The Specialist is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Luis Llosa and starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger.

In 1984, Captain Ray Quick and Colonel Ned Trent, explosives experts working for the CIA, are on a mission to blow up a car transporting a South American cocaine dealer.

Ray insists they abort the mission, but Ned intends to see it through and allows the explosion to happen, and the child is subsequently killed, along with the dealer.

Ned now works for Joe Leon, Tomas' father and director of their organized crime syndicate.

Once the hits on their lower level men begin, they contact the chief of police to place Ned in their bomb squad.

He arranges a meeting at a seafood restaurant and May uses secret coding to tell him it is a trap before hanging up.

The next morning, May is preparing to leave to kill Joe Leon herself, but Ray tells her to let go of the past.

After hearing the necklace explode and knowing all responsible for her parents' death are dead, Ray asks how May feels, to which she responds, "Better".

Alexandra Seros had written the script back in the 1980s, being inspired by the Specialists series of books by John Cutter, and the films The Conversation and Last Tango in Paris, the script made the rounds until it was optioned and bought by Warner Bros. Around 1991, Mario Van Peebles was attached to direct the film, but he left.

[3] In January 1993, the Los Angeles Times listed The Specialist as the best unproduced thriller script in Hollywood, based on a poll of forty agents, producers and studio executives.

The studio didn't want to pay Seagal that much money, and offered it to Sylvester Stallone instead.

[6] Once the film went into production, numerous changes were made to the screenplay, with Akiva Goldsman reworking the script.

[12] Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four, stating that "The Specialist is one of those films that forces the characters through torturous mazes of dialogue and action, to explain a plot that is so unlikely it's not worth the effort.

You know a movie's in trouble when the people in line at the parking garage afterward are trying to figure out what the heroine's motivations were.

"[13] James Berardinelli rated it one and a half out of four stars, writing "This movie is excruciatingly dumb.