"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" Grave Danger: Volume 1 (2005)

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Writers:

Anthony E. Zuiker (creator)
Quentin Tarantino (story)

TV Series:

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000)

Original Air Date:

19 May 2005 (Season 5, Episode 24)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

The CSI Nick Stokes is kidnapped while investigating a crime scene and buried alive in a glass casket by his kidnapper...

Plot Keywords:

Million Dollars | Buried Alive | Dynamite Explosion | Coin | Explosive

Cast

William Petersen	...	Gil Grissom
Marg Helgenberger	...	Catherine Willows
Gary Dourdan	...	Warrick Brown
George Eads	...	Nick Stokes
Jorja Fox	...	Sara Sidle
Eric Szmanda	...	Greg Sanders
Robert David Hall	...	Dr. Al Robbins
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Captain Jim Brass
Scott Wilson	...	Sam Braun
Tony Curtis	...	Tony
Frank Gorshin	...	Frank
Andrew Prine	...	Rodger Stokes
John Saxon	...	Walter Gordon
Lois Chiles	...	Jillian Stokes
Michael Bacall	...	Delivery Man

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Company:

CBS Paramount Network Television

Trivia:

When Grissom goes to meet with the kidnapper and the kidnapper inquires as to how the money has been booby-trapped, Grissom says "Normally you'd be 100% right, but this time you're 100% wrong." This is taken from another of Tarantino's movies, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), when the Bride is explaining her run-in at the hotel after she found out she was pregnant.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The ants that are attacking Nick Stokes are identified as fire ants. In one clip, these ants bite Nick and a CSI style close up follows venom from one ant's bite into Nick's heart. Fire ants actually release their venom through a sting from the abdomen; their bite is only to get a grip.

Quotes:

[Nick turns the tape recorder on]
Walter Gordon: [taunting] Hi, CSI guy. You're wondering why you're here? Because you followed the evidence. Because that's what CSIs do. So, breathe quick, breathe slow. Put your gun in your mouth and pull the trigger. Any way you like, you're gonna die here.

Movie Connections:

References Cabin Fever (2002)

Soundtrack:

Outside Chance

(*best episodes ever*)

I don't know why I first developed an intense love of CSI Las Vegas, given that so many of the episodes follow the same basic format, but this is the first time that that format has been completely thrown away and the show went in a completely different direction. We can thank Quentin Tarantino, of course, for that change, since he was given the opportunity to write and direct these two episodes in his own way.

It's interesting to consider that he made these shows a year after making Kill Bill, in which Uma Thurman's character is also buried alive. Nick Stokes' kidnapping and live burial is not necessarily an homage to Kill Bill, but it seems that Tarantino has noticed the effectiveness of a live burial, particularly one in which the person is unconscious when buried and then wakes up underground. Can you imagine? I was particularly affected by these two episodes, because being buried alive is one of my own worst fears, along with drowning, spiders, and Global Thermonuclear War (an intense fear that I developed in 1983 after watching an early Matthew Broderick movie).

I had hoped that Tarantino might take it upon himself to write and direct more for the show, but as of now that has yet to happen, and it looks like it's not going to. Other than these two episodes, all of the rest of the series looks surprisingly homogenized...

Note: my summary is in all lower case letters and parentheses because in my first attempt to post this comment, I had it all in capital letters to emphasize how impressive these two CSI episodes are, but then when I tried to post it, the IMDb told me DO NOT SHOUT in my summary. So it's a whisper. Happy now?