Broken Arrow (1996 film)
Encyclopedia
Broken Arrow is a 1996 American action film
directed by John Woo
, written by Graham Yost
, and starring John Travolta
and Christian Slater
. The original music score was composed by Hans Zimmer
, and features guitarist Duane Eddy
. It deals with the theft of an American nuclear weapon.
The film received mixed reviews. It grossed $150,270,147 worldwide.
) and Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater
) are pilots in the United States Air Force
. After a boxing match between the two, the pilots are assigned to a top secret exercise on a B-3 Stealth Bomber (a fictional advanced version of the actual B-2 Spirit
stealth bomber) with two B-83
nuclear weapons on board. Deakins and Hale take off from Whiteman Air Force Base
in the bomber carrying the two live nuclear weapon
s on an evening exercise over Utah
.
After successfully evading Air Force radar
during the exercise, Deakins begins a friendly conversation to distract and shoot Hale. A struggle ensues, ending when Deakins ejects Hale. He then drops the bombs from the plane. When the air force base regains radar contact with the aircraft, Deakins reports that "Hale's lost it. I'm punching out" and ejects, leaving the plane to crash on the mountainside over the Utah canyons.
A Special Forces team is sent to recover the warheads. They do not find the warheads in the remains of the plane and report a "Broken Arrow", a situation where nuclear weapons are missing. The team later locates the warheads in a canyon, but are killed while recovering them by mercenaries including Kelly (Howie Long
), a mole in the recovery team. Deakins arrives moments later and plots his next move with Pritchett (Bob Gunton
), the operation's financier.
Meanwhile, Hale survives the ejection and is found by Park Ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis
) whom, after a brief stand-off, is convinced to help him track down Deakins and foil his plot. After recovering the weapons from a hijacked Humvee and escaping to a nearby copper mine, Hale attempts to disable them using a safety feature which would render them unusable by intentionally entering the arming code incorrectly. Deakins, however, had anticipated this scenario, and Hale inadvertently arms the warhead.
Finding himself unable to disarm the warhead, Hale decides to place it and the unarmed weapon deep in the abandoned mine to prevent them from being used elsewhere. Deakins arrives and secures the unarmed warhead, leaving Hale and Terry to die in the upcoming explosion. Deakins is chased by a helicopter as the mercenaries proceed with their mission to blackmail the government with the threat of detonating the warhead in a civilian area. Pritchett berates him for allowing the helicopter to give chase and Deakins, fed up with his complaining, kills Pritchett by crushing his throat with a flashlight. Hale and Terry escape the mine via an underground river just before the bomb detonates. The bomb's EMP
disables and subsequently destroys the NEST Team
sent in to recover the warheads. Terry and Hale track Deakins to a motorboat to be used for transporting the remaining warhead. While trying to steal the boat, Terry is forced to hide onboard while Deakins moves the warhead. Hale is rescued by military forces.
Hale deduces that Deakins intends to move the warhead onboard a train and sets off in a helicopter to find the train and hunt down the remaining mercenaries. Aboard the train, Hale finds Terry, whom Deakins has tried, but failed, to threaten into arming the weapon. A gunfight ensues in which the helicopter is destroyed and most of Deakins' mercenaries are killed. With his own helicopter sabotaged by Hale and his plan falling apart, Deakins decides to detonate the nuke early. Kelly, realizing they'll have no chance to get away in time, holds Deakins at gunpoint and demands he disarm the weapon. Hale leaps into the boxcar and kicks Kelly off the train as it passes over a viaduct
. Deakins, still in possession of a device that can either disarm or detonate the bomb instantly, forces Hale to drop his gun and challenges him to a hand-to-hand fight. Hale uses his greater speed to match Deakins' strength, and leaps out of the train with the weapon's remote control and disarms it. As he does so, a detached train car slams into the boxcar from behind. Due to the impact from the collision, the disarmed warhead flies into Deakins and the entire train derails in a fireball, incinerating Deakins.
Hale survives and finds a 20-dollar bill fluttering on a twig in the debris; the same 20-dollar bill he had stolen from Deakins earlier. He then finds Terry and they formally introduce themselves to each other amidst the wreckage.
70,770,147 and an international gross of $
79,500,000, for a total worldwide gross of $
150,270,147.
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 28 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
, 57% of critics gave Broken Arrow a positive review (16 "Fresh"; 12 "Rotten"), with an average
rating of 5.9/10. Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 61, based on 21 reviews.
During his review of the film on Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, Gene Siskel
changed his vote for the first and only time, giving the film a "thumbs down" after hearing Ebert
's criticisms.
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
directed by John Woo
John Woo
John Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong-based film director and producer. Recognized for his stylised films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion, Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard...
, written by Graham Yost
Graham Yost
Graham John Yost is a Canadian film and television screenwriter. His most famous works are the hit 1994 film Speed, Broken Arrow, and Hard Rain....
, and starring John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
and Christian Slater
Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
. The original music score was composed by Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
, and features guitarist Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
. It deals with the theft of an American nuclear weapon.
The film received mixed reviews. It grossed $150,270,147 worldwide.
Plot
Major Vic "Deak" Deakins (John TravoltaJohn Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
) and Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater
Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
) are pilots in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
. After a boxing match between the two, the pilots are assigned to a top secret exercise on a B-3 Stealth Bomber (a fictional advanced version of the actual B-2 Spirit
B-2 Spirit
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is an American heavy bomber with low observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses and deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber has a crew of two and can drop up to eighty -class JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen ...
stealth bomber) with two B-83
B83 nuclear bomb
The B83 nuclear weapon is a variable yield gravity bomb developed by the United States in the late 1970s, entering service in 1983. With a maximum yield of 1.2 megatons, it is currently the most powerful atomic weapon in the US arsenal...
nuclear weapons on board. Deakins and Hale take off from Whiteman Air Force Base
Whiteman Air Force Base
Whiteman Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately south of Knob Noster, Missouri; east-southeast of Kansas City, Missouri....
in the bomber carrying the two live nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s on an evening exercise over Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
After successfully evading Air Force radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
during the exercise, Deakins begins a friendly conversation to distract and shoot Hale. A struggle ensues, ending when Deakins ejects Hale. He then drops the bombs from the plane. When the air force base regains radar contact with the aircraft, Deakins reports that "Hale's lost it. I'm punching out" and ejects, leaving the plane to crash on the mountainside over the Utah canyons.
A Special Forces team is sent to recover the warheads. They do not find the warheads in the remains of the plane and report a "Broken Arrow", a situation where nuclear weapons are missing. The team later locates the warheads in a canyon, but are killed while recovering them by mercenaries including Kelly (Howie Long
Howie Long
Howard "Howie" Matthew Moses Long is an American former National Football League defensive end and actor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000...
), a mole in the recovery team. Deakins arrives moments later and plots his next move with Pritchett (Bob Gunton
Bob Gunton
Robert Patrick "Bob" Gunton, Jr. is an American actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters, with his best known roles as Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison film The Shawshank Redemption, Chief George Earle in 1993's Demolition Man, and President Juan Peron in the original...
), the operation's financier.
Meanwhile, Hale survives the ejection and is found by Park Ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis
Samantha Mathis
Samantha Mathis is an American actress. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in Pump Up the Volume , opposite Christian Slater...
) whom, after a brief stand-off, is convinced to help him track down Deakins and foil his plot. After recovering the weapons from a hijacked Humvee and escaping to a nearby copper mine, Hale attempts to disable them using a safety feature which would render them unusable by intentionally entering the arming code incorrectly. Deakins, however, had anticipated this scenario, and Hale inadvertently arms the warhead.
Finding himself unable to disarm the warhead, Hale decides to place it and the unarmed weapon deep in the abandoned mine to prevent them from being used elsewhere. Deakins arrives and secures the unarmed warhead, leaving Hale and Terry to die in the upcoming explosion. Deakins is chased by a helicopter as the mercenaries proceed with their mission to blackmail the government with the threat of detonating the warhead in a civilian area. Pritchett berates him for allowing the helicopter to give chase and Deakins, fed up with his complaining, kills Pritchett by crushing his throat with a flashlight. Hale and Terry escape the mine via an underground river just before the bomb detonates. The bomb's EMP
Electromagnetic pulse
An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field...
disables and subsequently destroys the NEST Team
Nuclear Emergency Support Team
The Nuclear Emergency Support Team is a team of scientists, technicians, and engineers operating under the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration...
sent in to recover the warheads. Terry and Hale track Deakins to a motorboat to be used for transporting the remaining warhead. While trying to steal the boat, Terry is forced to hide onboard while Deakins moves the warhead. Hale is rescued by military forces.
Hale deduces that Deakins intends to move the warhead onboard a train and sets off in a helicopter to find the train and hunt down the remaining mercenaries. Aboard the train, Hale finds Terry, whom Deakins has tried, but failed, to threaten into arming the weapon. A gunfight ensues in which the helicopter is destroyed and most of Deakins' mercenaries are killed. With his own helicopter sabotaged by Hale and his plan falling apart, Deakins decides to detonate the nuke early. Kelly, realizing they'll have no chance to get away in time, holds Deakins at gunpoint and demands he disarm the weapon. Hale leaps into the boxcar and kicks Kelly off the train as it passes over a viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
. Deakins, still in possession of a device that can either disarm or detonate the bomb instantly, forces Hale to drop his gun and challenges him to a hand-to-hand fight. Hale uses his greater speed to match Deakins' strength, and leaps out of the train with the weapon's remote control and disarms it. As he does so, a detached train car slams into the boxcar from behind. Due to the impact from the collision, the disarmed warhead flies into Deakins and the entire train derails in a fireball, incinerating Deakins.
Hale survives and finds a 20-dollar bill fluttering on a twig in the debris; the same 20-dollar bill he had stolen from Deakins earlier. He then finds Terry and they formally introduce themselves to each other amidst the wreckage.
Cast
- John TravoltaJohn TravoltaJohn Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
as USAF Major Vic "Deak" Deakins - Christian SlaterChristian SlaterChristian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
as USAF Captain Riley Hale - Samantha MathisSamantha MathisSamantha Mathis is an American actress. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in Pump Up the Volume , opposite Christian Slater...
as Park Ranger Terry Carmichael - Delroy LindoDelroy LindoDelroy George Lindo is an English actor and theatre director. Lindo has been nominated for the Tony and Screen Actors Guild awards and has won a Satellite Award...
as USAF Colonel Max Wilkins - Bob GuntonBob GuntonRobert Patrick "Bob" Gunton, Jr. is an American actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters, with his best known roles as Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison film The Shawshank Redemption, Chief George Earle in 1993's Demolition Man, and President Juan Peron in the original...
as Pritchett - Frank WhaleyFrank WhaleyFrank Joseph Whaley is an American film and television actor known for his roles in independent films.-Personal life:Whaley was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Josephine and Robert W. Whaley, Sr. He is half-Irish and half-Sicilian and grew up in Syracuse. He has two sisters and an older...
as Giles Prentice - Howie LongHowie LongHoward "Howie" Matthew Moses Long is an American former National Football League defensive end and actor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000...
as USAF Master Sergeant Aaron Kelly - Vondie Curtis-HallVondie Curtis-HallVondie Curtis-Hall is an American actor and film director.As an actor, he is best known for his role as Dr. Dennis Hancock on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope created by David E. Kelley.-Early life:...
as USAF Chief Master Sergeant Sam Rhodes - Kurtwood SmithKurtwood SmithKurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop and stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
as Secretary of Defense Baird - Carmen ArgenzianoCarmen ArgenzianoCarmen Antimo Argenziano is an American actor who has appeared in over 50 movies and around 100 television movies or episodes....
as USAF Brigadier General Boone - Jack ThompsonJack Thompson (actor)Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...
as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffChairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffThe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
Reception
Broken Arrow was #1 at the North American box office its opening weekend grossing $15.6 million. It stayed on top for a second week and ultimately had a domestic gross of US$United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
70,770,147 and an international gross of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
79,500,000, for a total worldwide gross of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
150,270,147.
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 28 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 57% of critics gave Broken Arrow a positive review (16 "Fresh"; 12 "Rotten"), with an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
rating of 5.9/10. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Normalization (statistics)
In one usage in statistics, normalization is the process of isolating statistical error in repeated measured data. A normalization is sometimes based on a property...
rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 61, based on 21 reviews.
During his review of the film on Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
changed his vote for the first and only time, giving the film a "thumbs down" after hearing Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
's criticisms.
See also
- 1996 in film1996 in filmMajor releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
- Cinema of the United StatesCinema of the United StatesThe cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
- List of American films of 1996