The Peacemaker (1997 film)
Encyclopedia
The Peacemaker is a 1997 American action
/thriller film starring George Clooney
and Nicole Kidman
and directed by Mimi Leder
. It is also notable as being the first film released by DreamWorks
. While the story takes place all over the world, it was shot primarily in Macedonia
, with some sequences in New York
and Philadelphia, and, to a greater extent, in Bratislava
and Vienna
.
, when an unidentified man (later revealed to be a Bosnian diplomat to the UN) is murdered in the church's narthex
after receiving a page to meet someone outside.
The scene then immediately shifts to a missile base in Chelyabinsk
, Russia
, where SS-18 ICBMs
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 has other plans. Along with a rogue tactical unit, he kills all the soldiers on-board the transport train and then transfers nine of the warheads to another train running on parallel tracks. He then activates the timer on the remaining warhead and shunts the transport away from his train and onto a collision course with a passenger train. The passenger train's engineer is unable to avoid the attack. Minutes later, the 500-kiloton warhead detonates, killing the survivors and delaying and confusing any investigation.
The detonation immediately attracts 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 Chechnian terrorists are behind the incident. Smooth-talking and irreverent US Army Special Forces officer Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Devoe (Clooney
), earlier seen facing a Congressional hearing, disrupts her briefing to advocate his own theory 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, Dimitri Vertikoff (Armin Mueller-Stahl
), adds credence to his hypothesis and he is assigned as Dr. Kelly's military liaison.
Kelly and Devoe try to track down the terrorists through an Austria
n trucking company which is a front for the Russian Mafia. When the Mafia realizes they are in fact U.S. government agents, they send out several carloads of thugs to kill them. Vertikoff, thinking he can pay them off, is instead killed. Kelly and Devoe manage to escape, but an enraged Devoe returns to kill most of the would-be assassins at the risk of his and Kelly's life. Information from the trucking company shows that the nukes are bound for Iran
. US surveillance satellites place the truck in a long traffic jam in Dagestan
but cannot isolate it; Devoe does by using a ruse, calling the general's cell phone and intimidating him with memories of the smart bomb
footage from Desert Storm. The satellite, tracking the traffic jam in real time, then sees a truck attempting to angle its way out and is able to verify its license plate.
Stopped at a checkpoint, the general has his men kill its Russian guards. Devoe is then forced to lead a group of special forces
into Russian airspace to stop them. Denied entry, one of their helicopters is shot down by a Russian SAM
battery, but the remaining choppers evade and are able to stop the truck carrying the warheads. A lone man flees the truck and a savage fight ensues; the rogue Russian general is killed and the warheads are seized. Interrogation of the surviving member of the group reveals that one warhead remains missing.
Further work on the information from the trucking company leads the IFOR
to a Sarajevo
address. Inside is a video cassette of a Yugoslav named Dušan Gavrić (Marcel Iureş
), earlier seen giving piano lessons and talking to his brother (the man who fled the truck with the missing warhead). Gavrić disclaims any specific allegiance in the Yugoslav Wars
("I am a Serb, a Croat, and a Muslim"), but blames other countries for supplying weapons to all sides in the war. As Dr. Kelly realizes he intends to bomb a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York City
and the city goes into lockdown, Gavrić sneaks into Midtown Manhattan with the Bosnian diplomatic delegation. A flashback
shows that Gavrić wants to avenge the death of his wife and daughter, who were killed in Sarajevo's Sniper Alley
. He and his brother are finally found by the New York Police Department. His brother killed, a wounded Gavrić is followed into a parochial school and then a small church. Devoe confronts Gavrić, saying, "It's not our war!" Gavrić responds, "It is now!" and commits suicide, knowing that the bomb is set to go off in a matter of minutes and cannot be deactivated. With only seconds to spare, Dr. Kelly is able to remove a part of the explosive lens
shell of the bomb, preventing the primary explosion from establishing critical mass
within the plutonium core. The primary wrecks the church, but the warhead itself does not detonate. Devoe and Kelly both survive with minor injuries.
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
/thriller film starring George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
and Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
and directed by Mimi Leder
Mimi Leder
Mimi Leder is an American film director. She was the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory in 1973.-Movie career:...
. It is also notable as being the first film released by DreamWorks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
. While the story takes place all over the world, it was shot primarily in Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, with some sequences in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Philadelphia, and, to a greater extent, in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
.
Plot summary
The movie begins in an Eastern Orthodox church in Pale, Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, when an unidentified man (later revealed to be a Bosnian diplomat to the UN) is murdered in the church's narthex
Narthex
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...
after receiving a page to meet someone outside.
The scene then immediately shifts to a missile base in Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: -History:...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where SS-18 ICBMs
Intercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...
are being decommissioned
Start
Start can refer to multiple topics:* Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air* Start date, in filmmaking* Start, Louisiana, a town in the United States...
. Ten nuclear warheads are loaded onto a train and sent to a separate site for dismantling. However, a high-ranking Russian general has other plans. Along with a rogue tactical unit, he kills all the soldiers on-board the transport train and then transfers nine of the warheads to another train running on parallel tracks. He then activates the timer on the remaining warhead and shunts the transport away from his train and onto a collision course with a passenger train. The passenger train's engineer is unable to avoid the attack. Minutes later, the 500-kiloton warhead detonates, killing the survivors and delaying and confusing any investigation.
The detonation immediately attracts 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
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
) is not convinced: SS-18 warheads can only be detonated deliberately. She believes that Chechnian terrorists are behind the incident. Smooth-talking and irreverent US Army Special Forces officer Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Devoe (Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
), earlier seen facing a Congressional hearing, disrupts her briefing to advocate his own theory 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, Dimitri Vertikoff (Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
), adds credence to his hypothesis and he is assigned as Dr. Kelly's military liaison.
Kelly and Devoe try to track down the terrorists through an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n trucking company which is a front for the Russian Mafia. When the Mafia realizes they are in fact U.S. government agents, they send out several carloads of thugs to kill them. Vertikoff, thinking he can pay them off, is instead killed. Kelly and Devoe manage to escape, but an enraged Devoe returns to kill most of the would-be assassins at the risk of his and Kelly's life. Information from the trucking company shows that the nukes are bound for Iran
Nuclear program of Iran
The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. The support, encouragement and participation of the United States and Western European governments in Iran's nuclear program continued until the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
. US surveillance satellites place the truck in a long traffic jam in Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
but cannot isolate it; Devoe does by using a ruse, calling the general's cell phone and intimidating him with memories of the smart bomb
Smart bomb
Smart bomb has several meanings:* In weapons, a smart bomb is a precision-guided munition* Smart Bomb Interactive, a video game development studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah...
footage from Desert Storm. The satellite, tracking the traffic jam in real time, then sees a truck attempting to angle its way out and is able to verify its license plate.
Stopped at a checkpoint, the general has his men kill its Russian guards. Devoe is then forced to lead a group of special forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
into Russian airspace to stop them. Denied entry, one of their helicopters is shot down by a Russian SAM
Surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
battery, but the remaining choppers evade and are able to stop the truck carrying the warheads. A lone man flees the truck and a savage fight ensues; the rogue Russian general is killed and the warheads are seized. Interrogation of the surviving member of the group reveals that one warhead remains missing.
Further work on the information from the trucking company leads the IFOR
IFOR
The Implementation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename Operation Joint Endeavour. Its task was to implement the military Annexes of The General Framework Agreement for...
to a Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
address. Inside is a video cassette of a Yugoslav named Dušan Gavrić (Marcel Iureş
Marcel Iures
Marcel Iureş is a Romanian stage and screen actor.Iureş was born 2 August 1951 in Băileşti, Romania and is one of Romania's most acclaimed stage and film actors. Iureş entered the Institutul de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica in Bucharest in 1974 and graduated in 1978...
), earlier seen giving piano lessons and talking to his brother (the man who fled the truck with the missing warhead). Gavrić disclaims any specific allegiance in the Yugoslav Wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
("I am a Serb, a Croat, and a Muslim"), but blames other countries for supplying weapons to all sides in the war. As Dr. Kelly realizes he intends to bomb a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and the city goes into lockdown, Gavrić sneaks into Midtown Manhattan with the Bosnian diplomatic delegation. A flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
shows that Gavrić wants to avenge the death of his wife and daughter, who were killed in Sarajevo's Sniper Alley
Sniper Alley
"Sniper Alley" was the informal name primarily for Ulica Zmaja od Bosne , the main boulevard in Sarajevo which during the Bosnian War was lined with snipers' posts, and became infamous as a dangerous place for civilians to traverse...
. He and his brother are finally found by the New York Police Department. His brother killed, a wounded Gavrić is followed into a parochial school and then a small church. Devoe confronts Gavrić, saying, "It's not our war!" Gavrić responds, "It is now!" and commits suicide, knowing that the bomb is set to go off in a matter of minutes and cannot be deactivated. With only seconds to spare, Dr. Kelly is able to remove a part of the explosive lens
Explosive lens
An explosive lens—as used, for example, in nuclear weapons—is a highly specialized explosive charge, a special type of a shaped charge. In general, it is a device composed of several explosive charges that are shaped in such a way as to change the shape of the detonation wave passing through it,...
shell of the bomb, preventing the primary explosion from establishing critical mass
Critical mass
A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The...
within the plutonium core. The primary wrecks the church, but the warhead itself does not detonate. Devoe and Kelly both survive with minor injuries.
Cast
- George ClooneyGeorge ClooneyGeorge Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
as LTCLieutenant Colonel (United States)In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of major and just below the rank of colonel. It is equivalent to the naval rank of commander in the other uniformed services.The pay...
Thomas Devoe - Nicole KidmanNicole KidmanNicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
as Dr. Julia Kelly - Marcel IureşMarcel IuresMarcel Iureş is a Romanian stage and screen actor.Iureş was born 2 August 1951 in Băileşti, Romania and is one of Romania's most acclaimed stage and film actors. Iureş entered the Institutul de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica in Bucharest in 1974 and graduated in 1978...
as Dušan Gavrić - Alexander Baluyev as Gen. Aleksandr Kodorov
- Sebastian RochéSebastian Roché- Early life :Roché was born in Paris, France, on August 4, 1964; he is of Scottish and French ancestry. He is also fluent in four languages: English, French, Spanish and Italian. On General Hospital, he spoke in Russian, Spanish and French, and on the pilot episode of Odyssey 5, he spoke in French...
as Hans, German Backpacker - Rene MedvešekRene MedvešekRene Medvešek is a Croatian actor. He was born in Velika Gorica.According to the IMDb he appeared in 10 films and one TV series...
as Vlado Mirić - Randall BatinkoffRandall BatinkoffRandall Matthew Batinkoff is an American actor.Batinkoff was born in Monticello, New York and was raised on an egg farm near Ferndale, New York...
as Ken - Holt McCallanyHolt McCallanyHolt McCallany is an Irish American actor, writer, and producer working primarily in film and television.-Early life:...
as Mark Appleton - Armin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
as Dimitri Vertikoff - Goran VišnjićGoran VišnjicGoran Višnjić is a Croatian actor who has appeared in American and British films and television productions. He is best known for his role as Dr. Luka Kovač in the hit television series ER...
as Russian Sergeant - Michael BoatmanMichael BoatmanMichael Patrick Boatman is an Image Award-nominated American actor and writer. He is best known for his roles as U.S. Army Specialist Samuel Beckett in the ABC drama series China Beach, as New York City mayoral aide Carter Heywood in the ABC sitcom Spin City, and as sports agent Stanley Babson in...
as CW4 Beach - Carlos GomezCarlos Gómez (actor)Carlos Gomez is an American actor.-Biography:Carlos was born in New York, the son of Cora Gomez. He is a versatile character actor who has starred in both film and the small screen since the late 1980s. His first part in a film came in the form of a dancer looking to make it big in "Dance to Win "...
as Captain Santiago