Some action movies arrive with a parade. Firestorm showed up in January of 1998 for a quick two-week theatrical run then quietly landed on the video-store shelf, and waited for somebody to rent it. And in this video I’m going to tell you why somebody, should be you.
Admittedly Firestorm is not a lost masterpiece, and it’s definitely not interested in passing an acting exam. What it is, though, is a lean, sweaty, 89-minute action movie with a terrific villain, real stunt-movie energy, and no desire to waste your evening. So grab the tape, ignore the critical smoke damage, and let’s talk about why Firestorm quietly kicks ass.
Now the setup to Firestorm is pure video-store magic. Howie Long plays Jesse Graves, which is honestly sort of a weak action hero name. But he makes up for it by being a badass smokejumper who parachutes into wildfires and apparently has no setting between “calm professional” and “launching axes at bad guys.”
After a quick opening rescue establishes Jesse as the kind of hero who runs toward explosions, the movie introduces its real hook. A group of prisoners is brought out to help fight a forest fire. The blaze has been deliberately set as part of an escape plan, allowing criminal mastermind Randall Shaye to break free, recover thirty-seven million dollars hidden in the wilderness, and eliminate anybody standing between him and the cash.
Naturally, another fire is already moving through the forest. So the movie becomes a chase picture where the walls are made of flame. Jesse has to rescue bird researcher Jennifer, stop Shaye, deal with his armed crew of junior villains, and avoid being barbecued by the entire state of Wyoming.
It’s a wonderfully efficient premise. The heroes cannot wait for help, the villains cannot stay in one place, and every path through the woods is slowly disappearing. Firestorm takes the old “crooks hunting buried money” plot and drops it into an environment that wants everyone dead equally. The (mostly digital) fire has no favorites, everything is fuel and it’s ready to work.
Now, let’s address the six-foot-five elephant in the burning forest: Howie Long. Firestorm was built as a starring vehicle for him, and no, he is not giving us Shakespeare among the pine trees.
But I do think he has exactly what this movie needs. He looks believable carrying equipment, throwing criminals around, riding through fire, and taking enough punishment to make an insurance company quietly leave the theater. Long plays Jesse as straightforward and capable. There is no tortured antihero routine or complicated mythology. He’s just a decent guy who knows the woods and has work to do. And in a movie this stripped down, that simplicity becomes part of the charm.
Also, the fire in this movie may consume half the forest, but it cannot move his hair. Showing some structures are simply built beyond modern engineering because the man has a beautiful head of moss from start to finish.
All that aside, the real reason Firestorm works is William Forsythe. Forsythe plays Shaye with the exact amount of greasy menace this movie requires. He is smart, cruel, selfish, and increasingly irritated that his perfect escape keeps being interrupted by Howie Long appearing through the smoke. Forsythe gives Shaye personality and enough theatrical nastiness to keep every confrontation lively. And his energy is what drives this movie.
He gets the movie’s best villain behavior: lying to everyone, turning on his own crew, and slowly revealing that the money matters more than survival. Shaye is the kind of bad guy who could be standing in front of an approaching wall of fire and still ask whether anybody found the cash. In this persona in the hands of Forsythe is action movie gold.
Scott Glenn also adds instant credibility as Jesse’s veteran mentor, Wynt, while Suzy Amis gives Jennifer enough resourcefulness to become more than standard lady hostage cargo. Neither character is deeply written, but both add just enough weight around the central Long-versus-Forsythe showdown to leave a nice imprint.
Now at 89 minutes, Firestorm moves. It gets through the opening rescue, prison escape, hostage situation, hidden-money chase, betrayals, motorcycle stunt, bus rescue, the gut punch mentor reveal, and a flaming final showdown without feeling overloaded. And it just has the compact rhythm of an epic Friday-night rental discovered after every bigger title was gone.
The action is tactile and direct. People run, climb, crash, shoot, swing axes, and scramble through burning locations. The fire isn’t just background decoration. It changes the geography of each scene and keeps forcing the characters into worse decisions to keep the intrigue dialed up.
All of which leads to a finale that understands the assignment. We get betrayal, an axe, a boat, a wall of flame, underwater survival, and a villain who requires several separate deaths before accepting that the movie is over. Is it ridiculous? Absolutely. Does it deliver on a title like Firestorm? Also absolutely.
The movie has flaws. The dialogue can be blunt, some supporting convicts are little more than future firewood, and Howie Long’s dramatic range mostly sits between “concerned” and “more concerned.” But none of that sinks the film because Firestorm knows what shelf it belongs on.
This is a sturdy B-action thriller wearing a studio release jacket. It has a clean concept, a memorable heavy, convincing danger, and a hero you can root for without needing a flowchart. Plus the gratuitous kill to close the show is the perfect cherry on the gimmick pie.
Firestorm bombed in theaters, but the video store was always a better home for it. This is exactly the kind of movie that benefited from a strong box, a familiar face, and one simple promise: Howie Long fights criminals while everything burns. And for 89 minutes, it keeps that promise.
So, does Firestorm quietly kick ass? Yeah.
Maybe not elegantly, and certainly not with perfect dialogue, but with an axe in one hand, a motorcycle nearby, and William Forsythe chewing through the scenery before the scenery catches fire it’s a fun ride.
Let me know in the comments: is Firestorm an overlooked action gem, or should this tape have stayed on the bottom shelf? This has been Sunset Video: Quick Picks. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time for a video store quick pick.
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2026 SilverScreen Analysis & Sunset Video Rentals
