Caufield, Kachowski, Spano, Robitialle (with his son) and The director admits it was his Pat Brisson all “ridiculous” idea to pit Van played Damme against the Penguins’ Penguins players mascot in a fight to the death. in Sudden Death.

JAY CAUFIELD Sudden Death smashed its way into tried to achieve. PENGUINS GOALIE BRAD TOLLIVER: n December 1995, the action flick the better, right? And that’s really what we KAREN ELISE BALDWIN gametheaters. from The a terrorist film starred bomb Jean-Claude threat. WRITER/PENGUINS OWNER: I had just retired from the sport. I got a I Van Damme, who saves a hockey phone call from Nancy, and I initially said that I did not want to do it. I think I just But this wasn’t just any game. This was We had the Penguins, we had access to Civic wanted to stay away from hockey in gener- Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final between Arena, and the buildingDie was Hard unique in that al. My wife wanted me to look into it. Nancy the and Chicago Black- the roof opened up. One day, I said, “What if MOSSERcalled me again, and I said I’d try it. hawks. The producer and writer for the we do something like in a hockey movie were also the owners of the Penguins arena?” I thought that would be a Dielot ofHard fun : I think Jay was really nervous. He during the mid-1990s. Howard Baldwin because the building is so unique and at that was very reluctant. We went through the produced the film, based on Thea story Star written Cham- point in time, there were a lot of - lines a couple of times, and I said, “Jay, you berby his, 2010 wife, and Karen The PresidioElise Baldwin. Peter Hy- PETERtype movies. HYAMS him.are really good. You can do this.” And then ams, whose credits include DIRECTOR/CINEMATOGRAPHER: I put him on tape and of course they loved was brought on HYAMS as directorTimecop and cinematographer. He and Van Damme worked togetherSudden on Death the . 1994 I was not a hockey fan. I started to do re- : Jay was very eager to try and do it sci-fi flick . Neither had any experi- search, and then I started to watch the Pen- well. He’d smile and was missing a couple of ence with hockey before guins play. I began to realize the unbeliev- teeth. He had shoulders the size of Pennsyl- The movie was shot at the old Civic Are- able athleticism involved, and the violence vania. He was a lot of fun to work with, as na, a.k.a. ‘The Igloo.’ Many notable Penguins involved and the speed of that puck. It’s a was Luc. For them, it wasn’t a home game. personalities make appearances, includ- phenomenalEarly in the sport. film, McCord takes his son Ty- For them, it was an away game. They were ing Luc Robitaille, Jay Caufield and Mark ler to the Pittsburgh dressing room, where trying to please and do a good job at some- Kachowski. Up in the broadcast booth are they meet Robitaille. They also have an en- thing that they weren’t familiar with, in play-by-play announcer and counter with the Penguins’ moody goalten- KARENmaking aELISE film. BALDWIN color commentator Paul Steigerwald. Heck, der, Brad Tolliver, who is memorably played even team mascot, ‘Iceburgh,’ is in one of the by ex-Pens tough guy Jay Caufield. For Cau- : When Jay did his film’s most iconic fight scenes. field, now a studio analyst for Penguins’ TV lines, he was so good they added more lines Van Damme – who did not respond to in- broadcasts, this was his first on-screen act- MARKto his part. KACHOWSKI terview requests – plays Darren McCord, a ing work. PENGUINS PLAYER ‘BEAUMONT’: former firefighter who suffered a meltdown and is relegated to the role of a fire inspec- NANCY MOSSER tor. He just so happens to be working at Civ- LOCAL CASTING/EXTRAS CASTING: I remember Van Damme talking to the di- ic Arena during the final and uncovers a ter- bigrector man. about his lines with Jay, and saying, rorist plot involving bombs and hostages. In was to get someone who was missing teeth “He’s so big and intimidating.” Jay is just a typical action hero fashion, he singlehand- The challenge for the role of the goaltender (According to multiple sources, Caufield HOWARDedly takes BALDWIN down the bad guys. was supposed to appear shirtless in the scene, PRODUCER/PENGUINS OWNER: and could play mean. Someone originally so as to appear more intimidating, but Van We wanted to do a movie that had a good suggested (ex-Pittsburgh Steelers lineback- Damme insisted that the ex-NHLer not ap-

er) Jack Lambert, but he really wasn’t in- pear bare-chested.) COURTESY PHOTO OF UNIVERSAL,FOOTAGE: PHIL CAST: SPANO terested. So (hockey consultant) Dee Rizzo story, but if it had hockey in it, then that’s all suggested Jay Caufield. 40 | THE HOCKEY NEWS - JANUARY 25, 2016 THE MAKING OF SUDDEN DEATH: AN ORAL HISTORY

Near the end of the film, Van Damme coldcocks a Hawk before taking down the terrorists.

Meanwhile, the Baldwins had secured JIM “MORT” MCVAY MCVAY permission from the NHL to film the Pen- PENGUINS GOALIE: guins’ home game Oct. 1, 1994, against the : There were about 15 to 20 hockey Blackhawks. The plan was to use footage of players there per night. There was a snack that game’s action, as well as the crowd, in We had call times of 10:00 or 11:00 at night table. We’d come off the ice and we would what assuredly would have been a sellout. and would go until 7:00 or 8:00 in the morn- sit together. If Van Damme came over, his Then came an NHL lockout, which ultimate- ing. We had regular jobs, but it was so much assistant would tell us all to move 10 feet ly cancelled the entire first half of the 1994- fun to stay up all night, drink Coke and cof- KACHOWSKIaway from the table. 95 season. fee, and then go to work. We’d play four or To get some hockey and crowd footage, five hours a night. No one ever gets four : I had the guy with the boom the Penguins played an exhibition game that DEEhours RIZZO on the ice. microphone and tape recorder follow me October against their minor league team, BLACKHAWKS PLAYER: around on the ice one night while every- the Cleveland Lumberjacks, who were out- one else was in the locker room. Stops and fitted in Blackhawks uniforms. The mock starts, shooting pucks against the glass, game between the Penguins and Lumber- I played with Chris Chelios on the Junior shooting pucks against the boards, shoot- jacks wouldn’t pass for the Stanley Cup final, Olympic Team. He took me under his wing. ing pucks against the goalposts. Do it again, perhaps because players on both teams were I always remembered that. So when I was stop, turn, turn, turn. I got a pretty good on good terms with one another, so another brought on for this movie, I wanted to SPANOworkout in. scrimmage was staged in January 1995, us- wear Chelios’ jersey. I should have done my ing two ECHL teams, the Johnstown Chiefs homework and asked to be a Penguin be- : A lot of the hockey action is in the (Pittsburgh) and Wheeling Thunderbirds cause they got all the speaking roles. But it’s background, so you had to maintain the re- (Chicago). PHILall good. SPANO alism of the game without ever taking focus Much of the hockey action seen in PENGUINS PLAYER: MCVAYaway from the action in the foreground. den Death, however, utilized the talents of numerous local players. Most of the close-Sud- : One night, we didn’t do anything up and distance shots, as well as key goals, The stunt guys coached us on how to pro- except play cards. Somebody got into a su- saves and bodychecks were performed by tect ourselves. The first hockey stunt we did per box and figured out that the refrigerator ex-college or ex-pro players, with a few beer was me getting checked face-first into the RIZZOwas still full of beer from the season before. leaguers in the mix. Most were paid $125 glass by Dee. We had a crosshair drawn into a night for upwards of a 12-hour shift and the glass. We were skating fast, but had to : About five or six of us went upstairs were on call over a four-month span. Players find that spot on the glass, and coordinate and got into the boxes in old . We were on the ice or waiting around for hours it so you didn’t get hurt. It took six or seven jimmied the locks on the refrigerator doors. at a time. takes before we got it right. As soon as I was We figured if we weren’t shooting, we’d just BOBdone, BLACK I asked the medic for four Tylenol. get hammered. We went from suite to suite HYAMS BLACKHAWKS GOALIE: and jimmied all of the refrigerator doors BLACKopen and drank all night just to kill time. : There were a number of shots at ice level. We had to figure out ways to get I wore Ed Belfour’s secondary set of equip- : One night, they took a break from the cameras to move quickly. Regular dollies ment. It was exciting to put on his mask. filming, and the director said to me “Listen, wouldn’t work, so we essentially had cam- You could really let your imagination go. We we need to keep the audience entertained. eras on skates that we could pull and move had guys on the ice like Luc Robitaille and Would you mind fighting Iceburgh at cen-

PHOTO COURTESYPHOTO OF UNIVERSAL theyat the were speed in thatthe game. people were skating. I was bestMark thing. Kachowski. It was almost like, if you ter ice?” I agreed. Everyone else was off trying very hard to make people feel like didn’t play pro hockey, this was the next- the ice. I skate by Iceburgh and he pushes me. So I push him back. I drop my catching JANUARY 25, 2016 - THE HOCKEY NEWS | 41 glove, jump on top of him, and pretend to hit him with my blocker. I forgot that I was in a Blackhawks jersey, and so the crowd is booing me. The guy in the costume is yelling at me to let him win. Finally, the crowd was booing so loud I agreed to let him beat me. How often do you get yelled at by a guy in a penguinUp in costume? the broadcast booth are two Pen- guins’ mainstays: Mike Lange, calling the play-by-play, and Paul Steigerwald adding Hyams said he became a color commentary. To get natural-sounding hockey fan after directing Sudden Death. play-by-play, hockey footage was edited to- gether and shown to the duo.

MIKE LANGE PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER:

Van Damme, After calling a game (in early 1995), we had here with Spano, to stay after to film our scenes. We had fun shot all of his goalie scenes doing it. I got a lot of memories, though I while wearing PAULdon’t rememberSTEIGERWALD much of it now. tennis shoes.

COLOR COMMENTATOR: We were calling the game off of a monitor. The game was on film, not on video, and had to be cranked by hand to play. Mike really had to carry the ball, because he’s calling the LANGEgame. I just popped in with a phrase or two.

: It was a challenge, because the play- ers were mainly local people. They had NHL jerseys on, but were completely different than who it would normally be. When you do play-by-play, you learn players’ tenden- cies. It became quite a challenge with all these guys who were playing someone else. But jersey numbers helped the cause for STEIGERWALDdummies like me.

: Mike’s play-by-play was werea really at a important game, that element the game in was that ongoing movie. Important to creating the feeling that you Van Damme plays a fire inspector working at ‘The the arena. Igloo’ when mayhem unfolds. while all this other stuff was taking place at In one memorable scene, McCord gets into a fight to the death with a villainous hench- woman disguised as Iceburgh.

KAREN ELISE BALDWIN

: That was Peter’s idea. I really trusted him, and he pulled it off. It was a crazy idea, but it was one of those crazy ideas where as soon as you saw HYAMSit, you knew it was going to work.

: I thought to do a really violent and

dangerous fight between a guy and some- UNIVERSAL/ERICHYAMS: COURTESY LIEBOWITZ, PHOTO OF UNIVERSAL FOOTAGE: body as ludicrous as a big penguin. I thought it was cinematic and in some respects funny 42 | THE HOCKEY NEWS - JANUARY 25, 2016 THE MAKING OF SUDDEN DEATH: AN ORAL HISTORY

in a very unfunny situation because the the goalie skates off [for some scenes], and I camera was huge. You could feel the wind penguin itself was a very lethal person. And shoesshowed on. him how to shuffle, how to make it from the blades on the ice starting to swirl I just thought the juxtaposition of putting look like he was skating. But he had tennis around the boards. All of a sudden, sections that kind of lethal violence of a man fight- PAT BEGGY of these cardboard people start catapult- ing for his life with somebody dressed as PENGUINS TRAINER: ing hundreds of feet into the air, and then an adorable penguin, who turned out to be they’re spinning down to the ice. My jaw murderous, just seemed to me to be both justSudden dropped. Death was released in theaters KARENcinematic ELISE and funny. BALDWIN I hand-picked Tim Guenther, who played Dec. 22, 1995, back in an era when most mov- college and pro roller hockey, to take that ie theaters were closed on Christmas Eve and : When you look shot. I said, “Listen, when you take that Christmas Day. It made around $20 million at movies in the 1990s, you could get away shot, just make sure you put it IN the glove during its theatrical run in the U.S. and an- with a certain amount of camp, quippy one- of Jean-Claude.”McCord grabs a nearby Blackhawks player other $44 million worldwide, and it became a HYAMSliners, that sort of thing. and punches him, setting off a brawl and get- popular staple for cable TV and in video rent- ting ejected in the process. Later, Robitaille als and sales. : I can’t defend silly ideas that I have scores the game-tying goal for the Penguins except that I think it is an idea that worked. KAREN ELISE BALDWIN I thought it would be funny when the hero punches the face of the mascot, and it has : When you create no effect. After that, I thought to make the PEOPLE STILL something, and then actually see it on the fight as lethal as you can make it, and then big screen, it’s an amazing feeling. People BLACKyou have something that is maybe original. BRING UP watch it and are able to see your ideas ful- SUDDEN DEATH, CAUFIELDfilled. Sudden : We’re walking into the arena one ESPECIALLY IN Death day. I’m half asleep trying to gather my : People still bring up senses, and here comes Iceburgh, walking PITTSBURGH LANGE, especially in Pittsburgh. down the hall, all chewed up. One eye hang- ing down, stuffing’s all falling out, the cos- : I went into a convenience store one tume’s all ripped apart. The first thing out in the closing seconds of the third period, day, and a gentleman behind the counter of myAfter mouth disarming was “Bad some day bombs today?” and fight- sending the game to (wait for it) sudden who I hadn’t met before recognized me. He ing more bad guys, McCord ducks into the death overtime. didn’t speak any English, and he starts mov- Penguins’ dressing room, trying to avoid McCord then brawls with a thug on Civic ing his handsSudden like an Deathold-time movie projec- capture. There he finds Tolliver, who had left Arena’s domed roof, which is partially re- tor, and saying, “John Wayne, John Wayne.” the game due to illness. McCord suits up in tracted, with the players and fans oblivious to HYAMSHe had seen in Pakistan. Tolliver’s gear, steps onto the ice, and skates the violence taking place above as overtime to the Penguins bench. The coach, oblivious is going on. : I really learned to appreciate the that it is actually the arena’s fire inspector sport. To this day, I am a Pittsburgh Pen- behind the mask, orders him into the net. BEGGY guins fan. Although I am from New York, so I The Blackhawks get a breakaway, and Mc- CAUFIELDwill still root for the Rangers. Cord – in a near-panic – makes a glove save : One camera angle that really stuck with his eyes closed. out in my mind was one that starts at ice lev- : One thing I remember is when el and goes up in the air, then slowly turns we were filming a scene where my charac- KAREN ELISE BALDWIN: The origin of that to the roof where there is a fight. They had ter was sick and I had to throw up. I did it, a camera guy on a little stool with a rope at- then I kind of giggled, and then everyone in Red Line tached to it. And the rope went up to a pul- the room giggled. Peter walked up to me, idea was from a story my husband and I ley attached to the ceiling of Civic Arena, and I don’t know verbatim, but said if you’re developed called , about a Soviet then down to the bumper of a pickup truck going to do it, do it the best you can; don’t do goaltender who is able to defect because in the parking lot. When they called “Ac- thingit halfway. over theI appreciated years. that. It made sense he’s wearing his mask. That project never tion!” the truck would drive across the lot to me. That stuck with me more than any- happened, but I took that element and used toand witness. pull the camera man up. I thought it was RIZZO it here. It’s far-fetched, but you know, at this really clever, and risky, but it was pretty cool point the whole thing is a little far-fetched, HYAMS : After the movie was done, we kept BLACKso you either go with it or you don’t (laughs). the hockey group together. We’d get togeth- : One big challenge was, we didn’t er once every week or so and play pickup : Peter asked me to help dress Jean- always have 10,000 extras. We wanted it to hockey together. We did it regularly until Claude in goalie equipment. He’s not very feel like a full stadium. So we had a couple about five years ago. We only did it once tall, and the Penguins’ goalie pads were thousand people that would move for each last year. It’s harder now that we’re all older, big, but that’s what they had to work with. shot, and 10,000 cutouts of people. I would with families. Goalie skates aren’t very comfortable if you sprinkle real people within the cutouts so To read an expanded version, aren’t used to them. Van Damme steps off BLACKthat there would be movement. go to thn.com/suddendeath. the trainer’s table, walks maybe 15 feet to- wards the ice, turns around and says “Get : They were filming the fight scene this stuff off of me!” So, we had him take on the rooftop. The helicopter with the JANUARY 25, 2016 - THE HOCKEY NEWS | 43