It’s a hat on a hat for the one-time acting teacher who famously challenged aspirants to never blink<\/a> – Michael Caine\u2019s eyes are always half-drawn. His lower lids shape a dam of intention; until floodwaters breach, whatever\u2019s behind them is his to know and yours to find out. It could be as benevolent as fatherly patience, simple as caddish seduction, dangerous as wounded pride, or, as in the poster, serrated as murderous intent. But that\u2019s selling the actual film short because he forcibly retires yuppies with all of the above behind his charming defenses at one point or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first introduction, middle-aged lieutenant of industry Graham Marshall hides disdain and only just. His once-upon-a-time trophy wife spends more of his money on her Stairmaster than he does on the mortgage. Her mother won\u2019t leave them alone. His twin dogs are closer genetic cousins to hedges than wolves. Every morning on his way to catch a New York City commuter train, he wonders the same thing: \u201cIf a sorcerer\u2019s house isn\u2019t his castle, what is it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s a telling choice; in this realm of non-plastic masters of the universe, Graham doesn\u2019t consider himself a conqueror at all. Even from childhood, his father taught him prosperity was next to godliness: \u201cSon, there is no heaven; this is as close as you\u2019ll get.\u201d To Caine\u2019s generation, that meant a steady climb to an assured height, not by brute force, but accrued wisdom. His imminent promotion is such a given that yuppie coworkers kiss his magic ring in advance, with Peter Riegert\u2019s Bob Benham even throwing some tongue in there: \u201cWe are the young, the proud. We shouldn\u2019t be ashamed of success. We should say, \u2018Yes, I have a boat. Yes, I have a country home. I have a girlfriend named Tara.\u2019\u201d Graham humbly admits he has none of those things and the younger men pretend that\u2019s all they really<\/em> want anyway. But within the hour, he doesn\u2019t even have the promotion, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The titular shock in Shock to the System<\/em>, a badly wired bulb that sends Graham hurtling across his basement, is just an excuse. The real shock comes after Bob takes his job and whatever\u2019s left of his future. Waiting on the first of two subway platforms between him and home, the disgraced executive shoves away a homeless beggar, accidentally knocking him into the path of an arriving train. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As originally scripted, Graham and Graham alone would get a good look at the sloppy-joed remains on the other side. But a lucky scouting trip with the right transit cop gave Egleson a rewrite and epiphany. \u201c\u2019When a guy gets hit by a train, y\u2019know, there\u2019s nothing left down there,\u2019\u201d he told the director, \u201cI mean he\u2019s 300 feet down the track.\u2019\u201d And so Graham sees nothing, confirming with some disbelief what he\u2019s always joked about \u2013 at last, the sorcerer has found his magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Shock to the System<\/em> opened a year before Bret Easton Ellis published American Psycho<\/em> and its source novel beat his entire writing career back in 1984. The similarities are obvious \u2013 including a beloved character actor providing the seven-point thorn in our killer\u2019s side, here represented by Will Patton doing his best Columbo \u2013 but the difference is in the spirit of its murders and executions. The closest associate of Patrick Bateman\u2019s Reaganomic zombie is Riegert\u2019s blas\u00e9 death mask, career-best defense from a hall-of-famer in nonchalance, and instead of gasping at the depths of his inhuman depravity, we simply cheer at Michael Caine blowing his new boss to smithereens and eulogizing him with a \u201cBibbidi-Bob<\/em>-bidi-Boo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deck may be stacked in Graham\u2019s favor for the rest of his body count \u2013 his wife responds to the lost promotion by first admitting it meant more to her than he does, then tending to the wound with \u201cI forgive you for failing\u201d \u2013 but the pleasure is all Caine\u2019s. He wages entire wars in the ritualistic lighting of cigars, measuring each as another yard won or the next count for the firing squad. Every Cockney-raw shout achieves subliminal quotability; you can already hear him yelling, \u201cI\u2019ve never understood why you need a stair machine <\/em>when we have stairs<\/em>!\u201d Michael Caine had such a ball, in fact, that he spoiled two endings, what was originally written as his death and eventually shot as his arrest. Test audiences hated seeing him face justice, so Egleson cobbled together a new conclusion from existing scenes, stock footage of a Cessna, and a bow tied personally by the star: \u201cI think the audience is so with me there that if you just get a little close-up of me, just maybe a little grin at the end there, you\u2019ll really sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was right, but the audiences did not show up to buy. \u201cIt was the sort of film, were it made today, that would be great as a film for HBO,\u201d Caine correctly lamented to Venice Magazine in 2002<\/a>. For Egleson, already a celebrated fixture of Boston independent cinema<\/a>, it would be his first and last studio experience. A Shock to the System<\/em> deserved better, but it committed the one Wall Street sin worse than murder, as demonstrated by the only scene where men in suits can\u2019t make eye contact: \u201cDid somebody die or lose money or something?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A Shock to the System” is streaming on Peacock<\/a>, Kanopy,<\/a> and several ad-based services<\/a>. It’s also available on Blu-ray from Shout Selects<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/shock2-1024x517.jpg\")
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