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'''''Executive Decision''''' is a 1996 American [[action film]] directed by [[Stuart Baird]] in his directorial debut. The film stars [[Kurt Russell]], [[Steven Seagal]], [[Halle Berry]], [[Oliver Platt]], [[David Suchet]] and [[John Leguizamo]]. The film was released in the United States on March 15, 1996, and also grossed $122 million against a $55 million budget.
'''''Executive Decision''''' is a 1996 American [[action film]] directed by [[Stuart Baird]] in his directorial debut. The film stars [[Kurt Russell]], [[Steven Seagal]], [[Halle Berry]], [[Oliver Platt]], [[David Suchet]] and [[John Leguizamo]]. The film was released in the United States on March 15, 1996, and grossed $122 million against a $55 million budget.


== Plot ==
== Plot ==

Revision as of 07:55, 28 October 2021

This article is about the film. For the Bad Azz album, see Executive Decision (album).
Executive Decision
Theatrical release poster
Directed byStuart Baird
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAlex Thomson
Edited by
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • March 15, 1996 (1996-03-15)
Running time
133 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$55 million[1]
Box office$122.1 million[1]

Executive Decision is a 1996 American action film directed by Stuart Baird in his directorial debut. The film stars Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, David Suchet and John Leguizamo. The film was released in the United States on March 15, 1996, and grossed $122 million against a $55 million budget.

Plot

Lieutenant Colonel Austin Travis leads an unsuccessful Special Forces raid on a Chechen mafia safe house in Italy to recover a stolen Soviet nerve agent, DZ-5. During the raid one of his team is killed, and the nerve agent is found to be missing, leaving the mission a bust.

Three months later, Oceanic Airlines Flight 343, a Boeing 747-200, leaves Athens, Greece, bound for Washington, D.C., with over 400 passengers on board, including U.S. Senator Mavros, and Nagi Hassan, lieutenant of the imprisoned terrorist leader El Sayed Jaffa. Soon after take-off Hassan and his men hijack the flight, demanding Jaffa's release. Meanwhile a suicide bomber working for Jaffa destroys a London hotel.

Dr. David Grant, a U.S. Army intelligence consultant, is summoned to a meeting at the Pentagon to plan an operation to retake the plane. Grant doubts Hassan's demands, suspecting he engineered Jaffa's capture, and intends to use the plane to detonate a bomb loaded with the DZ-5 in U.S. airspace.

The Pentagon authorizes a mid-air insertion of an Army special operations team onto the hijacked airliner using the experimental airplane "Remora F117x". Grant and DARPA engineer Dennis Cahill join Travis's team to intercept the plane.

The Remora intercepts and docks with the 747 in mid-air. The boarding is only partially successful due to turbulence, injuring the team's bomb specialist Cappy. Grant boards the plane to assist just as the 747 pulls up, overstressing the Remora's docking tunnel. Travis sacrifices himself by closing the 747's hatch before it decompresses, killing him and destroying the Remora. The surviving team members, Baker, Louie and Rat have only half their gear and no communications equipment, leaving the Pentagon unaware of their survival.

With limited options, the commandos conduct a covert search for the suspected DZ-5 bomb, with the aim of neutralising it before storming the cabin. Grant accidentally compromises himself to a flight attendant, Jean, but successfully recruits her to assist their search, despite Hassan's suspicions.

The team locates the bomb, and Cappy, despite his injuries, guides Cahill in disarming it. They believe the bomb is secured, but just before the remaining team begin their attack Cappy discovers that its arming device has an additional, remote-controlled trigger.

Jaffa, released by U.S officials in an attempt to resolve the situation, calls Hassan from a private jet to tell him he is on his way to Algeria, but Hassan abruptly ends the call. Grant and the others realize Hassan's men are unaware of the bomb and Hassan's true intentions, after he kills one of them for rebuking him. He also inadvertently reveals that one of the passengers is a sleeper agent and the trigger-man for the bomb.

Senator Mavros is called upon by Hassan to speak to the President of the United States, but is killed in a display of Hassan's ruthlessness.

Under time pressure to avoid being shot down, the soldiers use Morse code via the plane's taillights to signal escorting U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat jets that they are on board, requesting an extra ten minutes to neutralise the bomb and retake the plane, despite already crossing into U.S. airspace.

Jean spots a man with an electronic device and informs Grant, who enters the passenger cabin to take the suspected individual by surprise, but he turns out to be an innocent passenger with stolen diamonds. Grant spots the real sleeper, Jean-Paul Demou, the bomb's creator, and engages him in an intense brawl. Hassan attempts to shoot Grant, but is himself shot by an on-board air marshal.

The commandos storm the cabin as a firefight ensues. Grant struggles to wrestle the remote detonator from Demou's grip while Baker and Rat gun-down several terrorists. Louie assists Grant by fatally shooting Demou and eliminating the remaining terrorists. Demou, however, manages to arm the bomb before dying, and stray bullets from a terrorist's weapon pierce a window causing explosive decompression and killing three passengers. The bomb is disarmed just in time by Cappy and Cahill as the plane regains stable flight. In a final act of desperation, a wounded Hassan shoots Rat and then sprays the cockpit with bullets, killing the pilots and damaging the controls, before being shot and killed by Rat.

Despite his limited flying experience, Grant assumes control of the plane and attempts a landing but misses the approach to Dulles International Airport, forcing him to go around. Crossing into Maryland airspace, Grant recognizes the area surrounding his training airfield, Frederick Field, and attempts to land the 747 there. With Jean's assistance, Grant makes a sloppy but safe landing onto a sand berm at the runway's safety area, and the passengers are safely evacuated. Grant is saluted by Baker, Louie, Rat and Cappy for his leadership before being summoned to the Pentagon.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 65% based on reviews from 40 critics, with an average rating of 6.02/10. The site's consensus states: "Executive Decision adheres entertainingly to classic action thriller formula, proving a genre outing doesn't need to win points for originality to be solidly effective."[2] On Metacritic the film has an approval rating of 62 out of 100, based on reviews from 20 critics.[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[4]

Leonard Maltin called it "a tense, inventive thriller" which needed more editing.[5] Leonard Klady of Variety wrote, "The picture's logic may be a bit fast and loose, but its action-and-excitement quotient is top-notch."[6] Roger Ebert rated it 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "a gloriously goofy mess of a movie" with several plot holes (e.g. smuggling a toxin into the country would likely be easier and just as effective as hijacking). Ebert praised the first-act plot twist of killing off the character played by Seagal, then a major Hollywood star: "I perked right up".[7]

Accolades

Halle Berry earned a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress - Adventure/Drama for her performance in the film in 1997.

Steven Seagal earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance in the film but lost to Marlon Brando for The Island of Dr. Moreau.[8]

Spin-off

In 1997, a low budget direct-to-video spinoff was released, with the name Strategic Command which keeps the general basic plot roughly the same but with different hijackers cast.

References

  1. ^ a b "Executive Decision". The Numbers. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
  2. ^ "Executive Decision (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
  3. ^ "Executive Decision". Metacritic.
  4. ^ "Cinemascore". Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  5. ^ Maltin, Leonard (2014). Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780698183612.
  6. ^ Klady, Leonard (1996-03-10). "Review: Auds Likely to Decide in Favor of 'Executive'". Variety. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
  7. ^ Ebert, Roger (1996-03-15). "Executive Decision". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
  8. ^ Wilson, John. "1996 Razzie Awards". Golden Raspberry Awards. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
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