The Peacekeeper

The Peacekeeper

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Frédéric Forestier
Produced by Nicolas Clermont
Written by Robert Geoffrion
Stewart Harding
Starring Dolph Lundgren
Michael Sarrazin
Montel Williams
Roy Scheider
Music by François Forestier
Cinematography John Berrie
Edited by Yves Langlois
Distributed by October Films
Release dates
 December 12, 1997
Running time
 98 minutes
Country Canada
United States
Language English

The Peacekeeper (also known as Hellbent) is a 1997 Canadian, American action film directed by Frédéric Forestier, and starring Dolph Lundgren, Michael Sarrazin, Montel Williams, and Roy Scheider. The film follows U.S. Air Force Major Frank Cross, who is the only man who can prevent the president being assassinated. He must also thwart an imposing nuclear holocaust. The threat is from a terrorist group, which has stolen the President's personal communications computer; it has the capability of launching the U.S. arsenal. The film was shot on location in the city of Montreal, Quebec.[1]

Plot

United States Air Force Major Frank Cross is in trouble with the "brass" again. This time he's made an unauthorized humanitarian relief flight and dropped sacks of rice to starving Kurds. To the press, he's a hero, but the Pentagon would like to court martial him. It can't because the President wants the highly photogenic media hero by his side to promote his election campaign, at least until after the next election.[2]

So Cross has a new assignment. His job is now to carry the "black bag", the President's high-tech briefcase containing the "go codes" and communications computer for launching America's nuclear ICBM arsenal in case of a national emergency. It should be an easy job, but on his first day on the job in Chicago a team of mercenaries manages to steal the black bag. Cross, however, manages to barely survive it and fake his death in front of the mercenaries and also infiltrates them. Thinking they have seen the last of him they fly with a helicopter that plucks them, and the black bag, from the rooftops of Chicago into the night sky and onwards to their final target... United States Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Facility K-7. Disguised Cross slips into the missile silo as the crack team murders the silo personnel and takes over the launch control using the secret codes contained in the black bag.

They are led by ex-Marine Colonel Douglas Murphy, whose unit was sent to kill Saddam Hussein during an undercover operation in Iraq before Operation Desert Storm and was then exterminated by the then Army Chief turned President, because he later realised, it didn't serve the nation's interests back then to fulfill the mission. Driven by revenge he then launches a terrifying warning shot. He sends a Peacekeeper nuclear missile that destroys Mount Rushmore and kills thousands of people. Only then does Murphy make his chilling demand. The President is to kill himself in front of a live television audience to prove he did the massacre in the nation´s best interests, or Washington D.C. will be wiped out.

All attempts to stop one of the missiles from leaving the silo fail. In a desperate attempt to prevent this from happening the President gives in to Murphy's demand only to realise, that he lied to utterly humiliate him, so that he then should helplessly watch Washington be destroyed as Murphy helplessly had to watch his unit be destroyed against his will by the President.

At the first opportunity, however, Frank acts against the terrorists and with the help of the last surviving member of the silo, Lt. Colonel Northrop, he is able to kill the mercenaries and prevent the destruction of Washington in the nick of time.

Cast

External links

References

  1. ↑ Ovguide
  2. ↑ Pulocker
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