Basic (2003)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

John McTiernan

Writer (WGA):

James Vanderbilt (written by)

Release Date:

28 March 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Deception is their most dangerous weapon.

Plot:

A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry.

Plot Keywords:

Army | Panama | Shot In The Chest | Covert Operation | Racial Slur

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

John Travolta	...	Hardy
Connie Nielsen	...	Osborne
Samuel L. Jackson	...	West
Tim Daly	...	Styles
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Kendall
Brian Van Holt	...	Dunbar
Taye Diggs	...	Pike
Dash Mihok	...	Mueller
Cristián de la Fuente	...	Castro
Roselyn Sanchez	...	Nunez
Harry Connick Jr.	...	Vilmer
Georgia Hausserman	...	Pilot
Margaret Travolta	...	Nurse #1
Dena Johnston	...	Nurse #2
Nick Loren	...	Helicopter Pilot

Also Known As:

Basic - Hinter jeder Lüge eine Wahrheit (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Netherlands:12 (TV rating) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Ontario) (DVD rating) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (original rating) | France:U | Spain:13 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Brazil:14 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Mexico:B15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (original rating) | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #39367) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Costa Rica

Company:

Phoenix Pictures

Trivia:

"Everyone tells the story differently." This is a reference to the story in Rashômon (1950) where people give varying accounts of the same event

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When they are chasing the plane in the rain, the Humvee makes the sound of a gas engine. This particular truck has a turbo diesel engine.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Osbourne: [voiceover] The French tried to build a canal here before the Americans. At the height of their effort, 500 workers were dying every week from malaria and yellow fever. They couldn't come up with cemetery space fast enough, not to mention the morale problem all those crosses would have made...

Movie Connections:

References Broken Arrow (1996)

Soundtrack:

Bolero

it could have been real good but...

now a days, you see a movie and in the middle of it, you already know the ending, so it's really refreshing to see that 'basic' defies that! i was really having a blast, was loving it, and when the end came i was blown away, but for only one second, because then the brain kicked in, and realize that the plot was wrong, didn't made sense! there were so many twists (and i love that in a movie) that even the editors got confused, if that ending was meant to be, than there were things that happened earlier on, that don't make sense, that are just wrong.

despite all that i liked the movie, i enjoyed't when i was watching and even more when i came out of the theater room and debated with my friends, trying to make sense on why some scenes happened, i bought the DVD only to get to the sad conclusion that i was right and there's something wrong with the story. if only the story would have matched, it would be, one of my favorite action movies!