Everyone has their favorite movie that serves as alternative Christmas movie fare Die hard (1988) and Lethal weapon (1987) is usually at the top of the list – at least if all you want at Christmas is buddy-cop banter, car chases, gunfights and glorious explosions. (Massive unnecessary property damage is a given.) I love myself a little Lethal weapon but it's high time to give some holiday love to another great action movie set during the Christmas season: The long kiss goodnight (1996), starring Geena Davis as an amnesiac school teacher who turns out to have been a government assassin in her past life.
(Spoilers below for this nearly 30-year-old film.)
Davis was married to director Renny Harlin at the time and had suffered a disastrous performance due to their previous collaboration. Murderous island (1995), which remains one of the biggest box office bombs of all time. (It's a pretty bad movie, indeed.) But Shane Black's smart, clever script is for it The long kiss goodnight seemed like the perfect next project for them; it was promising enough that New Line Cinema bought it for what was then a record $4 million.
Davis plays Samantha Caine, a small-town teacher in Honesdale, PA, who has had no memory since washing up on a beach with a head wound eight years earlier. She has since given birth to a daughter, Caitlin (Yvonne Zima) and moved in with a kind-hearted fellow teacher named Hal (Tom Amandes). She has hired several private investigators to uncover her true identity, but only the cheapskate Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson) is still on the case. Then Mitch's assistant, Trin (Meloina Kanakaredes), finally finds some useful information – just in time, as Sam is attacked at home by a criminal named One-Eyed Jack (Joseph McKenna), who has escaped from prison to get revenge. Recognizing Sam during her performance as Mrs. Claus in the town's annual Christmas parade.
