The Peacemaker (1997)

Director:

Mimi Leder

Writers (WGA):

Leslie Cockburn (article) &
Andrew Cockburn (article) ...

Release Date:

26 September 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

This is not a test.

Plot:

A US Army colonel and a civilian woman supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they're used by terrorists.

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Nuclear Weapons | Train Crash | Nuclear Explosion | New York

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

George Clooney	...	Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe
Nicole Kidman	...	Dr. Julia Kelly
Marcel Iures	...	Dusan Gavrich
Aleksandr Baluyev	...	General Aleksandr Kodoroff (as Alexander Baluev)
Rene Medvesek	...	Vlado Mirich
Gary Werntz	...	Terry Hamilton
Randall Batinkoff	...	Ken
Jim Haynie	...	General Garnett
Alexander Strobele	...	Dietrich Schuhmacher
Holt McCallany	...	Mark Appleton
Michael Boatman	...	CPN Beach
Joan Copeland	...	Senator Helen Bevens
Carlos Gómez	...	Santiago
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Dimitri Vertikoff
Slavko Juraga	...	Stevo

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and some language.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian | Serbo-Croatian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:12 | Iceland:16 | Philippines:PG-13 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Belgium:KT | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Mexico:B | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (Certificate #35519)

Filming Locations:

Bratislava, Slovakia

Company:

DreamWorks SKG

Trivia:

The "JFK Airport" that appears in the movie is in actuality the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center located in midtown Manhattan.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Dr. Kelly is trying to determine what the reference 44-E refers to and looks at a map, she follows the 44 degree latitude. The reference would refer to the 44 longitude. Latitudes are designated as north or south, longitudes are designated as east and west.

Quotes:

[Julia Kelly is trying to disarm a nuclear bomb with less than a minute left while Tom Devoe is standing next to her]
Julia Kelly: Devoe, run!
Thomas Devoe: [laughs] Okay, I'll be in the truck.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Soundtrack:

NOCTURNE IN F MINOR, OP. 55 NO.1

Solid first effort from DreamWorks

Let's be honest first of all. Did anybody think the first movie out of the gate from a studio owned by David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Steven Spielberg be an artsy-fartsy film? For what it is, this is pretty good. Director Mimi Leder does a good job keeping everything going (she was less successful with her follow-up, DEEP IMPACT), and I was involved the whole way through. I like George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, but I will admit they don't get a whole lot to do here. Like the similar MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, there's not a whole lot of character development for the heroes, so the film depends on whether or not you like the stars, and fortunately, I do.

The one distinguishing factor of the movie is the villain, played by Marcel Iures. While the one who steals the missiles is your standard action villain, there's a gravity and sadness Iures brings that's unexpected in a film like this. This is no sneering DIE HARD rip-off, but a guy who takes an action because he feels it's the only choice he has, and the film at least brings forth the notion that if that's how he feels, we the Western powers are somewhat culpable.