Broken Arrow is a 1996 American action thriller film directed by John Woo. The cast of the film consists of John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, Bob Gunton, and Howie Long.
Plot[]
Major Vic "Deak" Deakins and Captain Riley Hale are pilots in the United States Air Force (USAF). They are assigned to a secret exercise flying a fictional B-3 stealth bomber with two live B83 nuclear bombs over the western United States to test vulnerabilities to radar and gamma ray detection. After successfully evading Air Force radar, Deakins suddenly attacks Hale, trying to shoot him, and then ejects Hale from the plane. Deakins releases the two thermonuclear bombs without arming them; thus ensuring they will not detonate. As Deakins does this, he sends a radio transmission that Hale has gone rogue saying "Hale's lost it". He then ejects from the plane, leaving it to crash in a Utah National Park. A U.S. Park Service Ranger observes the plane fly low overhead before it crashes.
A USAF Pararescue team led by Chief Master Sergeant Rhodes is sent to find the missing nuclear bombs, declared as a "Broken Arrow" situation. The team first locates the downed plane and after checking the inside the bomb bay doors, they find that the nukes are gone. The search team eventually locates the bombs in a canyon, but is ambushed by unknown gunmen with automatic, suppressed weapons. Rhodes tries to disable the warheads on the bombs, to render them useless, but is killed by the only other search team survivor, Master Sergeant Kelly, who is in fact a mole for Deakins. Kelly calls back to the base, reporting to U.S.A.F. Colonel Max Wilkens that there is a heavy radiation exposure and the whole team is dead. Col. Wilkens recalls all other personnel that were inbound. Deakins arrives and plots his next move with partner-in-crime Pritchett, who is one of the financiers of the whole hijacking and plot. Pritchett has a team of ex-military mercenaries, including former Navy S.E.A.L.'s. They plan to blackmail the U.S. government with the threat of detonating a nuclear bomb in a populated area.
Hale, who survived the ejection, is detained by female U.S. Park Service Park Ranger Terry Carmichael, who had been investigating unusual events in the park and had seen the plane crash. Hale instead convinces her to help him track down Deakins and the missing nuclear weapons. Pritchett and Deakins' mercenaries take the USAF search and rescue helicopter to hunt down and kill Hale, but Hale and Carmichael manage to bring it down. The loss of the helicopter forces Deakins' men to transport the two stolen nuclear bombs in Humvees they had arrived in.
Hale and Carmichael manage to carjack the Humvee with the nuclear bombs and escape from the Deakins to a nearby, abandoned copper mine that Carmichael was familiar with. Unbeknownst to them, this is where Deakins and his team were headed to anyway. After taking the bombs into the mine, Hale starts to disable one of the nuclear bombs. Deakins reveals to Hale via radio that he has programmed it so that Hale's attempt to disarm the bomb will actually cause it to arm itself and detonate. Hale and Carmichael take the armed warhead down the shaft where they hope the mine is deep enough to contain the nuclear detonation. Before they can bring down the second nuclear bomb, Deakins' team arrives and secures it. After a gun battle deep in the mines, Deakins switches off the bomb but then reactivates it with a shorter time limit while leaving Hale and Carmichael trapped. He then destroys the keypad so no one can stop the device.
Hale and Carmichael escape via an underground river just before the nuclear bomb detonates. The bomb's nuclear electromagnetic pulse disables an approaching U.S. Department of Energy NEST helicopter, allowing Deakins and his team to escape with the one remaining stolen nuclear bomb. Pritchett starts complaining about Deakins straying from the mission plan, causing Deakins to kill him. Carmichael and Hale track the mercenaries to a motorboat they're using to transport the nuclear bomb down the river. While trying to steal the boat, Carmichael is forced to hide on board, while military forces arrive and rescue Hale.
Hale deduces that Deakins intends to use a train to transport the nuclear bomb to Denver, CO. Colonel Max Wilkins decides to disobey orders in order to help Hale locate and retrieve the stolen nuclear weapon. Stowing away on the train, Carmichael tries to sabotage the nuclear bomb but is caught by Deakins, who arms the weapon. Catching up on a U.S.A.F. helicopter, Hale saves Carmichael before Deakins can throw her off the train. A gunfight ensues causing the helicopter to crash, killing Wilkins and most of the mercenaries.
Deakins had prepared a remote control that can either disarm or detonate the warhead and gets ready to depart the train on his own helicopter that's parked on a flatbed train car. Hale sabotages the helicopter's fuel pump causing it to explode and leaving Deakins and Kelly stranded with the active nuclear bomb. With his plan disintegrating, Deakins decides to shorten the countdown timer out of spite. Kelly refuses to die, and holds Deakins at gunpoint, demanding that he disarm the bomb. Hale sneaks up on them during their standoff and kicks Kelly out of the boxcar to his death, then engages in a gun battle with Deakins.
Carmichael detaches the section of the train containing the nuclear bomb then gets into a shootout with the train engineer. The engineer is shot and falls on the train's brake control, thus activating them, and allowing the detached boxcars to catch up at increasingly higher speed. Deakins still has the remote detonator, so he forces Hale to drop his gun and challenges him to a fist fight. Hale eventually overpowers Deakins, acquires the remote detonator, disarms the weapon and leaps out of the train. As the detached boxcars slam into the halted front half, the nuclear bomb slams into Deakins, killing him, while the entire train derails and explodes.
Hale finds Carmichael and the dormant bomb. The two "formally" introduce themselves to each other amidst the wreckage.
Cast[]
- John Travolta as Major Vick Deakins
- Christian Slater as Captain Riley Hale
- Samantha Mathis as Terry Carmichael
- Delroy Lindo as Colonel Max Wilkins
- Frank Whaley as Giles Prentice
- Bob Gunton as Pritchett
- Howie Long as Master Sergeant Kelly
Videos[]
To be added