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Homeland Security

 
Movies:

Homeland Security

  • Director: Daniel Sackheim
  • Genre: Drama
  • Movie Type: Political Drama, Docudrama
  • Themes: Terrorism
  • Main Cast: Scott Glenn, Tom Skerritt, Grant Show, Marisol Nichols, Kal Penn
  • Release Year: 2004
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 87 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: R

Plot

The NBC made-for-TV movie Homeland Security endeavors to put a human face on the events leading up to 9/11, and the post-tragedy formation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. On the verge of retirement, FBI agent Joe Johnson (Scott Glenn) is brought back to help organize the department, in concert with Admiral McKee (Tom Skerritt). Also on the ground floor of the department is feisty female CIA operative "Jungle Jane" Fulbar (Marisol Nichols) who has enjoyed (if that is the word) a long-standing friendly rivalry with the FBI. The "conscience" character hereabouts is security expert Sol Binder (Leland Orser), who blames the failure to "connect the dots" in the months prior to 9/11 on the lack of cooperation between the two major governmental peacekeeping agencies. Adding a dash of suspense to the otherwise predictable proceedings is the presence of McKee's daughter Melissa (Stephi Lineburg), who, along with her Arab boyfriend, is booked on the ill-fated Flight 29. Likewise enlivening things a bit is the lively-if-traditional villainy of all-purpose terrorist Saif Khan (Nicholas Guilak). The uneven, sometimes incoherent story structure can be attributed to the fact that Homeland Security was the heavily re-edited combination of two pilot episodes for a never-sold TV series. The "finished" product originally aired on April 11, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

Frank Heinhoff - Ross Gibby; Leland Orser - Sol Binder; Beth Broderick - Elsie McKee; Stephi Lineburg - Melissa McKee; Nicholas Guilak - Saif Khan; Christopher Maher - Hamid Karzai; Vahe Bejan - Brushenko; Alex Dodd - Achmed; Sayed Badreya - Jamaitja; Navid Negahban - Mohammad Hassan; Kimberly Elaine Crowe - NSA Translator; Glenn Morshower - Gen. Eaton

Credit

Daniel Sackheim - Director, Regis Kimble - Editor, Christopher Crowe - Executive Producer, Daniel Sackheim - Executive Producer, Kerry McCluggage - Executive Producer, Scott Gilman - Composer (Music Score), Ida Random - Production Designer, Jonathan Freeman - Cinematographer, Clayton Townsend - Producer, Ron Binkowski - Producer, Christopher Crowe - Screenwriter
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Wikipedia: Homeland Security (film)
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Homeland Security

Title screen
Approx. run time 98 minutes
Genre Drama
War
Written by Christopher Crowe
Directed by Daniel Sackheim
Produced by Ron Binkowski
Clayton Townsend
Starring Scott Glenn
Tom Skerritt
Grant Snow
Marisol Nichols
Kal Penn
Ross Gibby
Leland Orser
Music by Scott Gilman
Country United States
Language English
Original channel NBC
Release date April 11, 2004 (2004-04-11)

Homeland Security is a 2004 made-for-TV film, which was intended as a pilot for a series which never materialized.

Contents

Plot

Admiral McKee (Tom Skerritt) is retired, when following the events of 9/11 he receives a call from the White House informing him that his commander in chief requires him to serve his country once again. Shortly after this he is sworn into office as a senior member of the Office of Homeland Security under Tom Ridge. Once in office Admiral McKee faces the challenge of organising this new office so as to prevent further terrorist attacks against the United States. With this in mind Admiral McKee's wife, Elise Mckee, recommends he speaks to his friend, NSA Agent Sol Binder.

Following a meeting with Sol Binder, Mckee recruits him into the Office of Homeland Security. After which Binder comes up with a plan for the new agency, all law enforcement agencies within the United States will have to put their rivalry aside and funnel all intelligence into the Office of Homeland Security. We first meet Agent Binder at the beginning of the film prior to the events of 9/11, where he is meeting with a group of NSA Agents with intelligence on a planned terrorist attack that is to take place in the United States where the number Nine and Eleven keep popping up, it is not until the day of the attacks that Binder was able to piece it together. It is Binder's belief that had there been a co-operative organisation such as the Office of Homeland Security the attacks could have been averted

While the main concern of the film is the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security, which following Congress' approval would become the Department of Homeland Security, there are a number of subplots involved in the film. Such sub plots are, The invasion of Afghanistan, use of precision-guided air strikes with weapons such as GPS-guided JDAMs, the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and the destruction of Al'Qaeda training camps in the middle east, as well as in the beginning of the film Admiral Mckees' Daughter, Melissa, is due to leave New Jersey for San Francisco on September 11, 2001, she was due to board United Airlines Flight 93, following hearing an announcement on the news that United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked and has gone down over Pennsylvania, the Admiral and his wife were distraught, shortly there after she contacted her parents and was upset and told them she was late and fortunately had missed her flight.

That is not all Melissa saw that day. After the Pentagon was attacked, military command had received the executive order to investigate various aircraft that were off course, including Melissa's later flight, and to shoot down any that failed to comply with visual command. In a fictional engagement, three military jets engage the airliner, setting off the near collision alarm, one positioning itself in front of the airliner, another to the left. The nervous jet pilot behind the airliner nearly shoots it down before the airliner pilots comply with visual command and respond. The jet pilot is ordered to stand down, take a deep breath, and escort the airliner to O'Hare Airport in Chicago, where Melissa first vigorously demands to know if they had almost been shot down. From a pay phone, Melissa called her parents and her boyfriend. Melissa demands from her mother, "Who is doing this to us?"

Cast

Reception

The film was poorly received and was cancelled even before it started as a TV show. As one review said "And don't be fooled by names like Tom Skerritt and Scott Glenn; Homeland Security is a bland and fairly tasteless bullet-point history lesson on how the 9/11 attacks happened, how a bunch of generic TV characters deal with it, and how many soaring musical strains can be employed while the rah-rah chest-thumping speechifying goes on in front of a flapping American flag." (DVDtalk.com)

Home release

Region 1 Region 2
02005-08-23 August 23, 2005 N/A

See also

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Movies. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Movie Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Homeland Security (film)" Read more