Directed by: Mimi Leder
Starring: George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Marcel Iures, Amin Mueller-Stahl
What we have in The Peacemaker is a post-Cold War thriller without many thrills as the heroes race against time to thwart a villain. In this case, the villain has stolen a bunch of nuclear warheads and helpfully wrote his plan down so the heroes can determine what he plans to nuke, where, and when. I know it was written in code, but doesn't he knows there is always that one character in a movie who can deduce code in nanoseconds?
The Peacemaker has a few things going for it, including George Clooney and Nicole Kidman in standard roles who nonetheless make them as engaging as possible under the circumstances, and a villain whose motives are understandable and we can somewhat sympathize with him...if he weren't planning to nuke Manhattan. But, the rest is standard stuff, including the "Rum Dum a Dum" music (I learned that term from Roger Ebert) which populates military movie soundtracks and an elongated final act which involves practically every government agency tracking the villain as he walks around Manhattan with the nuclear bomb stuffed in his backpack. There are so many orders being barked on the radio, it is amazing they can keep everything straight. We even have the obligatory shots of snipers perched on roofs asking his superiors, "Do I have a green light?" as he views his target through a rifle scope. Naturally, just as he's ready to pull the trigger and end the chase, a tree branch or another person inadvertently gets in the way and the sniper mutters in frustration.
The Peacemaker opens with a horrific train crash in Russia's Ural Mountains. The train was carrying nuclear warheads to be dismantled, but the crash was an elaborate ruse to disguise the theft of the warheads. Government bureaucrat Julia Kelly (Kidman) explains her theory of the crash to a roomful full of military and government types when Col. Tom DeVoe (Clooney) interrupts the speech and discredits her theory while Julia stands by inertly. DeVoe and Julia are soon teamed up to find out who stole the nukes and stop the plans for the stolen warheads. After watching the mess in Julia's meeting unfold, I would have been less than confident in her abilities if I were her bosses, but because Julia is played by Nicole Kidman, she will carry on.
Clooney is intelligent and confident, so he occupies the role well. I even enjoyed Iures as the villain, whose family was killed during a terrorist attack in Bosnia and hopes to draw attention to the Bosnian plight by destroying New York and beyond. The performances aren't the problem, just the by-the-numbers movie they're in which doesn't contain many surprises. We have our share of fistfights, car chases, and shootouts, including several shots of Clooney running through Manhattan holding his gun while chasing the villain on foot. What if someone mistakes Clooney for a shooter and offs him? You know, like pro-gun activists who just wish they could encounter a shooting so they could be a John McLane-like hero and save the day? In this case, such a thing would have been very bad for New York.
The Peacemaker is skillfully made with plenty of star power, but it is indistinguishable from numerous like thrillers we've seen before and since. It is also another of those movies in which the heroes manage to run away just far enough from an explosion to avoid any serious injuries, even though they jumped through a window to do so. How did they not get cut to ribbons? And how did the flame know to stop just short of our heroes? I would mention the Red Digital Readout, another cliche from bomber movies in which the hero has to dismantle the bomb before the Red Digital Readout counts down to 0:00, more in depth, but I can't take credit for the term or the discovery of the cliche. I again had to learn that from Roger Ebert.
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