Subterfuge (1996 film)

Jonathan Slade, an ex-military man who served in the Marines and champion swimmer, is given a mission to retrieve the black box from the damaged airliner.

[7]: 55:55 Jack Gill, who went on to work with McColm on another low-budget action movie The Protector (1997), served as a second unit director and stunt coordinator.

[9] The original soundtrack was recorded, produced, engineered and mixed by Jim Halfpenny at Tracks Allott Studios,[9] and includes harmonica blues-rock songs.

[9] One of the opening scenes, set in a bar, was arranged in a self-reflexive, metafictional manner: McColm's character turns off television, bored with a genre film, and provides a commentary: "If you've seen one action movie, you've seen 'em all, right?

"[4][12] Cranked on Cinema critic noted that McColm's "juiced-up" physique and Amanda Pays' sexual attractiveness, along with the "large gun", gave the cover an erotic appeal.

[15][16] German television aired the movie under the altered title Into Deep – Jagd in der Tiefe (Hunt in the Depths),[17] although it was released in the country on video, too—as Mission Subterfuge.

[13] In the episode of The Cult of Muscle podcast McColm's central character has been described as a "large, imposing dude"[7]: 58:50  and a "corn-fed, cinderblocking all-American male".

[7]: 1:02:30  Writing for Il Zinefilo, Willy l'Orbo labelled Subterfuge as humorous and fun but also poorly written and full of "goofy" mistakes.

[29][30] It may have inspired two action thriller films with similar plots: 1998's Firestorm,[7]: 59:55  and Into the Blue starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba (2005).

[7]: 56:05  Soon after its premiere, in November 1996, the Los Angeles Times labelled Matt McColm as "Hollywood's next generation action star," following in the footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.