Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire

Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire is a 2005 American television action film directed by Aaron Norris and based on the popular 1993–2001 television series Walker, Texas Ranger starring Chuck Norris, Sheree J. Wilson, Judson Mills, Andre Kristoff, Janine Turner and Steven Williams. The film premiered on October 16, 2005 on CBS.

Plot
Texas Ranger Captain Cordell Walker, along with Rangers Francis Gage and Rhett Harper are involved in a shoot out at a bank, where a group of robbers take the tellers hostage. Ranger Harper kills two of the robbers while the leader is able to escape. A guided missile system accidentally ends up in the hands of thirteen-year-old Jeremy Hopkins, who does not know that three North Koreans, who are very skilled in combat, are looking for it. The criminals go to Jeremy's house, where they murder his father Adam, who had helped develop the system. Jeremy manages to escape, but the criminals continue to hunt him down. Walker's partner, Jimmy Trivette, has to leave for a family vacation, while Gage follows Jeremy's case, helped by new Ranger Kay Austin. As if that were not enough, a girl who left a bar with Ranger Harper is murdered and all evidence leads to him as the killer.

Alex follows the case of the murdered girl and gets support from her fellow ADA Garrett Evans, while Gage and Kay Austin follow Jeremy's case. Jeremy takes refuge at the home of his friend Josh Withley, but the criminals find him and try to take back the system. Eventually, Jeremy realizes that the criminals want the missile guidance system and contacts the head of his father's company for help. Meanwhile, a man whom Ranger Harper had arrested years earlier for child rape but got off on a technicality is found dead, and the evidence leads back to him once again. This forces the D.A.'s office to press murder charges against him for both murder cases and have him remanded without bail, but just when Ranger Austin can prove his innocence after going to the second crime scene, a man attacks her and steals her forensics kit with the evidence.

Meanwhile, Walker kills one of the Korean criminals in a confrontation, and Gage and Austin find a man who days earlier had attacked Harper with a punch, and take Harper's blood sample. While the taken sample matches the blood found at the second murder scene, the latter is discovered to contain strong traces of an antibiotic that was given to Harper on the same day as the attack, meaning the blood was planted. They confront the man who attacked Harper, but he refuses to talk, and they trick him into leading him to the man who attacked Austin and stole the exonerating evidence, and arrest them both. The remaining Korean criminals finally catch up to Jeremy after he is lured to them by his father's corrupt boss, who is allied with them. The criminals betray and murder the boss but just before they can kill Jeremy, the arriving Walker, Gage and Austin fight and kill the criminals. Jeremy then says his goodbyes to Josh, before being sent to live with an aunt in California.

At the trial against Ranger Harper, Walker reveals the testimony from the men they arrested has revealed that the real culprit is ADA Garrett Evans. Exposed, Garrett snatches a bailiff's gun, takes the defense attorney hostage, and then angrily tries to shoot Harper, but Walker manages to disarm him by shooting the gun out his hand, and Harper knocks him down with a punch. As he is arrested, Garrett's motives for framing Harper are revealed: his sister Charlene, whom Harper went to college with, developed an obsessive crush on him, but he didn't reciprocate her advances. She resorted to stalking him, but he continued to turn her down up until she eventually committed suicide. Garrett blamed Harper for his sister's death and decided to get revenge; he hired the first man and the woman to get Harper's forensics, killing the latter in the process, then murdered the child rapist (whose case he had also lost), and hired the second man to steal the exonerating evidence, all to destroy Harper's life and send him to prison. With the truth out, Harper is exonerated and everyone leaves to speak to the press. Walker leaves to return home, but the leader of the bank robbers returns, firing a gun, and Harper, Gage, and Austin shoot him dead. Alex looks down to see a single bullet wound in her left breast and falls to the ground. The camera "takes off" upward, showing a "bird's eye view" of Alex's unconscious body lying on the floor of the courthouse. The film ends, providing no confirmation of what happens to Alex.

Production
The U.S. channel CBS in 2005 decided to produce a TV movie based on the popular TV series starring Chuck Norris which aired October 16, 2005. Chuck Norris, Sheree J. Wilson and Judson Mills reprise their television roles. Clarence Gilyard makes a cameo appearance; however, he's not credited in the titles because of his inability to participate in the main filming due to a family vacation. Judson Mills (who was not originally planned in the script) was invited to reprise his role of Francis Gage. Nia Peeples, who played Sydney Cooke, was excluded from the screenplay. This was the last film appearance for Clarence Gilyard after his retirement in 2002 following Left Behind II: Tribulation Force.

The film is independent of the events of the show. Set four years after the last television episode, the story is completely new to try to give the film a fresh tone.

On October 17, 2005 the film was awarded Best Film of the Week on Saturday night. Chuck Norris stated that more Walker, Texas Ranger television films were expected. Trial by Fire was to be the first in a series of television films dedicated to the character of Walker, intended for broadcast on Saturday night. Based on the low ratings, however, CBS decided to shelve the idea, while leaving open the possibility of future direct DVD releases.