Sarah Jane Bromwell (Heinle) is in love with Johnny Del Grissom (Muldoon), a racing enthusiast. Sarah's father, Sheriff Ben Bromwell, doesn't approve of it. A gang of escaped convicts, led by D. J. Wheeler, are stopped for speeding by Ben, who happens to have Sarah with him. After Wheeler kills Ben and kidnaps Sarah, Johnny pursues them. Deputy Norm Babbitt, who is also in love with Sarah, finds Ben's body, and Norm assumes that Johnny is the killer. However, Johnny later convinces Norm otherwise, and enlists Norm's help. But Norm gets killed, leaving Johnny on his own to rescue Sarah from Wheeler.
This film contains examples of:
- Ax-Crazy: Wheeler is a psychopathic gangster who takes sheer delight in killing people and drawing out his victims' deaths.
- Big Bad: D.J. Wheeler.
- Black Dude Dies First: Out of all the henchmen, the wounded African-American one is the first to suffer Wheeler's wrath.
- The Dragon: Subverted. While Wheeler was initially the right-hand to his former boss, after he ratted Wheeler out, Wheeler visited him 3 years later and killed him in revenge.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Hobbs seems shocked when Wheeler starts killing his former boss and several of his friends.
- With Wheeler, it is subverted. While Wheeler stops Hobbs from sexually assaulting Sara, it is only so they don't get slowed down on their escape route to Mexico.
- Faux Affably Evil: While pretending to be a normal civilian on a trip, Wheeler shows himself to be psychopathic when he kills the sheriff and gas station clerk each.
- Human Shield: Wheeler uses Sara as one during the climax.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Wheeler, who has a gun, taunts Johnny when he uses a crowbar against him.
- Quiet Cry for Help: Sara writes a message on the bathroom door, hoping someone will read it and save her from Wheeler.
- The Sociopath: Wheeler. He's utterly without feeling unless he is inflicting suffering on someone and reveling in it and utterly devoid of empathy and basic human morality, and actually enjoyed all the pain and misery he inflicted on others. This spells out he has no heart.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of Wheeler's henchmen, Hobbs, tries to rape Sara.
