Sniper 2
Encyclopedia
Sniper 2 is an American film shot in Hungary
in November 2002 and released in early 2003. It stars Tom Berenger
, Bokeem Woodbine
, Erika Marozsán
and Tamás Puskás, and was directed by Craig R. Baxley
.
Sniper 2 is the second movie of a trilogy, following Sniper in 1993 and followed by Sniper 3
in 2004.
Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger
), who was discharged after his finger was amputated in the first film, is met by CIA officer James Eckles (Dan Butler
) and Colonel David McKenna (Linden Ashby
) at his home in Montana
. Despite losing his index finger he uses to shoot, Beckett still has the capability of firing a gun (as he uses his middle finger for the job). Considering this, along with his impressive career from his time in the Marine Corps, Beckett is given a mission to assassinate renegade Serbian General Mile Valstoria (Peter Linka), who is responsible for conducting hit-and-run
ethnic cleansing
operations in Muslim-populated areas in Serbia
. The CIA fears that Valstoria's actions are threatening to inflame a larger conflict in the region. Given the details of the mission, Beckett requests that an additional man, a spotter
, must come with him. At the U.S. embassy in Berlin
, Beckett is introduced to his spotter, Jake Cole (Bokeem Woodbine
), an experienced U.S. Army
sniper who is on death row for killing a federal officer who allegedly betrayed Cole's unit and had them killed during a mission to crack down on Russian drug lords in Rostock
. But Cole is released and offered amnesty
if he takes part in the mission.
After being dropped off into Serbia, Beckett and Cole make their way to a Catholic
basilica
. There, they meet an underground resistance
member named Sophia (Erika Marozsán
). Sophia takes them to her apartment, which is perched high above the designated area where Valstoria is due to show up, near a government building. The next morning, Beckett assassinates his target. Even though the two men were far from Valstoria and used a diversionary device to cover the sound of the shot, the Serbs are able to track where the shot came from by noticing the smoke from the diversionary device that exploded. Noticing this, Beckett and Cole escape from the apartment before the Serbs are able to take them down. Cole and Beckett then move out to a nearby church that was meant to be a rendezvous point with Sophia, but the rendezvous is called off as Serb soldiers inspect the church unexpectedly. Cole and Beckett are forced to find an alternative plan. When they hitch a ride on a public tram, nearby soldiers stop the vehicle and try to arrest them, but the two operatives take over the tram and ram it into some police cars. They escape, running through the streets. Cole is captured and put into a prison where Valstoria's men keep their so-called 'special enemies', but Beckett is able to escape.
Beckett meets Sophia that night, and the two make a plan to rescue Cole. With the help of Sophia's brothers, Zoran and Vojislav, the next day they box in military trucks carrying Cole and a fellow prisoner to a prison in Požarevac
where Cole was to be executed. Beckett takes a concealed shot, killing the passenger while Sophia kills the driver. They then help Cole and Pavel (Tamás Puskás), who is a pacifist and political dissident, and a fellow prisoner out of the truck and into a van that Zoran brought. Cole admits to Beckett that the assassination of Valstoria was set up to get Cole caught and then rescue Pavel from jail. The rescue of Pavel turned out to be the real mission for the two but Beckett was not informed by the CIA of it, as the mission was meant for Cole to solely execute after being captured. That night, at an abandoned factory that was meant to be the designated extraction zone, the group is ambushed by Serb tank and infantry. Both Vojislav and Zoran are killed in the attack and, after escaping from the factory through a sewer, Beckett orders Sophia to break off from the group and leave, despite objections from Cole. After hearing no information on Beckett or Cole's status after the factory extraction point was compromised, Eckles insists on calling off the operation, but this request is turned down. Instead, the leaders of the operation prepare for picking up Pavel and the two operatives at the secondary extraction point of Simand, a Muslim border town that was subject to ethnic cleansing.
A distance away from the factory, Pavel insists that they should head to Komra, a Muslim town where a friend of Pavel's, Nauzad (Zoltán Seress), lives. As the group meets Nauzad, he offers to help get the men to the border by getting them to a bus that would get them there. Within a couple of hours they are on their way but, as they cross a river, they come across an unexpected checkpoint and end up heading to Simand on foot. Meanwhile, Cpt. Marks (Can Togay
) inspects the bus that the three men just departed from and suspects that they are attempting to head to Simand. Marks orders a tracker, (Béla Jáki), to take his special forces unit to Simand.
As the three men arrive at Simand, they are ambushed by the special forces team in a forest outside of town, and Pavel suffers a slight flesh wound in the arm. After the trio kills the entire team, they are forced to proceed into town. They disguise themselves by taking uniforms from some of the dead Serb soldiers, in case the Serbs set up a military presence in the town. However, even though the Serbs have not arrived yet, the tracker holds up in the town factory and snipes down the team. Beckett demands that Cole take Pavel to the extraction zone while he deals with the tracker. Cole is severely wounded by the sniper, but Beckett picks him off. Pavel and Becket carry the wounded Cole into the helicopter and leave, just as Serb reinforcements led by Cpt. Marks arrive. In the helicopter, Beckett and Pavel look at Cole as he is badly wounded. Cole says, "Freedom!" and succumbs to his wounds.
in the movie were speaking Hungarian
rather than Serbian
(as the actors playing the Serbs were all Hungarian).
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
in November 2002 and released in early 2003. It stars Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
, Bokeem Woodbine
Bokeem Woodbine
Bokeem Woodbine is an American film and television actor.-Personal life:Woodbine was born in Harlem, New York to an actress mother. He attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York before transferring to the also prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in the city...
, Erika Marozsán
Erika Marozsán
Erika Marozsán is a Hungarian actress. Her first movie appearance was in the hit Hungarian film, "Béketárgyalás, avagy az évszázad csütörtökig tart" , released in 1989...
and Tamás Puskás, and was directed by Craig R. Baxley
Craig R. Baxley
Craig Redding Baxley is an American actor, director and stunt performer. He is best known for his work in the action and thriller genres....
.
Sniper 2 is the second movie of a trilogy, following Sniper in 1993 and followed by Sniper 3
Sniper 3
Sniper 3 is a 2004 action adventure direct-to-video film starring Tom Berenger, Byron Mann, John Doman and Denis Arndt. It was directed by P.J. Pesce and written by Michael Frost Beckner and Crash Leyland....
in 2004.
Plot
Former U.S. Marine Corps scout sniperScout Sniper
Scout Sniper is a secondary MOS designator of U.S. Marine Corps infantrymen and reconnaissance Marines that have successfully graduated from a USMC Scout Sniper School. Scout Snipers provide close reconnaissance and surveillance to the infantry battalion...
Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
), who was discharged after his finger was amputated in the first film, is met by CIA officer James Eckles (Dan Butler
Dan Butler
Daniel Eugene "Dan" Butler is an American playwright and actor known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the TV series Frasier.- Life and career :...
) and Colonel David McKenna (Linden Ashby
Linden Ashby
Clarence Linden Garnett Ashby III , best known as Linden Ashby, is an American actor and martial artist.-Early life:...
) at his home in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. Despite losing his index finger he uses to shoot, Beckett still has the capability of firing a gun (as he uses his middle finger for the job). Considering this, along with his impressive career from his time in the Marine Corps, Beckett is given a mission to assassinate renegade Serbian General Mile Valstoria (Peter Linka), who is responsible for conducting hit-and-run
Hit-and-run tactics
Hit-and-run tactics is a tactical doctrine where the purpose of the combat involved is not to seize control of territory, but to inflict damage on a target and immediately exit the area to avoid the enemy's defense and/or retaliation.-History:...
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
operations in Muslim-populated areas in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. The CIA fears that Valstoria's actions are threatening to inflame a larger conflict in the region. Given the details of the mission, Beckett requests that an additional man, a spotter
Sniper team
A sniper team typically consists of a sniper and a spotter as described in military doctrines of the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Both members can perform either role and often rotate between the two...
, must come with him. At the U.S. embassy in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Beckett is introduced to his spotter, Jake Cole (Bokeem Woodbine
Bokeem Woodbine
Bokeem Woodbine is an American film and television actor.-Personal life:Woodbine was born in Harlem, New York to an actress mother. He attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York before transferring to the also prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in the city...
), an experienced U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
sniper who is on death row for killing a federal officer who allegedly betrayed Cole's unit and had them killed during a mission to crack down on Russian drug lords in Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
. But Cole is released and offered amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
if he takes part in the mission.
After being dropped off into Serbia, Beckett and Cole make their way to a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
. There, they meet an underground resistance
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
member named Sophia (Erika Marozsán
Erika Marozsán
Erika Marozsán is a Hungarian actress. Her first movie appearance was in the hit Hungarian film, "Béketárgyalás, avagy az évszázad csütörtökig tart" , released in 1989...
). Sophia takes them to her apartment, which is perched high above the designated area where Valstoria is due to show up, near a government building. The next morning, Beckett assassinates his target. Even though the two men were far from Valstoria and used a diversionary device to cover the sound of the shot, the Serbs are able to track where the shot came from by noticing the smoke from the diversionary device that exploded. Noticing this, Beckett and Cole escape from the apartment before the Serbs are able to take them down. Cole and Beckett then move out to a nearby church that was meant to be a rendezvous point with Sophia, but the rendezvous is called off as Serb soldiers inspect the church unexpectedly. Cole and Beckett are forced to find an alternative plan. When they hitch a ride on a public tram, nearby soldiers stop the vehicle and try to arrest them, but the two operatives take over the tram and ram it into some police cars. They escape, running through the streets. Cole is captured and put into a prison where Valstoria's men keep their so-called 'special enemies', but Beckett is able to escape.
Beckett meets Sophia that night, and the two make a plan to rescue Cole. With the help of Sophia's brothers, Zoran and Vojislav, the next day they box in military trucks carrying Cole and a fellow prisoner to a prison in Požarevac
Požarevac
Požarevac is a city and municipality in eastern Serbia. It is the administrative center of the Braničevo District of Serbia...
where Cole was to be executed. Beckett takes a concealed shot, killing the passenger while Sophia kills the driver. They then help Cole and Pavel (Tamás Puskás), who is a pacifist and political dissident, and a fellow prisoner out of the truck and into a van that Zoran brought. Cole admits to Beckett that the assassination of Valstoria was set up to get Cole caught and then rescue Pavel from jail. The rescue of Pavel turned out to be the real mission for the two but Beckett was not informed by the CIA of it, as the mission was meant for Cole to solely execute after being captured. That night, at an abandoned factory that was meant to be the designated extraction zone, the group is ambushed by Serb tank and infantry. Both Vojislav and Zoran are killed in the attack and, after escaping from the factory through a sewer, Beckett orders Sophia to break off from the group and leave, despite objections from Cole. After hearing no information on Beckett or Cole's status after the factory extraction point was compromised, Eckles insists on calling off the operation, but this request is turned down. Instead, the leaders of the operation prepare for picking up Pavel and the two operatives at the secondary extraction point of Simand, a Muslim border town that was subject to ethnic cleansing.
A distance away from the factory, Pavel insists that they should head to Komra, a Muslim town where a friend of Pavel's, Nauzad (Zoltán Seress), lives. As the group meets Nauzad, he offers to help get the men to the border by getting them to a bus that would get them there. Within a couple of hours they are on their way but, as they cross a river, they come across an unexpected checkpoint and end up heading to Simand on foot. Meanwhile, Cpt. Marks (Can Togay
Can Togay
Can Togay , also known as Can Togay János at times, is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, actor, poet, producer, cultural manager and cultural diplomate.-Biography:...
) inspects the bus that the three men just departed from and suspects that they are attempting to head to Simand. Marks orders a tracker, (Béla Jáki), to take his special forces unit to Simand.
As the three men arrive at Simand, they are ambushed by the special forces team in a forest outside of town, and Pavel suffers a slight flesh wound in the arm. After the trio kills the entire team, they are forced to proceed into town. They disguise themselves by taking uniforms from some of the dead Serb soldiers, in case the Serbs set up a military presence in the town. However, even though the Serbs have not arrived yet, the tracker holds up in the town factory and snipes down the team. Beckett demands that Cole take Pavel to the extraction zone while he deals with the tracker. Cole is severely wounded by the sniper, but Beckett picks him off. Pavel and Becket carry the wounded Cole into the helicopter and leave, just as Serb reinforcements led by Cpt. Marks arrive. In the helicopter, Beckett and Pavel look at Cole as he is badly wounded. Cole says, "Freedom!" and succumbs to his wounds.
Response
The movie has been criticized for a lot of technical flaws, for example: The SerbsSerbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
in the movie were speaking Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
rather than Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
(as the actors playing the Serbs were all Hungarian).
Cast
- Tom BerengerTom BerengerTom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
as Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett - Bokeem WoodbineBokeem WoodbineBokeem Woodbine is an American film and television actor.-Personal life:Woodbine was born in Harlem, New York to an actress mother. He attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York before transferring to the also prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in the city...
as Cole - Tamás Puskás as Pavel
- Dan ButlerDan ButlerDaniel Eugene "Dan" Butler is an American playwright and actor known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the TV series Frasier.- Life and career :...
as Eckles - Linden AshbyLinden AshbyClarence Linden Garnett Ashby III , best known as Linden Ashby, is an American actor and martial artist.-Early life:...
as McKenna - Erika MarozsánErika MarozsánErika Marozsán is a Hungarian actress. Her first movie appearance was in the hit Hungarian film, "Béketárgyalás, avagy az évszázad csütörtökig tart" , released in 1989...
as Sophia - Barna Illyés as Vojislav
- Ferenc KovácsFerenc KovácsFerenc Kovács , is a former Hungarian footballer and coach.He played for MTK and capped once for Hungary, and won the bronze medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics.-References:...
as Zoran - Dennis HaydenDennis HaydenDennis Hayden is an American actor. He was one of five brothers and one sister born in Girard, Kansas on a pig and soybean farm....
as Klete - Can TogayCan TogayCan Togay , also known as Can Togay János at times, is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, actor, poet, producer, cultural manager and cultural diplomate.-Biography:...
as Captain Marks - Béla Jáki as Scar Sniper
- László Áron as Shadow Figure
- Lukács Bicskey as Inmate
- Zoltán Seress as Nauzad
- Tas Szöllösi as Tony
- Rae ValentineRae ValentineRae Valentine is the son of Harold Ray Brown Sr., the founder and original drummer of the musical band War. Rae produced and recorded on War's 1994 Peace Sign album and performed on tour as backing keyboards, percussion and vocals from 1993 to 2001...
as Technician #1