MovieChat Forums > The Peacemaker (1997) Discussion > some questions

some questions

posted 22 years ago by vegemite77
22 replies | jump to latest

well, apart from that the movie is ruled by stereotypes, a weak plot, uninteresting characters with incomprensible motives, some things in the story were a little strange, i think:

when they go into this guy's office in vienna to question him about his data files, why do they need to tape him to the chair and take the files by force? they are government officials and he is a suspect in an international nuclear bomb affair, so why don't they just contact the local police or interpol or whoever, arrest him and confiscate his files? in this context, all this "tell me the password or i kill you" stuff was quite ridiculous, don't you think?

when they fly with the helicopters into russia why is it such a big surprise to them that the russian air control shoots them down? isn't this the most obvious thing to happen when a foreign helicopter flies into another country without telling them in advance? this is not riduculous anymore, this is stupid.

ah, and one more thing: vienna is in austria, for heaven's sake, not in germany. (clooney says something to the guy they later tape about him being typical german.) how embarrasingly uneducated can a scriptwriter possibly be?
just a note from an austrian moviegoer.

[–] vrone 22 years ago

You are absolutely right... the script was bad. Did you also notice that it took a full 18 minutes of movie for the bomb to go from 10 minutes down to 3?

[–] Srpsko_Sarajevo 21 years ago

I agree. The scene on the end is so funny. There is less then one minute to explosion of "war head" and he tells her: Go away, evacuate people, I will stay and die. Like he is demontig a hand bomb.

[–] Iblisajinn 21 years ago

Actually, his objective is to displace the explosive charges around the nuclear core - the heart of the bomb is the simultaneous detonation of an explosive sphere that compresses the fissible material, thus causing a runaway nuclear reaction. If the charges are not properly placed (or don't detonate simultaneously, nothing very useful will occur other than the explosion of the explosive sphere itself.

Basically, Clooney is trying to make a nuclear bomb into a small pile of explosives without no nuclear detonation.

[–] Simon-140 21 years ago

Yep, quite right. That said, the idea of Kidman & Clooney walking away with some scratches after being blown through a window by a mixture of nuke detonator and weapon-grade plutonium is absolutely absurd.

[–] 21 years ago

[deleted]

[–] White_Seraph 21 years ago

Actually, Quaid does not necessarily survive Total Recall, he may have been lobotomised at the end.

“I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes." - J.D. Salinger

[–] Flik-8 21 years ago

"Did you also notice that it took a full 18 minutes of movie for the bomb to go from 10 minutes down to 3?"

On my widescreen DVD you only see three digits on the readout, so what appears to be 9:59 could have been 19:59, with the one off the edge of the screen. It then takes almost exactly 20 minutes until the bomb detonates.

Flik

[–] buffmechanic 21 years ago

ah, and one more thing: vienna is in austria, for heaven's sake, not in germany. (clooney says something to the guy they later tape about him being typical german.) how embarrasingly uneducated can a scriptwriter possibly be?

Don't you have any German's living in Austria?

[–] seanholland85 21 years ago

Also it would be more beliveable for it to be muslim bosnian. No offense to an followers of Islam but it seems more likley. It seems he was on a suicide mission maybe he wasn't. Also wouldn't be easier to alert the Russians and give them the coordinates. I find it hard to belive America could get helicopters to the border with Iran that quickly or is it just me?

[–] bikebryan 20 years ago

Alerting the Russians was brought up. It was felt the russians couldn't get any support to the area in time.

[–] nickolas84 20 years ago

Seanholland85 wrote : "Also it would be more beliveable for it to be muslim bosnian. No offense to an followers of Islam but it seems more likley. It seems he was on a suicide mission maybe he wasn't. Also wouldn't be easier to alert the Russians and give them the coordinates. I find it hard to belive America could get helicopters to the border with Iran that quickly or is it just me?"

Gavrich says "I am a Serb. I am a Croat. I am a Muslim." That is his way of saying "I am everyman". He is Serb but he considers himself to be representing all of the opposing parties against the peacekeepers. He considers the peacekeepers to be responsible for the fighting and killing and wants to make them "understand".
Russians were given coordinates but it seems they had no troops nearby (but remember this is just a movie)
America has a base at Inchirlick (sorry for the spelling) at eastern Turkey which is very close to the events. It is the base the Turks didn't allow the Americans to use during the attack to Iraq.

[–] ElectricEye 20 years ago

And don't forget the 44E reference that had nothing to do in the plot. It was totally unnecessary. You cannot connect the final sequence to the 44E, as nobody new the motives of these terrorists. The truck was rented through the russian mafia and the corrupt military, no the terrorists.

Now that I think of it, the terrorist had no reason to be there....

Protective Detective, Electric Eye.

[–] allen82 20 years ago

The 44-E thing was kind of weird. First, it seemed to be a reference to the 44th parallel, which ran near Sarejevo, later it seemed to be a reference to 44th St where the UN building resides in NY. As far as the motives, this is what I could ascertain:

1. The Russian general was stealing nukes to make a profit selling them to terrorists or whoever. His first customer (and co-conspirator) was the Bosnian guys. If the Russian hadn't been stopped by Clooney, we can assume he would have sold the remaining nukes to various people.

2. The Bosnian diplomat & friends apparently were directing their anger about all their national problems at the super-powers who were trying to keep the peace in that area of the world. His beef seemed to be that we produce the weapons, sell them to bad people then sweep in to try to clean up the mess after the fact (hence his anger with "the peacemakers"). I guess his message was to be "stay out of our business." That said, it seems like a very backwards way to deal with the atrocities of the Bosnian conflicts. On the other hand that whole mess down there is very confusing in itself, so it wouldn't be surprising that some people would have their own weird theories about who is to blame.

Hope that helps

[–] bikebryan 20 years ago

1. The weren't government officials. They were operating in a foreign country in an unoffical capacity. It would take to long to put everything together to legally raid the office. Clooney's method was unconventional, not legal, and dangerous but it got them what they needed without wasting time they didn't have wrestling through the red tape.

2. They were hoping the Russian government would agree to put the border regiments into a weapons hold status. Barring that, Clooney's character was hoping he could paint the situation well enought that the border troops would understand and put the weapons on hold anyway.

3. A German can't live in Austria? Why not?

[–] inoldhollywood 20 years ago

I also agree.. there are many Germans that live in Vienna.... even Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms all lived in Austria at one time. It is also NOT true that Kidman and Clooney are "blown" through the window of the church... they ran through the window and the explosion occurs a split second after they were under the STONE window sill... and they both sustained some injuries, if you look at their bodies.

I am not saying this story was not far fetched... but it was GREAT entertainment and very exciting to watch. To me, that's what a real action movie ought to be.

[–] vegemite77 19 years ago

Mozart actually lived all his life in Austria, that's where he was born (Salzburg) and that's where he died (Vienna). No wonder, he was Austrian after all.
And for the guy in the movie, just forget it, I meant something different. I am aware of Germans living in Vienna, thank you.

[–] Noel_MarquisDeMaynes 19 years ago

Salzburg did not belong to Austria during Mozart's lifetime.

[–] halversp 19 years ago

Actually I interpreted the "typical German" crack as a deliberate mistake by Devoe while playing his "stupid American" role ("I like Leroy Nieman, myself. Ever heard of him?") Note the awkward pause that followed; Julia seemed to get that Devoe (intentionally or not) had committed a major faux pas there.

pch

[–] jjchorazy 19 years ago

off the subject, but most of the so-called ethnic groups remaining in rump Austria after the 1914-18 war were referred to as "German Austrians" . . . there was even an approved vote to become part of Germany after that war, but the "German Austrians" learned that Wilson's self-determination didn't apply to them.

[–] LongCarbine 19 years ago

"Also it would be more beliveable for it to be muslim bosnian. No offense to an followers of Islam but it seems more likley. It seems he was on a suicide mission maybe he wasn't. "

No Bosnian would ever do something like that. Muslims over there are not crazy fanatics like Al Qaidas.

[–] speckledove 19 years ago

I think that the entire point was that he wasn't really politically motivated at all....it was all emtional.
Tracy

[–] istickem 19 years ago

Once again here is someone that just cannt take a movie at face vaule, I hate to see this guy at home, talk about Anal Retentive does eveything have to be "perfect" with you. IT's A MOVIE FOR CHRISTSAKE just watch it or SHUT THE HELL UP