The Fugitiveis a 1993 American thriller film based on the television series of the same name . The film was directed by Andrew Davis and stars Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones .

The story opens as Richard Kimble (Ford) is wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife. Soon after, Kimble escapes from custody and sets out to prove his innocence and bring those who were responsible to justice whilst being pursued relentlessly by a team of US Marshals , led by Deputy Samuel Gerard (Jones).

The movie garnered critical and commercial success, with worldwide box office takings of $368,875,760 from a $44 million budget. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture , a rarity for a movie associated with a television series, and Jones won for Best Supporting Actor . It presently holds a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a rating of "universal acclaim" from Metacritic.It was followed by a sequel,US Marshals, in which Jones reprised his role as Gerard.

Dr. Richard Kimble (Ford), a respected vascular surgeon in Chicago , comes home one night to find his wife, Helen (Sela Ward), fatally wounded by an intruder, a one-armed man. Kimble fights with the killer, but the man escapes. All the circumstantial evidence suggests Kimble is guilty of the crime: there is no evidence of a break in, his fingerprints are on the gun, he is the beneficiary of Helen's lucrative life insurance and her misunderstood 9-1-1 call appears to name him as her killer. Kimble is convicted of first-degree murder , for which he is sentenced to death. On his way to death row , several prisoners attempt an escape. In the struggle which follows, their bus crashes off the road and into the path of an oncoming train. Kimble barely escapes the bus's destruction and flees into the night.

A group of US Marshals arrive, led by Deputy Samuel Gerard (Jones), to take charge of the hunt for the fugitives while the injured are taken to a nearby hospital. Kimble sneaks into the same hospital to treat his wounds and change his appearance. While leaving the hospital, he is recognized by the injured guard, but escapes in an ambulance. Gerard and his team blockade a tunnel through a nearby dam to stop Kimble's escape, but Kimble abandons the vehicle and climbs into the storm water system. Kimble is eventually cornered by Gerard above the outlet of the dam spillway. Kimble dives over the edge and swims downstream. Most of the search parties give up Kimble for dead, but Gerard persists and is proven correct when a tapped phone call to his lawyer puts him back on Kimble's trail.

Kimble returns to Chicago to find the murderer and receives some money from his friend, a fellow physician named Dr. Charles Nichols. Posing as a janitor, Kimble enters Cook County Hospital 's prosthetic department to obtain a list of people who had their prosthetic arm repaired shortly after his wife's murder. Gerard realizes that Kimble must be looking for the one-armed man and begins a similar search to anticipate Kimble's next move. While at the hospital, Kimble notices a critically ill boy who is being misdiagnosed by the junior doctors in the emergency room, and sends him into emergency surgery, which saves his life. When later confronted about it by a doctor ( Julianne Moore ), he flees as she calls security.

Kimble goes to the Cook County Jail to meet a one-armed man accused of armed robbery, but sees he is not the murderer. Gerard and his team also go to the jail with the same suspicion, and Gerard spots Kimble as he is leaving. A chase ensues, in which Gerard fires several shots at Kimble which are stopped by bulletproof glass. Gerard chases Kimble into Chicago's St. Patrick's Day parade where Kimble barely escapes. He then visits the home of the next person on the list, a former police officer named Frederick Sykes. Kimble confirms the man is the murderer and finds he is employed by a pharmaceutical company that is working on a new drug called Provasic. Kimble had investigated the drug and discovered that it caused liver damage , which would have prevented it from being approved by the FDA . He also finds that Nichols, who is leading the drug's development, arranged a cover-up, and ordered Sykes to kill Kimble (his wife's death was incidental). Gerard follows Kimble to Sykes's home and draws the same conclusion.

As Kimble takes an L train to confront Nichols, Sykes attacks him, and in the ensuing struggle, Sykes shoots a transit cop before being subdued and handcuffed to a wall by Kimble. Moments later, Kimble interrupts Nichols's speech, accusing him of falsifying his data. They begin to fight while being chased by Gerard and hostile Chicago police , who believe Kimble murdered the transit cop aboard the train, and are instructed to shoot him on sight. When Kimble, Nichols, and Gerard are all in the hotel's laundry room, Gerard calls out that he knows about the conspiracy organized by Nichols. Hearing this, Nichols turns to shoot Gerard but at the last moment Kimble hits him from behind, saving Gerard's life. Kimble is taken into custody, since he was still technically a fugitive, despite his innocence. Once inside the car Gerard unlocks his handcuffs as they are driven away.