THE STORY: Wonders abound! A movie starring Dolph Lundgren that was actually fun to watch! I can hardly believe it! I actually had a good time watching this flick! It came as a suprise.

Its shortly after the conclusion of the Persian Gulf conflict. Air force Pilot Major Frank Cross is being punished for his unauthorized mission. Cross dropped food from his plane to the Kurds and the current administration doesn't like that for whatever reasons. But they don't want a scandal...Cross is considered a hero for doing this by the media, so the powers that be shift him from being a pilot to the guy that carries the Black Bag for the President.

Yeah, I said President. This guy does something against what the top brass wants..let alone the US Government...and they give him a cushy job. Well, it might not be too cushy. the Black Bag is a briefcase with computer crap in it...computer crap that has to near the President of the United States because it has the launch codes for Nuclear missiles!

Cross begins his first day on this new job...and is attacked in a hotel room by terrorists. After an unbelievable, but well filmed action sequence chase involving cars leaping from roof to roof, the terrorists get away the Black Bag. Cross follows determined to retrieve the bag, and finds that the terrorists have taken over a nuclear missile base commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Northrop. When the terrorists struck at the base, Northrop escaped death and capture.

Cross manages to team up with Northrop. together they try to foil the terrorist plans. The terrorist leader is a former marine officer named Murphy. He blasts Mount Rushmore to radioactive dust with one nuke just to show he means business. You see, Murphy knew the President when the Prez was the Chief of Staff for the past administration. During the gulf war, Murphy was abandoned on a mission in Iraq and now, he's well, really [unwrite]ing pissed about it. Murphy threatens to blow Washington DC to atoms if the President doesn't commit suicide on National TV. Murphy, quite obviously, has issues.

Cross and Northrop attempt to stop the terrorists, but not before Murphy launches his nuke at DC. If the President blows himself away Murphy will self destruct the missile before it hit. With no choice, the President proceeds to commit suicide on national TV using a pistol that Murphy provided. But its a trick. Murphy doesn't really care about the millions of deaths...he wants revenge pure and simple. The gun isn't loaded because he wants the President to suffer as he watches Washington DC and surrounding states blasted to ashes.

Luckily for the US, Northrop and Cross are on the job. Cross kills the terrorists in his way and with radio instructions by Northrop disables the other missiles and confronts Murphy. With only minutes left, Cross dispatches Murphy and races back to the control room with the Black Bag so the missile can be disarmed by remote. ( Well, to be honest, Murphy takes his own life. As I said, he doesn't really care about anything but his revenge.) With the prerequisite I second left the two officers disable the bomb.

There's a lot I left out of the synopsis, because I think people should see this movie and be suprised by it. For a low budget action flick with Dolph Lundgren, it was really good.  There are plenty of things in it I could rant about, but it was fun to watch. Anyone could make fun of the impossible deeds done by Indiana Jones but we don't...why? 'Cuz the movies were good! (Well, the Temple of doom was sucky, but...) That's why I can overlook the car chase where Cross and his opponents jump from building to building like hyped up Evel Knievels. It was fun to watch. I can get over the fact that a missile base has a lot more security than we see in this movie, I can even believe that Northrop, on the top of a gantry, had access to chemical gear to save himself, yet no one else in the base did. Yeah, I can buy it because I had a good time watching this flick.

Major Cross was of course, Dolph Lundgren. Lundgren, I think isn't a bad action hero...he just picks bad scripts. ( Think about Shwarzennegger...if he didn't make the choice to play the villain instead of the hero in the terminator I think movie history would be alot different) Northrop was Montel Williams, the talk show guy. He didn't have a lot to work with in his part, besides being the "Black Guy" but at least he didn't die in the movie. I wasn't too impressed by his acting ability, but then he had a pretty minor role. Characterization was not an issue with this movie.

Best Lines: "Have you ever told me the nastiest thing you've ever done?"-  One of the terrorists with a disguised voice talks to Cross's girlfriend on the phone.

"I should have taken the court martial!"- Cross as he tries to disarm a missile ready launch regretting that he zigged when he should have zagged.

1.)  In order to avoid a court-martial for his humanitarian but unauthorized mission, Cross is relieved as a pilot and reassigned to carry the secret-ass briefcase that the President uses to launch nuclear weapons...uh, why doesn't that make sense to me? If Cross is considered too unreliable to be a pilot, why give him a job on the President's staff? A job that requires him to carry VERY sensitive items? It doesn't matter if his food-drops were considered a good thing...he disobeyed orders!!! Even his commanding General tells him "You're in Big Trouble!". Of course ten seconds later the general tells him of his new assignment. Man, I never get breaks like that when I'm in "Big Trouble!".

2.)  In his new job carrying around this super secret briefcase Cross is forced to hand over his pistols. Yeah, right. A guy carrying a briefcase which has America's Nuclear Launch codes is supposed to be unarmed. Uh-huh.

3.)  I've never been to Mount Rushmore....maybe one day I'll get to see it....but after the terrorists blow it up with a nuke in this movie I had to wonder...doesn't ANYONE live around Rushmore? The TV news says "A large explosion took place" there. It was a nuclear explosion! No one saw the mushroom cloud? A nuke is considerably larger than a run of the mill large explosion!

4.)  Despite the fact that this movie is taking place several years after the Persian Gulf War, I still can't buy it that Murphy has the intimate knowledge needed to take over a missile base. Yeah, he has a guy on the inside, Decker,...but its just one guy.

5.)  The president says he doesn't have time to fool around when H-bombs are a danger...but they ain't H-Bombs. I've forgotten the basic difference between an H-Bomb and a Nuclear Missile, but I'd hope the president knows what it is! I'm going to have to ask Liz, the Mistress Supreme at "And You call yourself a scientist!".

NUDITY AND SEX:  none

HUH? : Is it just me, or does it seem kind of stupid to anyone else to have the power to launch nuclear missiles secured in one briefcase, held by one man...and then put that man in any kind of situation where he can be killed. captured or whatever? I don't know what measures the US takes to safeguard missile launch codes, but I hope...man, I freaking get on my knees and pray...that its better than that.

Lt. Colonel Northrop has a lot to say against nuclear weapons. when Cross asks him why he came to be commander of a missile base if he feels this way Northrop says "I didn't have anywhere else to go." Well, Northrop must be a really crappy officer then. Think about it...he's given command of a base with nukes on it! That's a heavy responsibility....even if Northrop couldn't find an assignment more to his liking in the Air Force there has to be a thousand civilian jobs he could handle! He's a Lieutenant Colonel! He, by default of that has to have experience in management, budgets and...since he's commanding a missile base...Nuclear stuff! If I had credentials like that I'd be out like a shot if I didn't want to command the base!

Imagine Herman Munster running after he's had six expressos and twelve twinkies. That's what Cross look like when he runs.

THE TALLY:  The Inferno is pleased. This movie was entertaining. Not perfect, not great, but entertaining, which is all the Inferno requires. Action fans will probably get a hoot of it. Check it out next time you just want some action without the niggling other details like characterization, the laws of physics or anything in real life. This movie is just fun.