Peter Horton Movies

Based on Jon Krakhauer's harrowing account of folly and tragedy on the slopes of the world's highest mountain, this made-for-TV movie re-enacts that fateful excursion. Christopher McDonald and Peter Horton star. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In the middle of a live talk-show telecast hosted by the supremely arrogant Pia Postman (Marg Helgenberger), audience member Frank McGrath (David Morse) suddenly pulls out a gun and seizes control of the studio. Slapping a piece of tape over Pia's mouth (a moment that is invariably applauded by viewers surfeited with "confrontational" TV talkfests!), Frank threatens to kill her on the air, holding her responsible for the suicide of his daughter -- and just in case the police think of storming the broadcast, Frank has strapped a bomb to himself and will blow up everyone in the studio, including himself, if anyone tries to stop him. Ultimately, Pia is allowed to speak in her own defense before her execution is carried out, and what follows is a grotesque parody of the Jenny Jones-Jerry Springer school of in-your-face tabloid television, with both Pia and Frank trading verbal barbs with the terrified audience and crew members, not to mention the viewers calling in. Meanwhile, SWAT leader Clay Maloney (Peter Horton, who also co-wrote the film) races against time to defuse the situation before blood can be shed in living color in front of an audience of millions. Filmed in "real time" (just as if it were really a talk-show broadcast), Murder Live! borders on the ridiculous on occasion, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining. The made-for-TV meller first aired over NBC on March 9, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As a once-famous fashion designer prepares to make her big comeback, a mysterious killer begins stalking the beautiful models who gather for the gala celebration in his made-for-television thriller starring Eleanor Parker, Clive Revill, and Jessica Walter. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Set amidst the burgeoning Seattle alternative music scene of the early '90s, Singles follows a group of twentysomethings as they try to find love and try to come to terms with their passage into adulthood. Arranged as an episodic comedy, the film follows a group of friends who live in the same apartment building and hang out at the same coffee shop. The central couple is Steve Dunne (Campbell Scott) and Linda Powell (Kyra Sedgwick), a pair who meet at an Alice In Chains concert and eventually fall in love. Singles follows the tumultuous relationship between Steve and Linda and their friendship with Janet Livermore (Bridget Fonda), who is trying to win the affection of grunge-rocker Cliff Poncier (Matt Dillon). The film also has a number of cameos, including actors Eric Stoltz, Tom Skerritt, Peter Horton, director Tim Burton and the film's author/director, Cameron Crowe. From the musical side of the fence, Singles features appearances by Sub Pop executive Bruce Pavitt, musicians Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Pat DiNizio (Smithereens), Tad (Tad), and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, and Stone Gossard, who play Dillon's backing band, Citizen Dick. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Brett Leonard directed this 3-D Imax short feature (running 45 minutes) about a famous paleontologist's teen daughter, who's able to enter into the world of the dinosaurs. In Alberta, Canada, Dr. Donald Hayden (Peter Horton) and his assistant Elizabeth (Kari Coleman) find a Tyrannosaurus egg. Donald's daughter Ally (Liz Stauber) hopes the egg will prove her theory that dinosaurs were ancestors of present-day birds. Back at their museum, Ally knocks the egg on the floor, loosening some strange dust. At night, a T-rex skeleton springs to life, and Ally discovers she can use museum exhibits as a springboard for time travel, encountering famed dinosaur illustrator Charles Knight (Tuck Milligan) and paleontologist Barnum Brown (Laurie Murdoch). She also sees a flying Pteranodon, an Ornithomimus and other creatures -- which all become extinct in the meteoric conclusion. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Erik (Brad Renfro) is a 13-year-old boy whose single mother, Gail (Diana Scarwid), has just moved to a new home in Minnesota. Erik feels like a fish out of water with his Southern accent, and he has trouble making friends until he meets Dexter (Joseph Mazzello), a kid a year or two younger who lives next door. Erik and Dexter get along fine, but Gail tells Erik not to go near Dexter when she learns that he contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion a few years ago. Erik ignores his mother's instructions and stands up for the frail Dexter at school, while Dexter's mom Linda (Annabella Sciorra) gives Erik the warmth, affection, and home cooking that Gail is too busy to provide. However, both boys are painfully aware of Dexter's illness, and when one of them spots a headline in a supermarket tabloid that a doctor in New Orleans has discovered a cure for AIDS, they run away together, determined to find the doctor and bring Dexter back as good as new. The Cure was the theatrical feature debut for actor-turned-director Peter Horton, who cut his directorial teeth on the TV series The Wonder Years and thirtysomething. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Wim Wenders directed this allegorical drama about the emotional impact of violence in our culture, set against the backdrop of California's entertainment business. Mike Max (Bill Pullman) is a Hollywood producer who has earned a great deal of money and power in the film industry through his success with a series of brutally violent action pictures. While Max can juggle any number of tasks while working, he can't find time for his wife Paige (Andie MacDowell), and when she announces that she's divorcing him, he admits to himself (but not to her) that he deliberately put her through emotional trauma; Paige leaves to do volunteer work in the Third World, hoping to bring new meaning to her life. Very little reaches Max on an emotional level until Cat (Traci Lind), a stunt performer, is seriously injured on the set of Max's latest project. Not long after, Max is first car-jacked, then kidnapped by a pair of desperate thugs. He escapes and is given shelter by a group of Mexican-American gardeners. Wanting to retreat from the physical and spiritual violence that has become a key part of his life, Max opts to work with the gardening crew and stay away from his old life, remaining "missing" in the eyes of the world as he searches for a new life. Meanwhile, Max and his secretary Claire (Rosiland Chao) become aware of a secret plan that Ray Bering (Gabriel Byrne) has prepared for the city of Los Angeles, which will essentially put the entire town under constant surveillance, with the goal of ending violent crime once and for all. Frederic Forrest, Udo Kier, and legendary director Samuel Fuller also star; Ry Cooder composed the film's striking original score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

There are no cliff-hanging moments in Serial, but there's plenty of laughs in this trenchant comedy comment on 1970s lifestyles. Martin Mull plays the father of a Marin County family that succumbs to every silly fad coming down the pike. Mull tries to distance himself from his family's idiocies, but it's always the man who pays the piper. The film, based on a collection of newspaper essays by Cyra McFadden, is neatly tied up with a Capraesque ending allowing Mull to finally prevail. Some of the best moments involves Mull's tiltings with his trend-happy neighbor Bill Macy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aceveda (Benito Martinez) gives Mackey (Michael Chiklis) a medal after the Fleetwood Walker bust. It turns out it was Lanie's (Lucinda Jenney) idea. The cops at "The Barn" also add a new twist to their annual "Toys for Guns" drive -- a raffle, which also gets them the address of everyone who turns in a gun, so they can trace back the guns that have been used to commit crimes. One is linked to an old unsolved murder case of Claudette's (CCH Pounder), and the trail eventually leads to Manny Sandoval (Jonathan Neil Schneider), a lowlife loan shark Claudette's been after for years. But Dutch (Jay Karnes) is having doubts about his own investigative instincts. Someone steals a bunch of diamonds using Shane's (Walton Goggins) badge, which was stolen in Tijuana. Mackey finds out they belonged to the Armenian mob, and convinces Aceveda to let him and Shane "pretend" to be corrupt cops and run a sting operation. But Aceveda wants Shane transferred off the Strike Team to make room for a minority applicant, in order to help the team's public image. Mackey and Shane find out that the "money train" of urban legend, through which the Armenian mob launders all the money they make in the western United States, actually exists, and Mackey decides to start planning the Strike Team's robbery. The Arab woman, Yahssira Al-Thani (Veena Bidasha), whose husband Danny (Catherine Dent) shot, claims that she has another witness to Danny's alleged racial insensitivity, but Aceveda continues to support Danny. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

On the night of her prom in 1994, teenager Freya McAllister (Navi Rawat) suddenly begins hearing strange voices. As a result, Freya is diagnosed as schizophrenic and squirreled away in a mental hospital, where she remains for the next eight years. Along comes psychologist Michal Welles (Peter Horton), who while treating Freya calmly informs her that she is not insane, but instead telepathic: the voices she'd heard were the thoughts of the people around her. What Dr. Welles doesn't tell Freya--at least not at first--is that he is in the employ of the National Security Agency, which hopes to use Freya's special talents to hunt down potential terrorists! Something of a cerebral La Femme Nikita, Thoughtcrimes may have been intended as the pilot for a television series, but was released on home video before making its USA network TV bow on October 15, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A suspense novel by Sue Miller was the source for the made-for-TV While I Was Gone, which made its CBS network debut on October 10, 2004. Boston veterinarian Jo Beckett (Kirstie Alley) feels trapped in her marriage to kindly but unexciting minister Daniel Beckett (Bill Smitrovich). Then, one day, a dog that may have to be put down is brought into Jo's office. The dog's owner turns out to be her old college friend Eli Mayhew (Peter Horton), with whom Jo shared a hippie pad along with several other shaggy students back in the 1960s. As she waxes nostalgic over her carefree youth, Jo considers leaving staid Daniel for footloose Eli, and goes so far as to set up a clandestine meeting with him. But Jo's dream romance turns into a nightmare with the revelation of a horrible secret from her past -- and the fulfillment of a strange "out-of-body" premonition which Jo had experienced in the opening scenes of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide