Basic

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Basic
Basic film poster
Directed by	John McTiernan
Produced by	Mike Medavoy Michael Tadross Dror Soref James Vanderbilt
Written by	James Vanderbilt
Starring	John Travolta Samuel L. Jackson Connie Nielsen Tim Daly Giovanni Ribisi Roselyn Sanchez Taye Diggs Harry Connick, Jr. Brian Van Holt Cristian de la Fuente Dash Mihok
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Cinematography	Steve Mason
Editing by	George Folsey Jr.
Studio	Phoenix Pictures Intermedia Films
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	March 28, 2003
Running time	98 minutes
Country	‹See Tfd› Germany, United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million [1]
Box office	$42,792,561[2]

Basic is a 2003 American/German thriller film directed by John McTiernan and starring John Travolta, Connie Nielsen and Samuel L. Jackson.

Plot

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (May 2010)

In Panama, a team of Army Ranger trainees and their instructor, Master Sergeant Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson) engages in a training exercise. They must navigate the jungle in hurricane conditions, using live fire to hit targets, then rendezvous at a bunker.

Hours later, a trainee identifying himself as Ray Dunbar emerges from the jungle carrying a wounded comrade, Second Lieutenant Levi Kendall. A third soldier pursues while shooting at Dunbar. In self-defense, Dunbar kills this soldier, Mueller. The mission had gone horribly wrong and the rest of the team with West are presumed dead.

In interrogation, Captain Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) finds Dunbar refusing to talk. He insists on speaking to a fellow Ranger from outside the base, and draws an "8" inside a circle on a piece of paper. Noticeably spooked upon seeing the "8", base commander Colonel Bill Styles (Timothy Daly), calls in an experienced interrogator and friend, Tom Hardy (John Travolta). Hardy, an ex-Ranger is now a DEA agent under investigation for suspicion of bribery. Hardy and Osborne, have only 6 hours before the CID transport from Washington arrives to take Dunbar and Kendall away.

Dunbar's Story

During interrogation, Hardy revealed to Dunbar that he served under West when a Ranger. Dunbar mentioned West is infamous for being a ruthless, tough-as-nails sergeant. A trainee in Dunbar's unit, named Pike, earned West's wrath. Pike went on the Panama training mission with Dunbar, Kendall, Mueller and two others, Nuñez and Castro. Hardy and Osborne suggest with plenty of reason to hate West, Pike had motive to murder him. Dunbar then refuses to say more.

Kendall's Story

Hardy and Osborne then go see Kendall, son of a Joint Chiefs of Staff general, recovering from gunshot wounds. At the hospital, Hardy runs into Dr. Peter Vilmer (Harry Connick Jr.), an old friend and Osborne's former love interest.

Kendall reveals he is a homosexual and claims West hated him because of it. Kendall says West silently threatened his life shortly before the mission began. Kendall was partnered with Castro for the mission and feared West may have ordered Castro to give him a "training accident."

Kendall claims West died when hit in the back with a white phosphorus grenade and that Pike confessed to the crime, thinking his comrades would be on board. However, the team decided to turn Pike in. In the night, Pike tried to gain Kendall's sympathies by playing to their mutual hatred of West. Pike proposed killing Mueller and Nunez and convince Dunbar and Castro to back them up. Kendall dismissed Pike's suggestion, but later spots Pike whispering to Dunbar. According to Kendall, Dunbar went back to his bag, extracted his pistol and aimed it at the sleeping Mueller. In the firefight that ensued, Mueller shoots Castro, who fires frantically and hits Nunez, Kendall and Pike. Nunez and Pike die and and Kendall is wounded. Dunbar then carried Kendall, exchanging fire with Mueller to the pickup point, as seen at the start of the film. When asked why Dunbar would rescue him, Kendall suggested perhaps Dunbar expected him to cover for him in gratitude.

Dunbar's Second Story

Dunbar, now accused of murder, says Kendall is lying and claims that he didn't shoot West. Hardy notes that Kendall claimed West died from a grenade, not shooting.

Dunbar claims Mueller and Kendall were selling prescription drug kits called "combat cocktails" to help dull physical pain and sharpen the mind. He says Mueller shot West, who became aware of their drug dealing. Dunbar claims Mueller then used Pike's grenade, stolen from his pack earlier. At the bunker, Mueller tried to pin the blame on Pike, but Pike pointed out evidence throwing suspicion on Mueller. A fierce argument ensued and Mueller executed Pike. A firefight broke out and Castro and Nunez die. Dunbar rescued Kendall and killed Mueller before the helicopter pickup.

At Hardy's request, Dunbar provides proof of the drug-dealing operation. He states Vilmer supplied the drugs to Mueller and Kendall.

Kendall's Second Story

When Osborne and Hardy return to the hospital, they speak briefly with Dr. Vilmer. Vilmer admits that he distributed drugs to Mueller and Kendall and that he falsified drug tests so that the soldiers would come up clean. Vilmer is subsequently placed under arrest.

Hardy and Osborne then go to confront Kendall, who is acting very strangely and refuses to give them any useful information. However he still claimed that Dunbar was the guilty party. After a few minutes, Hardy notices that Kendall is bleeding out of his ears. Suddenly, Kendall starts vomiting blood and then abruptly dies. However, right before Kendall dies he uses his blood soaked finger to draw what Osborne initially interprets as the symbol for infinity, but shortly after, she realizes it is an 8. She shows this to Hardy, who first denies knowing what the "8" may symbolize. After a brief physical fight, he takes her aside and explains the conversation he had earlier with Styles. There is rumored to be a group of ex-Rangers in Panama, trained under West, who turned rogue and became drug-dealers. They call themselves Section 8.

Styles is furious that Osborne and Hardy talked to Kendall a second time after he explicitly ordered them not to. He relieves Osborne of duty and asks Hardy to leave. He informs them that Dunbar and Vilmer will be taken away shortly on the transport plane that has arrived from the U.S. and he considers the investigation closed.

At the stockade, Vilmer remarks to Hardy and Osborne in an offhand manner that he will be on the same plane with Pike. Hardy corrects him, saying that he'll be on the same plane as Dunbar, but Vilmer says that's not right. He says Ray Dunbar is black. This means that the white "Dunbar" Hardy and Osborne have been questioning is in fact Pike, the man whom West antagonized during training (according to his own story). Pike had switched 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. Pike then drops to his knees, out of breath. After-wards, Hardy and Osborne lead Pike away to interrogate him again now that they know the truth.

Pike's Final Explanation

In Pike's new story, West was not shot. Pike claimed West knew about the main operation going on at the base, cocaine smuggling. He claims West confronted the Rangers in the bunker and told them that he would turn them in to authorities in the morning and tell Styles everything. A brief Mexican standoff ensues and West escapes the bunker. Nuñez chases after him, and gets shot by West. Shortly after Castro and Mueller go looking 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. It is still thoroughly established that he managed to escape, carried Kendall through the jungle, killed Mueller and was picked up by the helicopter.

To prove his story, he gives Hardy, Osborne and Styles, the number of a crate where Vilmer had stowed cocaine.

Hardy then talks to Styles alone; he says that he is curious why West wouldn't tell Styles about the drugs as soon as he suspected something. Hardy then accuses Styles of lying and he believes West did in fact go to him, and he was behind the drug dealing operation the whole time. Rather than side with West, he ordered Mueller and Kendall to kill him and then poisoned Kendall afterward to keep him quiet. Styles laughs off the accusations, but as Hardy starts to leave Styles offers him a percentage of the operation, once he's back in business to keep his mouth shut. Hardy says he will consider and turns to leave. Styles draws his weapon and was about to shoot Hardy, but instead was shot and killed by Osborne who had been secretly watching outside his office.

Final twist and explanation

After the Military Police wrap up the investigation into Styles' shooting, Osborne is about to leave the base for the night and Hardy tells her that all she has to do concerning the shooting is "Tell the story right." Osborne recalls hearing that phrase during both Kendall and Pike's stories, particularly in describing how members of the conspiracy planned to cover up West's death.

This makes Osborne suspect Hardy may be somehow involved, especially since he hated West and because Section 8 contains West's former trainees. She tails him out of the base and watches as Pike runs out from some bushes and into Hardy's jeep. She follows them by car and then by foot through the streets of Panama City and watches as the two of them enter a doorway with a big eight ball hanging above it. Osborne sneaks up behind Hardy and Pike, with her weapon drawn, believing that they are behind both Section 8 and West's murder. She becomes confused when West, very much alive, walks up behind her. Castro, Dunbar and Nuñez are also there.

They reveal to Osborne that Section 8 is actually a black-ops anti-drug unit led by Tom Hardy (who is addressed as "Colonel"). The mercenary story is a cover to spook the cartels. Dunbar, Castro, Nuñez and Pike (their names are revealed to be fake) infiltrated the base to investigate the cocaine trafficking that was going on, and discovered Mueller, Kendall and Vilmer were responsible. West, not realizing that Styles was also involved, informed him of their findings. Styles responded by ordering Mueller and Kendall to kill West. The training mission was in fact a set-up to get rid of Mueller and Kendall, and fake West's death (in order for him to join Section 8), and Hardy went to the base to confirm Styles' and Vilmer's involvement. West and Hardy then offer Osborne a job.

Cast

• John Travolta as DEA Agent Tom Hardy
• Connie Nielsen as Captain Julia Osborne
• Samuel L. Jackson as Master Sergeant Nathan West
• Tim Daly as Colonel Bill Styles
• Giovanni Ribisi as Second Lieutenant Levi Kendall
• Brian Van Holt as Ray Dunbar
• Taye Diggs as Jay Pike
• Dash Mihok as Mueller
• Cristián de la Fuente as Castro
• Roselyn Sánchez as Nuñez
• Harry Connick, Jr. as Dr. Peter Vilmer

Reception

The movie grossed $26,793,311 in the US.^[2] Reviews were mostly negative. The film received a rating of 21% "fresh" (positive) reviews from the US's top critics on Rotten Tomatoes.^[3] Most reviews criticize the film. Roger Ebert gave it one star out of four and wrote that it was "not a film that could be understood", and that "If I were to see it again and again, I might be able to extract an underlying logic from it, but the problem is, when a movie's not worth seeing twice, it had better get the job done the first time through".^[4] Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide gave it two stars out of four and wrote that the film "keeps adding layers of confusion so that it becomes less interesting as it goes along! The final "twist" seems to negate the entire story, like a bad shaggy-dog joke."^[5]

References

External links

• Official site
• Basic at the Internet Movie Database
• Basic at Rotten Tomatoes
• Basic at Box Office Mojo