FAQ

At one point in the movie, Kimble is shown making fake ID's to gain admission to Cook County Hospital. Earlier he finds the wallet of the hospital patient in the pocket of his stolen pants, so he likely used that ID with a forged photograph.

On July 9, 1960, a boating accident on the Niagara River caused 9 year old Roger Woodward and his older sister to be thrown into the water a short distance from the brink of the falls on the Canadian side. The young man's sister was swept toward the river bank and was pulled from the river by two men just before she would have gone over the edge. Roger was swept over the brink and fell 162 feet into the rapids below the falls where he was picked up, uninjured, by the "Maid of the Mist" tour boat. Thus it is possible, though not highly likely, that one could survive a fall like that taken by Richard Kimble.

Monika Chabrowski played his Mother, the Polish Landlady.

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Noted Chicago surgeon Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), wrongly convicted of brutally murdering his wife Helen (Sela Ward), escapes during transport and attempts to elude U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) while trying to prove his innocence and find the one-armed man who really killed his wife.

The Fugitive (1963) was a TV series that ran from 1963-1967. It was created by American writer Roy Huggins (1914-2002). It was rumored that Huggins based the show on the real-life story of Sam Sheppard, a doctor who was accused of murdering his wife and spent 10 years in the Ohio Penitentiary before his conviction was overturned, but Huggins has denied basing his series on Sheppard's case. Huggins has also said the series was loosely inspired by Les Miserables, with Kimble as the Jean Valjean character and Gerard as the Javert character. In fact, the name "Gerard" was chosen to be phonetically similar to Javert. The TV series was adapted for this movie by American screenwriters David Twohy and Jeb Stuart.

(1) The only fingerprints found belonged to Kimble. (2) Kimble's skin was found under Helen's fingernails. It was left there when she scratched him while he was trying to move her, presumably to put her in a better position to administer CPR. (3) There was no forced entry into the house like a burglar or murderer would have done to get inside. (4) Kimble himself is the sole beneficiary of Helen's life insurance policy. The police mention this fact to him during the questioning, but it isn't mentioned in the brief court scene. (5) The 9-1-1 call Helen made, which was recorded by the emergency service and was also recorded by the killer on the phone that Helen used to make the call. The prosecution is able to convince the jury that when Helen says, "There's someone in my house . . . Richard . . . he's trying to kill me," that she was talking about (not to) her husband.

As Kimble steps out of the line and starts walking away from the parade, you can see that the man walking next to him is carrying the coat in his left hand.

Joel (Joel Robinson)'s actual problem is never explained in the movie. The best guess, made by some viewers with medical training, is that he had a tear in his aorta. A tear like this would cause blood to spill into the chest cavity, causing severe breathing difficulties. Joel also had a large bruise on his chest, perhaps from some impact, that could have caused the internal injury. The diagnosis of an aortic tear is further supported on the sheet where Kimble changes Joel's diagnosis. It appears to say "Depress Chest w/Poss FX" (fracture), and the diagram on the same sheet appears to say "Chest Trauma Poss Fx Sternum." When Kimble changes the order, he begins with the letters "AO" which are the first two letters of "aorta." An aortic tear requires immediate surgery. With all the havoc going on in the emergency room at the time, Kimble was probably afraid that no one would diagnose the problem correctly and get Joel into the OR in time to save him. While he watches the doctor examining Joel, Kimble mutters "Check the film...". He saw that the doc wasn't looking closely enough at the x-ray and misdiagnosed the boy. This diagnosis of a tear in the aorta is supported in the novelization.

Kimble walks into the conference room where Nichols is speaking about the virtues of Provasic. Kimble confronts Nichols with the fact that he changed the liver samples after Lentz died (he was the only one with access). As Nichols leaves the room, Kimble says to the crowd, "He falsified his research so that RDU-90 could be approved and Devlin MacGregor could give you Provasic." Kimble pursues Nichols onto the roof. A fight ensues, and they both end up falling through a skylight and landing on an elevator, which starts to descend. Nichols comes to consciousness before Kimble and stops the elevator on the laundry floor. Just as the elevator door is closing, Kimble shoves his hand through, opens it, and follows. Gerard and Deputy Cosmo (Joe Pantoliano) follow the elevator to the laundry room, looking for Kimble. Nichols hits Cosmo with a swinging girder, Cosmo goes down on the floor, and Nichols takes his gun. Now it's just Kimble, Gerard, and Nichols. Gerard calls out to Kimble that he knows Kimble is innocent and that it was Sykes who killed his wife. When Nichols steps out from cover and aims the gun at Gerard, Kimble hits Nichols with a pipe, and he's out for the count. Gerard puts down his gun, and he and Kimble look at each other. "They killed my wife," Kimble says, and Gerard replies, "I know it, Richard. I know it...but it's over now. Whew! You know, I'm glad. I need the rest." In the next scene, Cosmo is being wheeled out on a gurney, talking about taking a holiday. Gerard leads Kimble, who is handcuffed, to a squad car while the reporters fire off questions. When they're in the car, Gerard takes the handcuffs off Kimble and hands him an icepack. Kimble says, "I thought you didn't care." Gerard laughs, and says, "I don't. Don't tell anybody, ok?" The car drives off. The end.

Those who have seen both the movie and the TV series say that the movie's plot—Dr Richard Kimble is convicted of murdering his wife Helen (who was really killed by a one-armed man); Kimble escapes from custody and goes searching for him, all the while pursued by Lieutenant Gerard—is consistent with the TV series. The main difference is that the TV series took four years to resolve the situation, whereas the movie took 130 minutes. During those four years, Kimble ran all over the country helping people, searching for the One-Armed Man, and trying to stay one step ahead of Inspector Gerard, who himself searched for and questioned approximately 80 one-armed men, with no success in finding the killer. Another notable difference is that the One-Armed Man in the TV show had no connection to Kimble, didn't kill his wife to frame him, and there was no Provasic or RDU-90 involved. Also, the murder went down differently in the TV series. Richard and Helen had argued over adoption (in stark contrast to the film, where they were clearly depicted as a loving, happy couple), and Richard had left the house. When he came back, he nearly ran over the One-Armed Man in front of his house, unlike in the movie where he enters and struggles with him. A few minor differences include the fact that Gerard's first name in the TV series was Philip (not Samuel), and he was a Lt. Detective (not a U.S. Marshal). In the TV series, the One-Armed Man's name was not Sykes, he was just a drifter, and he had no prosthetic. Also in the series, Richard was actually on the train being taken to prison to die in the electric chair when it derailed.

Kimble is no killer, so the gun isn't any use to him. Having it on him could also lead to further charges if he was apprehended. So he wanted to get rid of it. But if he just threw it on the ground or dumped it in a trash can it could be found by someone else and used for a crime. By dumping it in the mailbox, Kimble made sure that it wouldn't be found by anyone other than the postal worker who came to collect the mail.