Tunnel Rats (2008)

During the Vietnam War [1959-1975] a special US combat unit is sent out to hunt and kill the Viet Cong soldiers in a man-to-man combat in the endless tunnels underneath the jungle of Vietnam. Suicide squads of a special kind.

Director:

Uwe Boll

Writers:

Dan Clarke (story), Uwe Boll

Stars:

Toufeeq Adonis, Wilson Bethel, Adrian Collins

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toufeeq Adonis	...	VC Soldier
Wilson Bethel	...	Corporal Dan Green
Adrian Collins	...	Private Dean Garraty
Scot Cooper	...	Private Joseph Walderson (as Scott Cooper)
Mitch Eakins	...	Private Peter Harris
Erik Eidem	...	Private Carl Johnson
Brandon Fobbs	...	Private Samuel Graybridge
Shih Jou-An	...	Vietnamese Girl
Jane Le	...	Vo Mai
Devan 'Yankee' Liang	...	Vietnamese Boy
Scott Ly	...	Huy Tran
Rocky Marquette	...	Private Terence Verano
Garikayi Mutambirwa	...	Private Jonathan Porterson
Michael Paré	...	Sergeant Vic Hollowborn
Nate Parker	...	Private Jim Lidford

Storyline

During the Vietnam War the U.S. Army brass decides to create a special unit called the Tunnel Rats. Their main mission is to clean-up the Viet-Cong network of tunnels found in the Cu-Chi district outside the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.The tunnels have become a major nuisance for the U.S. Forces stationed around and inside Saigon. From these tunnels the Viet-Cong can launch devastating and unexpected attacks on any nearby American base as well as on Saigon itself. After the attacks the Viet-Cong forces disappear into the extensive network of tunnels as fast as they appeared, leaving the pursuing Americans empty-handed. The first Tunnel Rats units arrive in the Cu-Chi district in 1968 and they are special-trained to fight hand-to-hand combats underground. They can only rely on a flashlight, a knife and a pistol to try to flush the enemy out. The tunnels, varying in size and length, are booby-trapped with mines and grenades, punji sticks, tripwires, poisonous snakes and enemy ...

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Plot Keywords:

vietnam | tunnel | jungle | no survivors | death of protagonist | 

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Taglines:

Hell Is For Heroes

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Genres:

Action | Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong war violence and language

Details

Country:

Canada Germany

Language:

English Vietnamese

Release Date:

13 November 2008 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Tunnel Rats

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Boll, Horst Hermann Medienproduktion, Tunnel Rats Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Won a Golden Raspberry Award despite being released in only one theatre in the United States: Worst Director for Uwe Boll (also for In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007) and Postal (2007)).

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Goofs

In the movie, Michael Pare's character is referred to as Lieutenant but the credits show him as Sergeant.

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Connections

Referenced in 1968: Tunnel Rats - Behind the Scenes (2009)

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Soundtracks

Breathe In
Music by Jessica de Rooij
Lyrics by Caitlin Tortorici, Tim Harris, and Dragos Nedelcu
Performed by Caitlin Tortorici
Produced by Jessica de Rooij

User Reviews

Rats, No Cheese

If you're looking for an intricate plot, look elsewhere. If you're looking for feel-good, shoot-em-up action, look elsewhere. If you're looking for the latest sugar-pill rom-com with Sandra Bullock, why are you even reading this? In Uwe Boll's stunning "Tunnel Rats," the increasingly interesting (but still no less maligned) German director has made what essentially amounts to a chronicle of the madness of war told in a confined, claustrophobic, and frighteningly intimate way. The concept and plot (a platoon of American soldiers uncovering underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong to stage ambushes) are one and the same; and the metaphors paralleling confined spaces to the erosion of sanity are strong--hysteria is very viscerally believable here. While the character introductions and subsequent dialogs may strike notes of familiarity to the seasoned connoisseur of cinematic warfare, it's the unfamiliarity of the cast (with Boll regular Michael Pare being the only 'name' actor present) that makes it all stick; the lack of name actors only heightens the suspense, especially after they've earned our sympathy. To see these young men trapped in confined, booby-trapped spaces (with nothing but a revolver and a flashlight) is the stuff of nightmares, even more so than "The Descent" a few years back. The film maintains a bleak, free-form nihilism throughout, its plot (much like the war it's invoking) a jagged sequence of events rather than a simple matter of connect-the-dots conflict resolution. Tough, hypnotic, and refreshingly free of contrived stylistic symbolism, "Tunnel Rats" could very well be Uwe Boll's masterpiece.

7.5 out of 10