Who Dares Wins (film)
Encyclopedia
Who Dares Wins is a 1982 British film starring Lewis Collins
, Judy Davis
, Richard Widmark
and Edward Woodward
, directed by Ian Sharp
. The title is the motto
of the elite Special Air Service
(SAS).
The plot is largely inspired by the Iranian embassy siege
of 1980, during which the SAS stormed the building to rescue those being held hostage inside. Euan Lloyd
, the movie's producer, got the idea for the film after watching live television coverage of the event, but he had to move quickly to prevent the idea being scooped by somebody else. An initial synopsis was created by George Markstein
. This was then turned into a novel by James Follett
as The Tiptoe Boys, in thirty days flat. Meanwhile, chapter-by-chapter as the novel was completed, it was shipped to Reginald Rose
in Los Angeles, who wrote the final screenplay.
group attached to the anti-nuclear movement plans a significant act of terrorism
, however their plant is unmasked and publicly killed during a protest march. To find out what is being planned, the security services recruit the services of the SAS. SAS
officer, Capt Peter Skellen (Lewis Collins) is picked for the mission. After faking his dismissal from the SAS for beating two visiting counter-terrorist officers in a mountain training exercise, he goes undercover to infiltrate the militant group by seducing its leader. Despite his efforts, he is tailed during meetings with his contact and his wife. Knowing this, the terrorists decide they can use Skellen as a part of their plan and do not let him know that he has been found out.
The group kills the secret service go-between after tailing Skellen to a meeting, and later takes his wife and child hostage. Before he can report what he has learned to his superiors, the group executes its operation by hijacking a coach carrying a military band and uses their uniforms to gain access to the American ambassador's residence. They take over the building and demand that a nuclear weapon
be fired at the Holy Loch
submarine base in Scotland
. When it becomes clear that negotiations will not work, the SAS is sent in to deal with the terrorists. Once informed that his family had been taken hostage, Skellen was forced to accompany the group on their hostage-taking operation, but was unarmed as he was no longer trusted by the group. During the siege he manages to communicate with those outside using a Morse code light signals through a bathroom window. The SAS leader signals back that a raid will begin at 10 a.m., so Skellen can be prepared when the power is cut.
At the appointed time, Skellen disarms a terrorist and uses his weapon to engage the terrorists. He kills several before linking up with his SAS colleagues who have now entered the house by abseiling from helicopters, and forced entry via the front door. At the end, he comes face to face with the group's leader. As he hesitates, she goes to kill him, but is killed by SAS soldiers.
Skellen's family is rescued by an SAS operation entering his house through a wall from the neighbouring flat, ending in the deaths of the terrorists and his family safe.
The film ends with an on-screen list of notable terrorist incidents accompanied by a menacing rendition of the British Labour Party
's Red Flag anthem.
The watch worn by Lewis Collins' character is a Porsche design Orfina.
Film critic Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times said: "There are so many errors of judgment, strategy, behavior and simple plausibility in this movie that we just give up and wait for it to end. You know you're in trouble when the movie's audience knows more about terrorism than the terrorists do."
Who Dares Wins was also panned by some critics as being apparently right-winged. But, reportedly, it earned praise from notable filmmakers. Steven Spielberg
and Robert Zemeckis
, for example, told Ian Sharp
they loved Who Dares Wins, and therefore they chose Sharp to work as the 2nd Unit director in their 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In a letter to producer Euan Lloyd dated 25th February, 1983, now in the collection of film director Malcolm Taylor, Stanley Kubrick wrote: "I must also take this opportunity to tell you how much I enjoyed "Who Dares Wins". Casting Judy Davis was a brilliant idea. I think she is the best young actress around and she brought instant credibility and dramatic interest to all her scenes."
Lewis Collins
Lewis Collins is an English actor best known for his tough-guy role as Bodie in The Professionals. He was educated at Bidston Primary and Grange School in Birkenhead. He started out as a ladies' hairdresser before playing drums and guitar in pop groups. He had a number of other jobs before...
, Judy Davis
Judy Davis
Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
, Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
and Edward Woodward
Edward Woodward
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English stage and screen actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , Woodward began his career on stage, and throughout his career he appeared in productions in both the West End in London and on Broadway in New York...
, directed by Ian Sharp
Ian Sharp
Ian Sharp is a British film and television director.Sharp was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn and Hatfield College, Durham University where he gained an honours degree in Psychology and Modern Philosophy...
. The title is the motto
Who Dares Wins
Who Dares, Wins, Latin: "Qui audet adipiscitur" is a motto that originated with the British Special Air Service. It is normally credited to the founder of the SAS, David Stirling. The motto has been used by nine elite special forces units around the world that in some way have historical ties to...
of the elite Special Air Service
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
(SAS).
The plot is largely inspired by the Iranian embassy siege
Iranian Embassy Siege
The Iranian Embassy siege took place from 30 April to 5 May 1980, after a group of six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London. The gunmen took 26 people hostage—mostly embassy staff, but several visitors and a police officer, who had been guarding the embassy, were also...
of 1980, during which the SAS stormed the building to rescue those being held hostage inside. Euan Lloyd
Euan Lloyd
Euan Lloyd is a British film producer.He began his career directing short travelogue documentaries, starting with April in Portugal in 1954...
, the movie's producer, got the idea for the film after watching live television coverage of the event, but he had to move quickly to prevent the idea being scooped by somebody else. An initial synopsis was created by George Markstein
George Markstein
George Markstein was a German-born British journalist and subsequent writer of thrillers and teleplays. He was the script editor and co-writer of "Arrival," the first episode of the British cult classic series The Prisoner, and appeared briefly in its title sequence...
. This was then turned into a novel by James Follett
James Follett
James Follett is an author and screenwriter, born in 1939 in Tolworth, England.Follett became a full-time fiction writer in 1976, after resigning from contract work as a technical writer for the British Ministry of Defence. He has since written over 20 novels, several television plays, and many...
as The Tiptoe Boys, in thirty days flat. Meanwhile, chapter-by-chapter as the novel was completed, it was shipped to Reginald Rose
Reginald Rose
Reginald Rose was an American film and television writer most widely known for his work in the early years of television drama. Rose's work is marked by its treatment of controversial social and political issues...
in Los Angeles, who wrote the final screenplay.
Plot
The British security forces learn that a militantMilitant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
group attached to the anti-nuclear movement plans a significant act of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, however their plant is unmasked and publicly killed during a protest march. To find out what is being planned, the security services recruit the services of the SAS. SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
officer, Capt Peter Skellen (Lewis Collins) is picked for the mission. After faking his dismissal from the SAS for beating two visiting counter-terrorist officers in a mountain training exercise, he goes undercover to infiltrate the militant group by seducing its leader. Despite his efforts, he is tailed during meetings with his contact and his wife. Knowing this, the terrorists decide they can use Skellen as a part of their plan and do not let him know that he has been found out.
The group kills the secret service go-between after tailing Skellen to a meeting, and later takes his wife and child hostage. Before he can report what he has learned to his superiors, the group executes its operation by hijacking a coach carrying a military band and uses their uniforms to gain access to the American ambassador's residence. They take over the building and demand that a 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...
be fired at the Holy Loch
Holy Loch
The Holy Loch is a sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.Robertson's Yard at Sandbank, a village on the loch, was a major wooden boat building company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
submarine base in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. When it becomes clear that negotiations will not work, the SAS is sent in to deal with the terrorists. Once informed that his family had been taken hostage, Skellen was forced to accompany the group on their hostage-taking operation, but was unarmed as he was no longer trusted by the group. During the siege he manages to communicate with those outside using a Morse code light signals through a bathroom window. The SAS leader signals back that a raid will begin at 10 a.m., so Skellen can be prepared when the power is cut.
At the appointed time, Skellen disarms a terrorist and uses his weapon to engage the terrorists. He kills several before linking up with his SAS colleagues who have now entered the house by abseiling from helicopters, and forced entry via the front door. At the end, he comes face to face with the group's leader. As he hesitates, she goes to kill him, but is killed by SAS soldiers.
Skellen's family is rescued by an SAS operation entering his house through a wall from the neighbouring flat, ending in the deaths of the terrorists and his family safe.
The film ends with an on-screen list of notable terrorist incidents accompanied by a menacing rendition of the British Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
's Red Flag anthem.
The watch worn by Lewis Collins' character is a Porsche design Orfina.
Cast
- Lewis CollinsLewis CollinsLewis Collins is an English actor best known for his tough-guy role as Bodie in The Professionals. He was educated at Bidston Primary and Grange School in Birkenhead. He started out as a ladies' hairdresser before playing drums and guitar in pop groups. He had a number of other jobs before...
as Capt. Peter Skellen - Judy DavisJudy DavisJudy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
as Frankie Leith - Richard WidmarkRichard WidmarkRichard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
as Secretary of State Arthur Currie - Edward WoodwardEdward WoodwardEdward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English stage and screen actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , Woodward began his career on stage, and throughout his career he appeared in productions in both the West End in London and on Broadway in New York...
as Commander Powell - Robert WebberRobert WebberRobert L. Webber was an American actor who starred as Juror #12 in the 1957 film 12 Angry Men.Webber was born in Santa Ana, California, the son of Alice and Robert Webber, who was a merchant seaman. He was a U.S. Marine during World War II serving on Guam and Okinawa...
as General Ira Potter - Tony Doyle as Colonel Hadley
- John DuttineJohn DuttineJohn Arthur Duttine is an English actor noted for his roles on stage, films and television. He is well known for his role as Sgt George Miller in Heartbeat....
as Rod Walker - Kenneth GriffithKenneth GriffithKenneth Griffith was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker.-Early life:He was born Kenneth Reginald Griffiths in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Six months after his birth his parents split up and left Tenby, leaving Kenneth with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who immediately adopted...
as Bishop Crick - Rosalind LloydRosalind LloydRosalind Lloyd is a British film and television actress.The daughter of film producer Euan Lloyd and actress Jane Hylton, her film credits include:* The Wild Geese* Inseminoid* Who Dares Wins....
as Jenny Skellen - Ingrid PittIngrid PittIngrid Pitt was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Background:Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Warsaw, Poland to a German father of Russian descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp...
as Helga - Norman RodwayNorman Rodway-Early life:Rodway was born in Dublin to English parents, Frank and Lillian Rodway. He studied classics, graduating at Trinity College. He worked as an accountant, teacher, and university lecturer before acting.-Career:...
as Ryan - Maurice RoëvesMaurice RoëvesMaurice Roëves is a British actor, born in Sunderland, County Durham on 19 March 1937.His television roles include Danger UXB , The Nightmare Man , the 1984 Doctor Who serial The Caves of Androzani, Days of our Lives , Tutti Frutti , Rab C...
as Maj. Steele - Bob Sherman as Hagen
- Mark RyanMark RyanMark Ryan is an English actor, stuntman and voice actor.-Biography:Born in Yorkshire, Mark Ryan has been combining his acting, singing, writing and Action Direction talents in an eclectic and successful international career ranging over 30 years.He did several major musicals in London's West End,...
as Mac - Patrick AllenPatrick AllenJohn Keith Patrick Allen was a British film, television and voice actor.-Life and career:Allen was born in Nyasaland , where his father was a tobacco farmer. After his parents returned to Britain, he was evacuated to Canada during World War II where he remained to finish his education at McGill...
as Police Commissioner - Ziggy Byfield as SAS trooper "Ste" Baker
- Nick BrimbleNick BrimbleNick Brimble , is an English actor known for his performance as Little John in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and his appearances on various television shows....
as SAS trooper Williamson - Anna FordAnna FordAnna Ford is a retired English journalist and television presenter, best known as a newsreader....
as Newsreader
Critical reception
A sequel was planned in which Capt Skellen would lead a SAS team in the Falklands conflict, but the project was scrapped, despite the film having been the sixth-highest grossing movie of 1982 at the U.K box office.Film critic Roger 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...
of the Chicago Sun-Times said: "There are so many errors of judgment, strategy, behavior and simple plausibility in this movie that we just give up and wait for it to end. You know you're in trouble when the movie's audience knows more about terrorism than the terrorists do."
Who Dares Wins was also panned by some critics as being apparently right-winged. But, reportedly, it earned praise from notable filmmakers. Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
and Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
, for example, told Ian Sharp
Ian Sharp
Ian Sharp is a British film and television director.Sharp was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn and Hatfield College, Durham University where he gained an honours degree in Psychology and Modern Philosophy...
they loved Who Dares Wins, and therefore they chose Sharp to work as the 2nd Unit director in their 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In a letter to producer Euan Lloyd dated 25th February, 1983, now in the collection of film director Malcolm Taylor, Stanley Kubrick wrote: "I must also take this opportunity to tell you how much I enjoyed "Who Dares Wins". Casting Judy Davis was a brilliant idea. I think she is the best young actress around and she brought instant credibility and dramatic interest to all her scenes."