Deterrence is a 1999 film written and directed by
Rod LurieRod Lurie is an Israeli-American director, screenwriter and former film critic.-Early life and career:The son of internationally syndicated cartoonist Ranan Lurie, he was born in Israel but moved to the United States at a young age, growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Honolulu,...
depicting fictional events about nuclear brinksmanship. It marks the feature directorial debut of Lurie, who was previously a film critic for the
New York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fifth most-widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 632,595, as of June 13, 2009. The first U.S. daily printed in tabloid form, it was founded in 1919, and as of 2007 is owned and run by Mortimer Zuckerman...
,
Premiere Magazine,
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Unlike celebrity-focused publications US Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EWs primary concentration is on entertainment...
and
Movieline, among others.
Kevin PollakKevin Elliot Pollak is an American actor, impressionist and comedian. He started performing stand-up comedy at the age of ten and touring professionally at age twenty...
,
Timothy HuttonTimothy T. Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People .-Early life:...
and
Sean AstinSean Astin is an American film actor, director, and producer best known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy...
star. The entire story takes place in a single location, a diner.
Tagline:
- Every President has a defining moment.
Deterrence is a 1999 film written and directed by
Rod LurieRod Lurie is an Israeli-American director, screenwriter and former film critic.-Early life and career:The son of internationally syndicated cartoonist Ranan Lurie, he was born in Israel but moved to the United States at a young age, growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Honolulu,...
depicting fictional events about nuclear brinksmanship. It marks the feature directorial debut of Lurie, who was previously a film critic for the
New York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fifth most-widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 632,595, as of June 13, 2009. The first U.S. daily printed in tabloid form, it was founded in 1919, and as of 2007 is owned and run by Mortimer Zuckerman...
,
Premiere Magazine,
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Unlike celebrity-focused publications US Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EWs primary concentration is on entertainment...
and
Movieline, among others.
Kevin PollakKevin Elliot Pollak is an American actor, impressionist and comedian. He started performing stand-up comedy at the age of ten and touring professionally at age twenty...
,
Timothy HuttonTimothy T. Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People .-Early life:...
and
Sean AstinSean Astin is an American film actor, director, and producer best known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy...
star. The entire story takes place in a single location, a diner.
Tagline:
- Every President has a defining moment. Walter Emerson is about to have his.
Plot
Set in 2008, President Walter Emerson, formerly Vice President and elevated by the death of the previous (unseen) commander-in-chief, is crossing the country on a campaign tour when a freak snowstorm traps him in a remote
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
diner with members of his staff plus a group of ordinary citizens.
Suddenly, word arrives that
Uday HusseinUday Saddam Hussayn al-Tikriti , was the eldest son of Saddam Hussein and his first wife, Sajida Talfah. He was the older brother of Qusay Hussein. Uday was for several years seen as the heir apparent of his father, however Uday lost this after his erratic behavior and troubled relationship with...
, leader of
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
, has invaded
KuwaitThe State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab emirate bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and west. The greatest distance from north to south is 200 km and from east to west 170 km . The name is a diminutive of an Arabic word meaning "fortress built near water." It has a...
. Using a television cameraman who is following his campaign, Emerson notifies the world that unless Hussein orders an immediate retreat and personally surrenders, he will bomb
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
with a nuclear weapon.
Hussein, through his United Nations envoy, refuses to back down and cuts off telephone negotiations, claiming Emerson is an non-elected leader and also a
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
. He threatens to fire Iraq's black-market nuclear missiles at several global locations including Emerson's own, near NORAD in Colorado, if his country comes under attack.
It is learned that Iraq purchased these weapons from France. Despite being a U.S. ally, the French president appears to be
cavalierCavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War . Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical Cavalier.-Early usage:...
in confirming this with Emerson and his entourage. The sites of the missile launchers include
LibyaLibya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa...
and
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
.
Emerson is counseled by his chief of staff, Marshall Thompson, a former university classmate, and by his national security adviser, Gayle Redford. Once his ultimatum is made and the countdown to his deadline begins, the President and his staff are confronted with the opinions of the diner's customers, including its angry owner and cook, Harvey, and a young bigot named Ralph.
Emerson is not only adamant in his beliefs, he seems every bit as willing as Hussein to trigger a nuclear war. He orders a B-2 bomber to cross Iraq's borders despite the threats of the Iraqi ambassador that this would constitute an act of war. In retaliation, the Iraqis transport 23 nuclear I.C.B.M.s to various corners of the world, including
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and other targets.
The President argues with advisers while appearing totally confident in his own actions. A tragedy occurs inside the diner when Harvey brandishes a gun and shoots the military officer carrying the briefcase that contains the launch codes. Emerson's security guards kill the cook.
To the horror of all, the President carries out his threat. He authorizes the dropping of a 100 megaton bomb on Baghdad, resulting in the complete destruction of that city.
Iraq's retaliation begins. A bomb lands in
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, but it does not detonate. Neither does a device that lands in
Hiroshimais the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It became the first city in history assaulted by nuclear armament when the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on it on August 6, 1945, near the culmination...
. A majority of the other missiles have been intercepted.
A short time later, the President addresses the world on TV. He explains that in order to prevent the Iraqi regime from developing its own nuclear devices through other channels, the U.S. sold it nuclear weapons via the French, whilst ensuring that they would never be able to function properly.
Already reeling from the shocks of the past few minutes, the President's aides are further astounded when he announces his immediate withdrawal from the election campaign. He did what he felt it necessary to do, but believes that someone else should be the one to carry on.
Cast
- Kevin Pollak
Kevin Elliot Pollak is an American actor, impressionist and comedian. He started performing stand-up comedy at the age of ten and touring professionally at age twenty...
as President Walter Emerson
- Sean Astin
Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, and producer best known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy...
as Ralph
- Timothy Hutton
Timothy T. Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People .-Early life:...
as White House Chief of Staff Marshall Thompson
- Sheryl Lee Ralph
Sheryl Lee Ralph is an American actress and singer.-Personal life:Raised between Mandeville, Jamaica, and Long Island, New York, Sheryl Lee Ralph was born on December 30, 1956 to an African American father and a Jamaican mother. In 1973, she was crowned Miss Black Teen-age New York...
as National Security Advisor Gayle Redford
- Clotilde Courau as Katie
- Badja Djola
Badja Medu Djola was an American actor. D’jola appeared in 47 films and TV shows during his career. His best role was as Leon Issac Kennedy’s cellmate in the movie "Penitentiary." D’jola played the bad guy character "Half Dead." He showed exceptional acting talent in the movie, which lead to more...
as Harvey
- Mark Thompson as Gerald Irvin
- Michael Mantell
Michael Mantell is an American actor. He has had many small parts in American movies and television shows including Ocean's Thirteen, Thank You for Smoking, How I Met Your Mother and The West Wing. He has also had recurring rolls on State of Grace and Space: Above and Beyond...
as Taylor Woods
- Kathryn Morris
Kathryn Morris is an American actress, perhaps best known for her lead role in the CBS series Cold Case.-Career:...
as Lizzie Woods
- Ryan Cutrona as Agent Dexter
- Joe McCrackin as Agent Williams
- Scoot Powell as Noah
- J. Scott Shonka as Captain Coddington
- Rigg Kennedy
Rigg Kennedy is an American character actor.Kennedy's career began in theater and episodic television, including appearances in The Fall Guy, Big Bad Beetleborgs/Beetleborgs Metallix, Matt Houston and Days of our Lives....
as Howard
Reception
A March 10, 2000 New York Times review by Stephen Holden calls
Deterrence a "clunky political thriller" marred by "ham-fisted preachiness and mediocre acting."