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 song that the little girl is playing in the beginning of the movie and is also later played by Dusan is Frederic Chopin's Nocturne Opus 55 No. 1

Goofs:

Factual errors: Just before he dies, Vlado Mirich says "Zelim da sve bude kao pre" (I can't correctly write "Zelim", because IMDb doesn't support letter that is needed) which does mean "I want everything to be as before", but if he is from Bosnia, he would say "Zelim da sve bude kao prije" because in Bosnia people use ijekavica and not ekavica (used in Serbia).

Quotes:

Costello: Urinalysis from a Moscow traffic stop last month, .367.
Julia Kelly: I'm amazed he could turn the key.
Costello: Yeah, that's definitely a few cocktails.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Kill Ari: Part 2 (#3.2)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

AVE VERUM CORPUS, K. 618

underrated/over-criticized

Some movies stick in your consciousness. This is one of them. Although the script is not that original in its major components, Mimi Leder made a very strong visual statement here. The train hi-jacking sequence is about as good as anything on film. Although many reviewers here see the movie as one long cliché, the anti-hero is really protesting Western militarism and the ubiquitous arms industry. He's suffered a great personal loss at the hands of the "let's sell guns to everybody" group. The "Peacekeepers" ignore the slaughter going on around them. Blowing up the U.N. and a sizable chunk of Manhattan may not be the best answer, but in the context of the film it makes sense. In many ways the film is much more subtle than just "good guys/bad guys." Look again and watch for the nuances.