So, when you think of good-guy-turned-bad (read killer) because the baddies harmed his family, the first name that comes to mind is Liam Neeson. This is the man who gets his revenge and when it comes to the movie Cold Pursuit well, revenge really is a dish best served cold. Or snowy. And gory. With the help of a snow-equipped vehicle, that is.
If you haven’t watched the movie, please do, because it's typical Liam Neeson angst. The family gets ripped apart after a tragedy, brought on by the baddies, of course. So does he spend his time drinking shots at bars? Sure, but only to get to the bad guys.
And the problem is, the bad guys never learn to leave Niam Leeson and his kids alone. So for this flick, Neeson takes the help of an unlikely hero – a snowplow. Why? Cause he is a snowplow driver, and what better than to put his steed to good and loyal use than to chew and spit up the villains into bloody mulch? And, a snowplow can take on snow like an ultimate winter off-roader.
And yes, as long as it's Neeson and he comes out the winner, we will watch it. But we digress because here’s where the snowplow from Liam Neeson’s Cold Pursuit is today.
The Killer Snowplow
So, for many moviegoers, watching Cold Pursuit was like watching Taken, with a snowplow. The premise is similar, Liam Neeson’s character loses his kid and the rest of the movie is a violent showdown between him and the baddies. Only this time, along with his fists, the snowplow comes in handy. In the movie, Neeson’s character Nels Coxsman is a snowplow driver, whose son is killed via a forced heroin overdose. His wife leaves him and he is about to commit suicide himself when he learns that his son’s death came via the cartel.
And that’s it, from then on, he’s a man with a mission. And he’s armed and dangerous. The plot then turns into a series of violent escapades and fights, the last of which ends in the snowplow turning the last of the baddies into a red spray.
The movie is shown to be set in Colorado but as the news reports say, it's yet another movie set in Colorado, that is not shot in Colorado. It has been shot in Canada, near Banff, and the snowplow is also from Winnipeg, Manitoba – and the owners became minor celebrities because of the connection.
The Winnepeg Snowplow
The snowplow used in the movie was actually used by the Winnipeg airport to clear the snow before being sold and was bought by Riley Gorman and his dad, who run Gorman Restorations. Huge, and very yellow, it was used by the Gormans' to clear the snow off wherever needed but they too were on the lookout to sell it and buy something smaller because handling a machine this size was cumbersome, to say the least.
So one night, when the phone rang at the Gorman residence, and the caller said that they wanted to rent the snowplow from the Gormans to use it for the movie, initially, Riley thought it was a prank. But when the calls kept coming, it became obvious that the producers really wanted that snowplow because it fits perfectly in the plot. According to Gorman, the producers like this particular snowplow because of the way it moved the snow, making for a visual treat.
The deal was struck, to lend the snowplow, the amount remaining undisclosed. Riley Gorman even got to be at the set of the movie in Calgary, and then up to an abandoned ski slope near Banff, where he taught Liam Neeson as well as the stunt double to operate this very large machine, the biggest we have seen.
In an interview with Cinema Blend, Neeson says he was happy with the use of the snowplow and that the movie posters do not manage to convey the actual size of the beast. Said Neeson, “It’s like a monster. And the controls are delicate – you need a feather touch to operate that thing. One could have gone overboard with this type of machine. But we wanted to savor it, just for a certain period of the movie, not overdo it.”
So What Happened To The Snowplow From Cold Pursuit?
The movie did not do very well, because in an interview Neeson made some comments that were taken as racist, even though he later tried to clarify his PoV. The red carpet premieres were canceled and there was no snowplow promotion, so to speak.
Since it had been rented from the Gormans, we guess it was returned to them although there has been no confirmation of the same. It's unlikely a machine this size got lost or even damaged, for that matter. Meanwhile, life for the Gormans after the 2019 excitement continues as normal and Winnepeg is hardly a stranger to Hollywood to make a huge hue and cry about a piece of machinery…
So, for the snowplow, the fame has subsided, although the duties may remain the same, if less violent...
Sources: GlobalNews.ca, CinemaBlend