Deterrence (1999)

The President of the United States must deal with an international military crisis while confined to a Colorado diner during a freak snowstorm

Director:

Rod Lurie

Writer:

Rod Lurie

Stars:

Kevin Pollak, Timothy Hutton, Sheryl Lee Ralph

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kevin Pollak	...	President Walter Emerson
Timothy Hutton	...	Marshall Thompson
Sheryl Lee Ralph	...	Gayle Redford
Clotilde Courau	...	Katie
Badja Djola	...	Harvey
Sean Astin	...	Ralph
Mark Thompson	...	Gerald Irvin
Michael Mantell	...	Taylor Woods
Kathryn Morris	...	Lizzie Woods
Ryan Cutrona	...	Agent Dexter
Joe McCrackin	...	Agent Williams
Scoot Powell	...	Noah
J. Scott Shonka	...	Captain Coddington
Jim Curley	...	Admiral Miller (as James Curly)
Rigg Kennedy	...	Howard

Storyline

After the death of the President, his successor is on the campaign trail to be re-elected. On a stop in Colorado, he is suddenly snowed in and he and his entourage are forced to take shelter in a small diner. Of course, the group completely take over from the diner's owner and his French-Canadian waitress. Also in the diner is a local redneck and a married couple. Suddenly, the movie moves into a suspense film as the President learns that Iraq has invaded Kuwait and slaughtered hundreds of American soldiers. Setting up temporary communications, the President announces that he will launch a nuclear attack on Iraq immediately if the country does not withdraw. Iraq reacts that they have 23 nuclear missiles trained on the US that they are ready to launch. Tensions mount with the involved civilians offering a different viewpoint to the President from the normal opinions of his advisers.

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Plot Keywords:

diner | iraq | colorado | kuwait | french canadian | 

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Taglines:

Every President has a defining moment. Walter Emerson is about to have his.

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Paramount Classics

Country:

France USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 March 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Crise dos Mísseis

Box Office

Budget:

$800,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$23,318 (USA) (10 March 2000)

Gross:

$144,583 (USA) (19 May 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Battleplan Productions, Moonstone Entertainment, TF1 International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (FotoKem) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The combination to unlock the nuclear suitcase is 08061945 (August 6, 1945), which is the date the United States dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima.

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Goofs

The president stated that a 100 megaton bomb was dropped on Baghdad, but this impossible. The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated was 50 megatons, the famous Tsar bomb. The are no weapons in the US arsenal even close to 100 megatons. The largest detonation of a nuclear weapon by the US was the Castle Bravo test, with a yield of 15 megatons. This detonation was not intentional however, but the result of a runaway reaction. The fact that the president in the movie had reduced the US arsenal further makes this scenario unlikely.

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Quotes

President Walter Emerson: I didn't say anything about abort mission, I said hold position. Don't play your fucking game with me admiral!

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Soundtracks

"Ghosts"
Written by Noah Stone
Performed by Noah Stone

User Reviews

A true B movie...

Many of the comments here seem to want to review this movie as if it was a real major motion picture. In reality, this was very much a B movie and should be judged in the same class as movies with giant bunny rabbits and bug-eyed aliens. Not only is the story implausible, but they are adding this film to the definition of the word.

Like many B movies, this film has a few well-known actors who dropped in for the weekend to read it off of cue cards, were paid in cash, and somehow forget to list this film on their resume. Kevin Pollak and Timothy Hutton definitely had alimony payments coming due that weekend. Like all great B movies, the budget was miniscule. The movie takes place entirely in a diner, not because it was a good idea, but because they couldn't even afford decent stock footage. Beyond the few actors with names, the remaining cast was selected by who was in the commissary that day. What's really fun is how the set is obviously raided from scenery storerooms. What's with that British phone booth? And, B movies love to toss around the nukes, with no real thought to strategy, consequences, fallout, war powers act, or anything else at all. Last, but not least, we have the "surprise" ending, which even those who knew the surprise didn't seem to see coming.

There are clearly some fun things about this film. The Iraqi chemical and biological threat that gets sorta forgotten later in the film. The use of two different ocean nuclear detonations to make one supposed city detonation. The news network with more intelligence gathering capabilities than the US government (including their own spy satellite network), and yet having only one anchor and really crummy graphics. The pictures of F-117 fighters referred to as B2 bombers. The compressed time (just how fast were those missiles and bombers flying?), combined with "pacing by snail". The "don't mind us" attitude about random citizens sitting in on a war strategy meeting, occasionally butting in. Let's put the ultra top secret combination for the "football" on speakerphone so everyone can hear!

But, everyone has watched a lot of B movies and found them entertaining (or at least not too boring). I found this film entertaining and made it all of the way through it. It's worth a viewing just for fun (especially if you are not paying for it). After all, you know you saw "Night of the Lepus"!