Basic is a 2003 action/mystery film directed
by John McTiernan.
Plot
A helicopter circles over the Panamanian jungle. On board is a team of Army Ranger trainees, and their commander, Sergeant Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson). The team consists of six trainees: Pike, Dunbar, Kendall, Mueller, Nuñez, and
Castro. Their objective is to move through the jungle while a hurricane rages above, use live fire to hit targets, then
rendezvous at a small shanty, where West will be waiting for them.
Seventeen hours later, Dunbar emerges from the jungle carrying a wounded Kendall on his back. He exchanges fire with Mueller,
killing him, before being picked up by another military helicopter. Apparently, the mission has gone horribly wrong. The rest of
the team, and West, are presumed dead.
Back at the base interrogation room, Captain Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) makes
little headway with Dunbar, who refuses to talk. Dunbar insists on speaking to a fellow Ranger from outside the base, and draws a
mysterious "8" on a piece of paper. Upon seeing the 8, base commander Bill Styles (Timothy
Daly) calls in an experienced interrogator and friend, Tom Hardy, (John Travolta)
an ex-Ranger and a DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) investigator, albeit one under suspicion of corruption. Hardy and
Osborne, initially wary of each other, are forced to work together in a 6-hour time limit - the CID from Washington will arrive
to take Dunbar and Kendall away and initiate an investigation. Styles does not want people "swarming over them like ants" for
this affair.
Shortly after arriving, Osborne witnesses Styles taking Hardy aside for a private conversation. The nature of this
conversation is not revealed. Hardy begins to work on Dunbar:
Dunbar's Story
Sergeant West was famous for being tough-as-nails and hated by his cadets. One cadet in Dunbar's unit, a black man named Pike,
earned West's wrath more than any other.
Pike was selected for the Panama training mission, along with Dunbar, Kendall, Mueller, Nuñez, and Castro, immediately after
they returned from a grueling hike. Since he seemed to have plenty of reason to hate West, it is suggested that Pike might have
had a murderous motive.
At this point, Dunbar refuses to say anything more.
Kendall's Story
Hardy and Osborne then go to the other surviving team member, Kendall, who is in the hospital. At the hospital, Hardy meets up
with Dr. Peter Vilmer (Harry Connick Jr.), an old friend. Apparently, Vilmer is also
Osborne's on-again, off-again lover.
Kendall is the son of an influential general. It is revealed that he is gay. He tells Hardy and
Osborne that West always hated him. In the helicopter, shortly before the mission, Kendall began fearing that West might try to
kill him while they were in the jungle below.
In the jungle, Kendall claims Pike killed West with a phosphorus grenade, freely
admitting to the rest of the team his actions when he showed up at the rendezvous bunker. He had hoped the rest of the team would
sympathize. However, the team decided to turn Pike in when they would be picked up the next morning. In the middle of the night,
Pike tried to rouse Kendall's sympathies by playing to their mutual hatred of West. Pike proposed they kill Nuñez and Castro,
saying Mueller and Dunbar would be easy to convince to side with them. Kendall dismissed Pike, then went back to his sleeping
area, but later spotted Pike whispering to Dunbar.
According to Kendall, Dunbar then went back to his bag, extracted his pistol, and aimed at Mueller. Kendall warned him,
Mueller deviated the shot which killed Castro. A firefight ensued, in which most of the team was killed and Kendall shot. Dunbar
then carried the wounded Kendall on his back through the jungle, exchanged fire with Mueller, and was picked up, as seen in the
beginning of the movie. When asked why Dunbar would go through all the trouble of taking Kendall out of the firefight when
Kendall had witnessed what had transpired, Kendall suggested that perhaps Dunbar expected Kendall to cover for him in
gratitude.
Dunbar's Second Story
Dunbar, upon further questioning, says that Kendall is lying. He claims that Mueller and Kendall were taking illegal steroid
cocktails, and that it was Mueller that shot Sergeant West, then detonated Pike's grenade, which he had stolen. He then tried to
pin blame for the murder on Pike. However, when Pike began pointing out evidence that threw suspicion on Mueller, a fierce
argument began, Mueller shot Pike, and all hell broke loose. Dunbar rescued Kendall with the intent of turning him in, hiked
through the jungle, and was picked up by the helicopter.
Osborne is also uneasy when she learns that Hardy once trained under West and hates him almost as passionately as his current
recruits. However, Hardy proves to be an excellent interrogator, as he corners both Dunbar and Kendall for what really happened
in the jungle. With time running out, Hardy and Osborne call a temporary, if uneasy, truce. Hardy cajoles a confession out of
Dunbar, who claims that Sgt. West and the missing Rangers have been murdered and their bodies blown away by the hurricane. He
also reveals that it was Vilmer who supplied steroids and drugs to Mueller and Kendall. Hardy is initially doubtful, thinking
that Dunbar may be trying to use the knowledge of Hardy's role as a DEA agent to sell a story, however Dunbar produces a needle
containing the steroid cocktail that he had hidden on his body as proof of his story.
Kendall's Second Story
When Osbourne and Hardy return to the hospital, they speak briefly with Dr. Vilmer. After a short - and illegally brutal -
interrogation, he admits that he provided Mueller and Kendall, who also pushed the drugs for him, steroid cocktails, and would
switch their urine during drug tests he himself administered. Vilmer is placed under arrest.
Hardy and Osborne then go to confront Kendall, who refuses to give them any useful information and insists that Dunbar is the
guilty one. Suddenly, Kendall starts vomiting blood and dies. However, right before Kendall dies, he uses his blood to draw an
"8" on Osborne's hand. She shows this to Hardy, who first denies knowing what the 8 may symbolise, then, under pressure, he takes
her aside and explains the conversation he had earlier with Styles. There is rumored to be a vicious group of rogue Rangers
trained under West who turned and started dealing drugs, calling themselves Section 8.
Styles, incensed with Osborne and Hardy's tactics in interrogating Vilmer, relieves them of duty. Dunbar and Vilmer will be
shortly flown away on the transport plane that has arrived from the U.S. so that they will face a court martial, and the
investigation is closed.
Hardy and Osborne go to release Vilmer to transport. At one point, Vilmer remarks in an offhand manner that he will be sharing
the same plane back to Washington as Pike. Hardy corrects him, saying that he'll be on the same plane as Dunbar, but
Vilmer persists - Dunbar, he says, is black. This means that the "Dunbar" Hardy and Osborne have been questioning is in fact
Pike, the man whom West so hated during training. Since the military dog tags don't list race, all Pike had to do was switch his
tags with Dunbar's in order to throw off the local authorities, then disappear after being transported for trial. Hardy and
Osborne rush back to the base just as Pike is being taken onto a transport plane. Hardy grabs Pike and holds his face dangerously
close to the plane's whirling propeller. The two engage in a brief screaming match, although what they say is inaudible to anyone
just a few feet away. Afterwards, Hardy leads Pike away to a third round of interrogations.
Pike's ("Dunbar's") Third Story
In Pike's new story, West was not shot, but had figured out the drug plot also involving cocaine smuggling by Vilmer, and
showed up at the rendezvous bunker confronting the team. He tells the team that he had his suspicions but chose not to go to
Colonel Styles until he knew for sure, and that he would turn them in to authorities in the morning. West kills Castro and a
Mexican standoff ensues. West then escapes the bunker. Nuñez chases after him, and gets
shot. After some time, in the jungle where everybody went to look for West, Pike finds Dunbar dead, West shoots Kendall, wounding
him, and tries to convince Pike to give himself up. Mueller manages to kill West. Pike shoots at Mueller, and then, knowing that
he would be blamed if West died, took Dunbar's dog tags. He managed to escape, carrying Kendall through the jungle, and killed
Mueller who vengefully came after them, and was picked up by the helicopter. To prove the drug story, he gives Hardy, Osborne,
and Styles, who was also present at this last interrogation, the number of a crate where Vilmer would stow the cocaine.
Hardy relates this story to Styles, but mentions that West's choice to wait doesn't add up. He tells Styles that he suspects
West did in fact go to Styles, but that Styles was behind the drug dealing operation the whole time. Rather than side with
West, he ordered him killed. With Kendall and Mueller dead and Vilmer behind bars, Styles says that he can be back in business in
no time and offers Hardy a bribe in order to keep him quiet. As Hardy turns to leave, Styles pulls a gun on him; he is shot and
killed by Osborne, though, who had overheard the entire conversation.
Final twist
After the military police wrap up the matter, Hardy passes a phrase to Osborne, "All we have to do is tell the story right",
which had been used earlier by both Kendall and Pike, particularly in describing how members of the conspiracy planned to cover
up West's death. This makes Osbourne suspect that there is more to Hardy than meets the eye. She tails him and sees him pick up
Pike, and the two of them enter a doorway with a big eight ball hanging above it. Osborne
sneaks up behind Hardy and pulls a gun on him, believing that he has masterminded Section 8's drug deals from the beginning.
However, West comes up behind her and admonishes her. It is revealed that Section 8 is actually a special anti-drug unit led by
Hardy. Now that West and his team are all "officially" dead, the unit can operate with much more freedom than before. "Hardy,"
"Nuñez," "Castro," "Pike," and "Dunbar" are all members. West offers Osborne a job. Osborne says she needs a beer. Suddenly, one
of the members refers to Hardy as "Colonel". Osbourne is confused, but Hardy just winks at her right at the film's end.
Cast
Trivia
In the film, at one point in a discussion with Colonel Styles, Travolta utters the line, "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke".
He also uttered this exact line in the blockbuster hit, Broken Arrow.
External links
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