Hostage for a Day
1994 film by John Candy
Hostage for a Day is a 1994 Canadian television comedy film directed by John Candy, in his only directorial effort. Though the film is also billed as "starring" Candy, he in fact plays only a minor role, as a Russian hostage taker. Produced with a mostly Canadian cast, the film was released one month after Candy's death.
Plot
Forty one year old copy shop worker Warren Kooey begins having a mid-life crisis. His plans are to take a trip to the state of Alaska, but his plans are derailed after his wife drains his entire bank account (approximately $40,000) to pay for a remodelling job by famous home builder and blond, long haired Italian heartthrob "Hondo."
In order to recuperate his money Kooey decides to pose as being held hostage by an imaginary Russian terrorist, and calls the SWAT Team on himself in an effort to extort $50,000 (to Kooey's disappointment, the incompetent SWAT team has suffered major budget cuts). Things take a turn for the worse, when Russian terrorist Yuri Petrovich takes Kooey hostage.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4185470. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hostage for a Day” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.