FAQ

He felt like drinking tea.

Sure did. DeNiro was known to smoke in his personal life in the mid to late 80s and early 90s

A "midnight run" is originally a slang term for a quick, late-night shopping trip to the corner store for beer, cigarettes or snacks. In bounty hunter slang, a midnight run is an easy job. The phrase has been used from time to time on the TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter (2003). In the movie, bond agent Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) promises Walsh (Robert De Niro) that his assignment will be an easy job, ie a "midnight run". In addition, to fulfill the contract, the fugitive has to be brought in by Friday midnight, lending further meaning to the movie title.

At the start of the movie, when Jack Walsh brings Monroe Bouchet (John Toles-Bey) to the police station to be booked, a policeman says to Jack, "Hey Jack, the Soda machine's been out for a week and a half." As a bounty hunter in the movie, Walsh appears to be just getting by at doing this, so most likely he has a few side gigs. One of them fixing/maintaining vending machines. The view that the police there didnt have respect for Walsh is not accurate as Walsh has a good conversation with them during the booking. So when the guy says the soda machine is down, hes just letting Walsh know, and to fix it. Walsh gives the smirk, most likely, as if saying "Yeah Ill get to it...." Plus, scripts can be found online for this movie, and in original drafts there are other references to Jacks side jobs.

It is most likely a nickname which originated in his real name—Jonathan Mardukas. His surname is pronounced Mar-Duke-Is, with the stress naturally falling on the second syllable (Duke), hence the nickname of the Duke.

Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) finds Mardukas (Charles Grodin) relatively easily by checking his police booking slip, and finding the number Mardukas called immediately after he was arrested. Jack then has his police contact find out where the house is to which the number belongs. Jack then taps the phone line in the house and calls the house pretending to be an FBI agent looking into the Mardukas case. This prompts the woman who lives in the house to immediately call Mardukas himself. However, because Jack has tapped the line, he is then able to discover exactly where Mardukas is staying. As such, Jack is able to find Mardukas easily, in contrast to the FBI and the mob, both of whom are unaware of what city Mardukas is even in. Obviously, in reality, this is preposterous, the FBI would easily have been able to do what Jack did, and the Mob, one would imagine, would have their own contacts with access to police files. However, in the context of the film, the incident is simply a way of presenting Jack as resourceful and determined, whilst the FBI and the mob are shown to be quite inept, always a few steps behind Jack.

Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) is able to cancel Jack's (Robert De Niro) credit card simply by calling the credit card company, giving his name and card number, and saying he has lost his card. In 1988, there were few checks in place to stop such things. Credit card issuers were interested in stopping unauthorized use of cards, not unauthorized cancellations. The question of how could Marvin have known Jack's credit card number in the first place is left open, but some hints are given. Marvin is shown several times during the movie as being thoroughly unscrupulous, it is probable that Marvin simply got Jack's card number at some stage in the past and kept it for just such an incident as is seen in the film.

Because, as Mardukas says, it's not a bribe, it's a gift; Jack has already let Mardukas go before Mardukas gives him the money, so taking the money from Mardukas does not violate Jack's moral code in any way.

The R1 US DVD, released by Universal Home Entertainment in 2003, contains the following special features:

An untitled 7-minute behind-the-scenes featurette made in 1988, featuring interviews with Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Dennis Farina, Richard Foronjy, Robert Miranda, Martin Brest and George Gallo.

Original Theatrical Trailer

The R2 UK DVD, released by Universal Home Entertainment (UK) in 2003 has the trailer, but loses the featurette.

Yes, it is. The Region B locked UK edition, released in 2015, contains the following special features:

• "We Got the Duke" - an interview with Charles Grodin

• "Moscone Bail Bonds" - an interview with Joe Pantoliano

• "Hey Marvin!" - an interview with John Ashton

• "Midnight Writer" - an interview with screenwriter George Gallo

• "I'm Mosely!" - an interview with Yaphet Kotto

• The original 7-minute "making of" featurette

• The Region A locked US edition, released by Shout! Factory in 2016, contains all the special features from the UK edition, plus

• A new 2K resolution scan of the original film elements

• "Being Jack Walsh" - an interview with Robert De Niro