On Deadly Ground / YMMV

Anti-Climax Boss:
- Jennings. Even though he's the film's big bad, he's smart enough to know he's no challenge to Taft at all and attempts to merely insult him and walk away. Taft still executes him.
- Also, MacGruder who attempts to flee in a helicopter and gets stopped by Taft. He pulls a gun and is quickly disarmed, blubbers for his life, and when Taft makes it clear he's going to kill him, he attempts literally one punch on Taft before getting a face full of the helicopter's rear rotor.
- Finally, Stone. He lives long enough to gloat over catching Taft off guard whilst holding him at gunpoint with a shotgun, then of course during his gloating monologue he gets close enough for Taft to spin the shotgun in his hands and blow him away.
Anvilicious: The movie's environmental message. The oil tycoon villain is so mean that he can't even stand the smell of caribou to film one commercial.
Audience-Alienating Premise: One of the many reasons why the film was verbally eviscerated by both critics and audiences alike stems from it being a hybrid of action mixed in with an extremely Anvilicious Green Aesop. Action fans (and really, most audiences in general) are likely to be turned off by how heavy-handed the environmentalist message is, and environmentalists themselves will most likely be put off by the gratuitous violence and the Broken Aesop, such as the destruction of the oil rig that would end up causing more harm.
Awesome Music: If there's one thing Steven Seagal did right during production, it was hiring Basil Poledouris to score the movie (and the Seagal/Nasso Productions logo at the end). Here's a suite.
Broken Aesop: The film is supposed to have a Green Aesop, yet Fridge Logic says that destroying an oil rig would cause far more environmental damage than simply letting it run. Also, it portrays the oil company as exploiting the natives. But it also says they have a contract... generally, those contracts include paying out dividends to the original owners of the mineral rights.
Designated Hero: Forrest Taft, so very much. All throughout the film, he comes off as a complete psychopath. What Jennings is trying to do is wrong, but Forrest commits eco-terrorism on a grand scale, murdering several people in the facility, including people who are unarmed and unable to defend themselves. When told they have enough evidence to go to the police and stop the oil rig from beginning operation legally, Forrest blows off this option and simply blows the rig up. Which, when you think about it, would also have some pretty devastating effects on the environment Forrest was sworn to protect.
Don't Shoot the Message: The film's environmental message and criticism of the damage done by major companies and how they undermine any efforts to make cleaner energy a reasonable alternative is not a bad one. It just suffers due to Forrest's actions being totally over the top and the film coming across as a monument to Seagal's ego.
Draco in Leather Pants: While Liles probably deserves some sympathy for her Rasputinian Death, regardless of exactly how involved she is in Jennings's criminal activities, she's still an objectively unpleasant person, something her actress even admits. She has lines of dialogue like "It seems to me like the long-term benefits for the surviving spouses were unnecessarily generous" (referring to the widows of firefighters who died saving one of Jennings's oil rigs) and "Alaska is a Third World country. It's just one we happen to own." Despite this, some fans talk about her as if she's a blameless Punch-Clock Villain, which may have something to do with her being played by former Playboy model Shari Shattuck.
Funny Moments: At the end, Taft and Masu head home after defeating Jennings as the rig starts to blow up.... only for an explosion to happen the way they're going and go the other way.
Harsher in Hindsight: This film's main theme about oil-well disasters caused by using faulty blowout-preventers turned out to be an ominous foreshadowing of the infamous real-life "Deepwater Horizon" oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, where a non-operative preventer caused that horrific accident, as well.
He's Just Hiding: While Liles is seen stuck in a wrecked car and failing to open a blocked door before it explodes, it is possible to wonder if she might have had time to escape out the door on the other side.
Inferred Holocaust: Forrest blowing up an oil rig should undoubtedly cause more environmental damage than just letting it run normally.
Karmic Overkill: Liles. At worst, she (1) works as the Big Bad's secretary and (2) has a bit of an ego. Yet the movie's logic = her deserving probably the most Cruel and Unusual Death here. To be fair, she is possibly involved in her boss's actions (she's the one who tells him that the EPA has been receiving tips about him), but her final fate can still feel too extreme and excessive to some viewers.
Moral Event Horizon:
- Macgruder after Hugh's torture, and more so after the Inuit village raid.
- Forrest himself when killing many Punch Clock Villains (e.g., Liles) who just happen to work for Jennings' company.
Narm:
- Forrest's dramatic introduction which perfectly highlights how much the project was a testament to Seagal's bloated ego: from the slow pan up while he steps off his helicopter, complete with cheesy music swelling in the background, to the offscreen voice triumphantly proclaiming: "Forrest is here! That fire is as good as gone!"
- Joan Chen dramatically telling The Dragon, "I will watch you die" in the most emotionless voice imaginable.
- The scene where Forrest schools a bigoted bar patron. After beating the bigot to the point of bleeding, Forrest somehow makes the man realize the error of his ways in a drawn-out attempt at drama while cheesy music swells in the background.
Nightmare Fuel: Hugh's torture scene stands out for being disturbingly graphic in a movie that is mostly impossible to take seriously. The poor guy is bound to a chair and has his fingers broken with a whalebone, then later has a pipe cutter used on him. Part of this scene is cut from the UK release.
Protection from Editors: Probably because, for all intents and purposes, Seagal is the editor for this movie. He was the director and one of the producers.
Questionable Casting:
- Aside from a Knighted British legend, they got R. Lee Ermey in this film. R. Lee Ermey! Ermey's death in this film involves him basically walking up behind Seagal's character and allowing Seagal to get within arms reach of his shotgun... Yeah, they must have paid him a lot to put up with that. Worse, they reportedly didn't let him ad-lib, which is why several of his lines sound completely nonsensical, to the point of self-parody.
- Many viewers were incredulous that Steven Seagal would even presume he could direct Michael Caine. As if that isn't enough, reportedly Alan Rickman and Anthony Hopkins were both sought for the role, and Jeremy Irons was actually cast in the role before Caine replaced him. It's just as hard to imagine Seagal directing any of them.
- Meanwhile, they brought in John C. McGinley pre-Scrubs to play... a psychotic torture expert? Although this last one is probably the most YMMV of the whole lot; to some, he's the best thing in this movie, and genuinely creepy. It's not the first time before and after that series that he's played a convincing villain. This time, of course, one ends up wishing the rest of the movie deserved him.
Retroactive Recognition:
- John C. McGinley is a torture expert. He's a far cry from Dr. Perry Cox in this.
- A pre-stardom Billy Bob Thornton is one of the mercenaries.
So Bad, It's Good: This movie is ripe with moments of Steven Seagal making a total fool out of himself and other actors saying ridiculous dialogue, not to mention how blatant the Green Aesop is and how carelessly the movie handles it.
Take That, Scrappy!:
- For viewers who resent Forrest due to his dickish Designated Hero tendencies, the wonderful sight of him being viciously mauled by a pack of sled dogs (one of whom actually appears to bite him in the nuts) is very, very cathartic to say the least.
- Although it was likely unintentional, hearing Hugh call Forrest a "whore" is very amusing.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- R. Lee Ermey plays a tough mercenary leader that could've provided a formidable challenge to Taft but is easily taken out due to his Bond Villain Stupidity. Furthermore, his lines sound nonsensical due to the fact that Seagal refused to allow Ermey to improvise his own lines, something that even the famously controlling Stanley Kubrick allowed and made Full Metal Jacket better for it.
- The same could also be said of Billy Bob Thornton as a colorful Mook Lieutenant who is abruptly blown up.

YMMV / On Deadly Ground

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