The Peacemaker

Plot synopsis:
The movie begins in an Eastern Orthodox church in Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina, when an unidentified man (later revealed to be a Bosnian diplomat to the UN) is murdered in an alley after receiving a page to meet someone outside.The scene then immediately shifts to a missile base in Chelyabinsk, Russia, where SS-18 ICBM's are being decommissioned. Ten nuclear warheads are loaded onto a train and sent to a separate site for dismantling. However, a high-ranking Russian general, Aleksander Kodoroff, has other plans. Along with a rogue tactical unit, he kills all the soldiers onboard the train and then transfers nine of the warheads to another train. He also sets the timer on the one remaining warhead, then switches tracks to send his train out of harm's way and the transport train on a collision course with a passenger train. Inside a mountain tunnel, Kodoroff kills one of his high-ranking lieutenants who'd had reservations about the mission. A few minutes later the trains collide. The thermonuclear warhead goes off moments later, yielding a blast about 500 kilotons in intensity. The explosion immediately garners the attention of the US government.Even though the detonation was staged to look like an accident, White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly (Kidman) is not convinced: SS-18 warheads can only be detonated deliberately. She believes that terrorists are behind the incident. Her newly assigned military liaison disagrees with her. He is smooth-talking and irreverent US Army Special Forces officer Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Devoe (Clooney), and he is convinced that the crash and the detonation were both staged, to hide the hijacking of the other warheads on board. A call to Devoe's long time friend and Russian counterpart, Dmitri Vertekoff (Armin Mueller-Stahl), adds credence to his hypothesis.Kelly and Devoe try to track down the terrorists through an Austrian trucking company which is a front for the Russian Mafia. Devoe and Kelly go to the company's offices and, when Kelly is unable to get answers, Devoe resorts to more drastic measures, beating the man, tying him up and threatening to shoot him in the knee. Kelly is able to retrieve vital invoices from the man's computer and the two leave the building.When the Mafia realizes they are in fact U.S. government agents, they send out several carloads of thugs to kill them. Vertekoff is killed, but Kelly and Devoe escape, with Devoe killing most of the would-be assassins in the process. Though the paper invoices Kelly retrieved are destroyed when Devoe ignites the gas tanks of his & the thugs' car, Kelly is able to download them from her email. When they're examined, Devoe recognizes Kodoroff's name. Kodoroff is known to be fanatical and Devoe assumes that the rogue general will sell the warheads to a country linked to terrorism.Devoe later finds out through the tracking system of the truck company that the nukes are in a truck headed to Iran by way of Dagestan. Kodoroff and his crew are located using a ruse in which Devoe convinces the driver over the phone that there is a smart bomb falling towards him, causing him to turn out of traffic on a road, so that the truck can be seen in an aerial photo. After the only Russian troops in the area are killed by the general and his men, one of the crew takes one of the warheads and leaps off the truck, hiding in the forest nearby.Devoe leads a group of USAF Special Operations and Army Rangers illegally over the Russian border to seize it. During the operation, one of their choppers is shot down by Russian SAM battery when they enter Russian airspace, but the remaining choppers evade the missiles and are able to stop the truck carrying the warheads. A savage fight ensues onboard the vehicle, and Kodoroff is killed and the warheads are seized. Interrogation of the one surviving member of the group reveals that the trigger bomb (nominal yield: 1-2 kilotons) from one of the warheads is missing. It is learned that the bomb was taken by a Bosnian Serb, and that it may be intended to destroy the UN headquarters in New York. The man who stole the warhead is the brother of another of the terrorists, Duan Gavri (Marcel Iure), is a Yugoslav without identity ("I am a Serb, a Croat, and a Muslim" in reference to all sides in the war torn former Yugoslavia). He wants to avenge the death of his wife and daughter, who were killed by a sniper in Sniper Alley, Sarajevo. He blames the countries of the West for not protecting them and for greedily supplying weapons to all sides in the war. He therefore plans to blow up the United Nations building in New York City, and supplies a videotaped message warning the governments of the west to cease their involvement in the Yugoslavian conflict.Gavri is finally tracked down in Manhattan, wounded, and cornered into a Catholic church near the UN. Davoe confronts Gavri, saying, "It's not our war!" Gavri responds, "It is now!", and promptly commits suicide, knowing that the bomb is set to go off in a matter of minutes, and cannot be deactivated. With seconds to spare, Kelly is able to remove a part of the bomb's explosive lens shell, preventing it from creating a critical mass within the plutonium core. The remaining explosives go off, but the bomb does not detonate and the explosion is confined to the church. Devoe and Kelly both survive the explosion with minor injuries.

Tags: suspenseful, murder

Review:
This taut, well-written and finely acted espionage film is different that those currently in front of us: made in 1997 this film in retrospect had a better grip on just how frightening terrorism is and how two-sided the implications of danger usually are.Filmed with never let your guard down suspense, the story is rather simple: nuclear weapons are circulating with one headed to the US and the military joins with science in tracking the carrier of the bomb.
The supporting roles are well handled by such strong character actors as Armin Mueller-Stahl.Cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann keeps the action lively with multi-angled shots and surveillance scenes and the tension is well maintained with the music score by Hans Zimmer.
Yes, Nicole Kidman in the main part of an action movie and who would have ever known, she is actually believable in her part but her acting is just a bit too standard and boring but yet like I said before, her characters remains believable.
But the best roles are played by George Clooney and Armin Mueller-Stahl, who is always great in a movie.The movie's opening is really a memorable one and is one of the very best action movie openings I have ever seen along with "The Rock", which was made one year earlier.
But a top-class Clooney and plenty of good, tense action scenes make this much better than the average stolen bomb flick..
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.
I usually don't see a lot of female directors that really bring it home with an action persona, but Mimi Leder has done that to a very satisfying extent.George Clooney and Nicole Kidman carry out a great working 'chemistry' that I found not only watchable, but believable.
It concentrated on the action and suspense, and only hinted in the very end at the possibility of a romance.It was interesting to see, that even though Dr. Kelly was Devoe's boss, the actual dynamics were in reverse, with her following Devoe's lead for most of the time, and listening to lectures from him about her inexperience.I guess the movie's producers thought it was too much for someone like Clooney to constantly take orders from a woman.
The final terror arises when the terrorist (Marcel Iures as meek musician professor in the film's best acting ) behind it all is looking vengeance and goes to N.Y where happens a moving ending in the midst of a confusing crowd.This exciting movie contains suspense , thrills, twists and turns , rattling action, and implacable intrigue .
A distraught Bosnian piano teacher named Dusan Gavric (Marcel Iures), whose wife and daughter had been shot down before his eyes by Bosnian Muslim snipers in war-divided Sarajevo, intends to ignite a stolen nuclear bomb around the U.N. building in New York in revenge for that atrocity Nuclear weapons specialist Dr. Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) and US Special Forces Colonel Thomas Devoe (George Clooney) try to stop the psycho...Clooney, convinced that United States educated half the world's terrorists, plays a talented soldier who takes great liberties to get what he wants including heavy bribes and savage beatings With that cool, suave and dashing look that makes women swoon, Clooney demonstrates great sense of humor with his performance, and looks pleasantly cold as hell during high action sequences His unexpected reactions get on Kidman's nerves so easilyKidman looks lovely as the anguished scientist who wants to save the world, struggling tightly against her self-doubt Mimi Leder definitely proves that she's a commanding presence behind the camera She shows how to move more effectively the camera creating tension throughout the hijacking of the warheads, Vienna's exciting car chase, the flight of the three US Air Force helicopters ordered to return to Turkish airspace, the truckload of the bad guys hanging over a cliff, and the tracking of the missing warhead on Manhattan's crowded streets The music is great...
Bad news for humanity but good news for Hollywood producers who want to make a post cold war thriller featuring stolen nuclear warheads getting into the wrong hands but this type of scenario has become over familiar .
While women watch " Disease of the week " TVMs I guess the boys will be watching " stolen nuclear warhead of the week " on another channel So what makes THE PEACEMAKER different from a mediocre Tom Clancey novel or a James Bond movie ?
I guess the movie deserves some credit in mentioning the motives of the villain who is misguided rather than evil , and the motives don't exactly put the United States in a very good light but of course it's left to an American special forces officer to save the day and yes there's a scene where the hero attempts to defuse a bomb that has a timer that helpfully lets the audience know how many seconds are left to detonation YAWN THE PEACEMAKER isn't a terrible movie .
It's also infinitely inferior to a mainly forgotten British production called SEVEN DAYS TO NOON and it's a movie that is more interested in making money at the box office than giving people sleepless nights in a world where a stolen nuclear warhead might explode anywhere.
After this film he came back home and acted in a few theaters and impressed everybody playing absolutely brilliant the role of Richard the Third from the Shakespearean play.Enough about Iures - the movie, Peacemaker, is a good action film, with all the ingredients for a success.
A crack special forces Colonel(George Clooney)and a U.S. nuke expert(Nicole Kidman)track down the lone missing warhead targeted for the United Nations.
So begins the final idiot act of the movie  congruent with the final idiot act of a desperate terrorist (played by a non-threatening, apathetic Marcel Iures), who has the opportunity to detonate the nuclear device in his backpack at any time  keeping in mind that a bomb that powerful would do the same amount of damage no matter where it blows  yet opts to mill aimlessly through New York streets, presenting himself as a target for military rooftop snipers.
Despite Devoe's imprecations of "Are We Not Men?!", the snipers refuse to take out the Russian, due to curly-haired American kids getting in the way ( strange, that's never stopped them in real life...).When the movie has degenerated to the final chase sequence, Devoe gets to perform the action hero staple of Running Over Car Roofs and sliding over car hoods like a TV cop  he even gets to knock over a bum with a shopping cart!
And the big red numbers only give us two minutes to think about how predictable this whole scenario is  as if the film-makers would risk mussing Nicole Kidman's makeup by having a bomb explode in her face.
A US Army colonel (George Clooney) and a civilian woman (Nicole Kidman) supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they are used by terrorists.My biggest problem with this film is that it seemed to me to be miscast.
Russian mobsters steal nukes; Russian mobsters tries to con everyone else; the Good Guys are smarter and rush in and kick some evil rumps and rescue the nukes.While some of the action may have been fun to watch, the unimpressive plot leaves a dry taste in the viewer's mouth and makes the film a boring experience..
This time, vengeful Bosnians have stolen a Russian SA-18 nuclear warhead, hiding in central Europe, hoping America's latest Special Forces action man (and his brainy, beautiful sidekick), don't track them down.
However, the more I watched it, the dumber the film got: sort of like George Clooney's political statements.As stated, the story began losing credibility with multiple viewings.
This awful movie is the fair of stereotypes: all the goods are smart, cool and heroic (like Clooney in the role of an American official), all the Russians are idiots, the bad is a Jugoslavian that, poor him, has suffered too much that now instead of understand the value of peace wants to make all people suffer like him....
If watching Nicole Kidman non-act but look pretty and George Clooney look stern while munching on scenery, then Mimi Leder's gasbag of an action thriller is for you.
It's all by the numbers, right down to the weapon of mass destruction about to go off in the Big Apple; there isn't a shred of originality anywhere.George (pre-bloviating, self-important political bore) is the hero who looks yummy in his army uniform and Nicole is the think-tank type who backs him up while looking smashing (you can't fight terrorists without looking good, can you?).
The rest is just so much foo-gas with lots of action (something like a company of Russian infantry on a train get slaughtered to indicate to you how serious things are) and suspense (Gee, do you really think the bad guys will win?), but no brain or heart, and lots of cynical expectations that you'll sit through this flatulent wallow.Adverbs like "yummy" and "smashing" are signals for the consumer who wants depth and coherence in a film to put the movie back in the rack at the video store and, for pity sake, move on..
When I saw "The Peacemaker" in the rental shop I remembered that one of the causes for Cruise and Kidman to split was this movie, actually Clooney to be more specific, which gave me one more reason to choose it for my evening entertainment.
The studio that was supposed to revitalise Hollywood but its own dreams fizzled out less than a decade later.George Clooney and Nicole Kidman go out of the gates helped with talent from the television show ER such as director Mimi Leder, so Clooney will feel comfortable with his transition from television star to movie star.Watching the film again, the start of the movie looked rather familiar.
The White House nuclear expert Dr Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) believes that the bomb was set off deliberately by terrorists rebels from somewhere like Chechnya.
With the bomb going off it could be months before anyone can get to the accident site to find out what happens, enough time for the villains to carry out their plan.Kelly and Devoe join forces and discover that the plan involves more than selling nuclear missiles to a rogue state but linked to the events of the breakup of Yugoslavia as a Bosnian Serb leader wants to make a statement.The film is a solid action thriller, some of it is nonsense.
DreamWorks blasts on to the scene with its first theatrical release, The Peacemaker, starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman..
Kidman manages not only to hold her own in the movie, but at times (especially the end) she takes control of the film, which is rare for a woman to do in an action-adventure.
And most importantly, in most movies when you put two good looking people like Kidman and Clooney together, there is usually a stupid attraction sub-plot running along throughout, but thankfully this time, there isn't.
George Clooney and Nicole Kidman have both starred in plenty of good movies, so there's no reason to waste your time on this..
After seeing this film, we will all agree that war and the movie industry can be hell.Nicole Kidman plays a Ph.D scientist who meets up with a Casanova army like guy, George Clooney, who is on the hot-seat being interrogated by a Madeline Albright-look alike condemning his behavior.A Yugoslavian is assassinated in front of a church.
Good action/thriller movie that just wants to be better but did not make the next level due to a weak ending despite a credible and exciting last few minutes.Good cinematography and directing.Clooney shows his versatility by showing his action side but Kidman was misscast here.She did try her best though.Nothing deep but not a moron movie either.Only for big action fans,and fans of the lead stars......
This was the debut film of Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks studio, and while it is less than stunning, this film gives an interesting spin to mid-1990s political intrigue.With George Clooney in what I suppose was his second lead role, after "From Dusk Till Dawn," the story examines post-Cold War Russia and the political catastrophe of U.N. negotiations in the Balkans.The wonderful Marcel Iures is a Croatian diplomat whose disillusionment with the civil conflict in his country has led him to make a deal with a rogue Russian general to buy a stolen nuclear bomb to blow up the United Nations headquarters in New York.
As heartless an act as this may be, the character, nonetheless, is a sympathetic one.Although the movie takes place largely outside of Russia, there is even some reference to the poor conditions modern-day Russia is plagued by: "Russia, what a f*cking mess, God I miss the Cold War." It's both humorous and to some extent true.Armin Mueller-Stahl makes an appearance as a former Soviet general who is friends with Clooney's Tom Devoe.
What I mean is, if you want to see another waste of time movie like this, rent an action film where people stop warheads from going off one second before the warheads should blow up..
It is a terrific movie, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman were perfectly cast, and it is refreshing that throughout the search for the warheads the 2 leading characters are not overwhelmed with notions romance, as too oftens happens in movie where this would probably be the last thing on the characters mind.
Chasing the weapons, solid action, but running along side a rather silly plot about a man who seeks to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter, and the war at the heart of it all, by detonating a nuclear bomb in the UN in New York.
Made in 1997, although very much relevant in today's world, The Peacemaker stars George Clooney and Nicole Kidman in this action thriller revolving around potential terrorist attacks in New York.
George Clooney stars as a US army colonel who, along with Nicole Kidman, must track down stolen weapons of mass destruction before it's too late.
George Clooney and Nicole Kidman go to the extreme as a pair of government agents trying to stop terrorists who have stole nuclear warheads and threatening to blast the hell out of the free world.
"The Peacemaker" is a great flick, with breakneck chase sequences, cool fight scenes, and a good chemistry between Clooney and Kidman, with Nicole being her usual cool-as-ice dame, and Clooney doing his best Jack Ryan impersonation..
George Clooney plays the military liaison assigned to Nicole Kidman, who happens to be the President's special expert on nuclear weapons.
Keeping up with Hollywood's fascination with the theft of nuclear weapons, the Peacemaker's story is not anything new, however, good performances by Clooney and Kidman make this film worth watching.
White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) is sure that the bomb is detonated deliberately by terrorists and Special Operations Colonel Thomas Devoe (George Clooney) interrupts with an opinion that this is actually a robbery.
One of the better movie starring George Clooney and Nichole Kidman.
George Clooney and Nicole Kidman star in "The Peacemaker," a 1997 film directed by Mimi Leder and also starring Armin Mueller-Stahl.
The Peacemaker is usually made for them those who are crazy of watching 'suspense/thriller/action' types of movies (just like me!!!).
'The Peacemaker' is an Excellent Thriller.It's full of Action,Explosions,Dead bad guys and thrills in just about every scene.While Nicole Kidman might not convince in her role of a top nuclear scientist.
Clooney more than convinces as the arrogant,smarmy,gung-ho,U.S.A vs rest of world military man.The action is well handled by Director Mimi Leder who went on to direct 1998's End of the World Thriller 'Deep Impact'unfortunatly the movie wasn't the Big Box-Office smash predicted with a fairly small budget of $50M (well-small considering the $160m plus spent on this year's Blockbusters) it made just under $42m in the states and made only $102M Worldwide which is a shame as this is one of the most exciting and thrilling films ever made well worth watchingMy Rating **** out of ***** or 8/10.
This is one of the best action movies of all time and deserved more attention and another eyes.Dream Works believed in this film to be their first one and they end up doing a really classic.
"The Peacemaker" was Mimi Leder's first attempt to direct an action movie and she did a good job.
Granted, you know right from the start when the Nukes are stolen it is going to be the job of Kidman's (Julia Kelly)and Clooney's (Tom Devoe) characters to find and recover them.
Stolen Russian nukes are up for grabs in the George Clooney & Nicole Kidman escapade "The Peacemaker," a sloppy but serviceable global thriller that drowns its audience in sentiment rather than buoys them with entertainment.
Great action scenes and good acting by George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, but the movie fails to satisfy due to many holes and non-credible series of events.
As it turns out she, a by-the-book person, has to work with Devoe.The action involves several foreign settings and culminates in NYC as a terrorist is trying to detonate something near the UN building as a statement against what is perceived as ill-advised fighting in his native country, fighting that resulted in the loss of his family.Overall it is a pretty good movie, and Clooney and Kidman are fun to watch..
The Peacemaker (1997): Dir: Mimi Leder / Cast: George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Marcel Iures, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Goran Visnjic: First film produced by Dreamworks and it isn't a promising start.
I thought that George Clooney and Nicole Kidman had great chemistry together.
George Clooney and Nicole Kidman get to the guy and disarm the bomb enough that just the detonating bomb goes off - not the actual bomb and only a church gets blowed up good.