The Peacemaker (1997)

A US Army colonel and a civilian woman supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they're used by terrorists.

Director:

Mimi Leder

Writers:

Leslie Cockburn (article) (as Leslie Redlich Cockburn), Andrew Cockburn (article)

Stars:

George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Marcel Iures

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George Clooney	...	Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe
Nicole Kidman	...	Dr. Julia Kelly
Marcel Iures	...	Dusan Gavrich
Aleksandr Baluev	...	General Aleksandr Kodoroff (as Alexander Baluev)
Rene Medvesek	...	Vlado Mirich
Gary Werntz	...	Terry Hamilton
Randall Batinkoff	...	Ken
Jim Haynie	...	General Garnett
Alexander Strobele	...	Dietrich Schuhmacher
Holt McCallany	...	Mark Appleton
Michael Boatman	...	CPN Beach
Joan Copeland	...	Senator Helen Bevens
Carlos Gómez	...	Santiago
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Dimitri Vertikoff
Slavko Juraga	...	Stevo

Storyline

Two trains crash somewhere in Russia, one carrying a nuclear payload. A nuclear explosion follows the crash and the world is on alert... However, White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly doesn't think it was an accident... Special Operations Intelligence Officer Colonel Thomas Devoe doesn't think so either... Together they must unravel a conspiracy that goes from Europe to New York, to stop a terrorist who has no demands...

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Plot Keywords:

time bomb | army colonel | nuclear weapon | train | nuclear explosion | 

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Taglines:

In the fall of 1997, every nuclear device in the world will be accounted for... Except one.

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and some language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian Serbian Bosnian Croatian Polish

Release Date:

26 September 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

El pacificador

Filming Locations:

Cremosne, Slovakia

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,311,939, 28 September 1997, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$41,263,140

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$110,463,140

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

George Clooney and Nicole Kidman were both raised Catholic. Clooney was an altar boy.

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Goofs

The script pretends that Soviet Union has never collapsed in 1991, although we can see the former-soviet republics shown in the map at the American Base in Turkey. Russia has no borders with Iran that Kodoroff can pass over to, carrying nuclear warheads with him. The three American choppers cannot directly pass the non-existing Turkish-Russian border to Russia.

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Quotes

Dusan Gavrich: [a tape meant to be played after his bomb explodes] You will look at what I have done and say, Of course - why not - they are all animals. They have slaughtered each other for centuries. But the truth is, I'm not a monster. I'm a human man - I'm just like you, whether you like it or not. For years, we have tried to live together, until a war was waged on us, on all of us: a war waged by our own leaders. And who supplied the Serb cluster bombs, the Croatian tanks, the Muslim artillery shells that...

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Alternate Versions

TBS and TNT broadcasts eliminate all references to CNN, including putting a colored square over the CNN logo when it appears on screen.

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Connections

Featured in Being George Clooney (2016)

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Soundtracks

Elici
Performed by Sveti Dimitrija Church Choir

User Reviews

Solid first effort from DreamWorks

Let's be honest first of all. Did anybody think the first movie out of the gate from a studio owned by David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Steven Spielberg be an artsy-fartsy film? For what it is, this is pretty good. Director Mimi Leder does a good job keeping everything going (she was less successful with her follow-up, DEEP IMPACT), and I was involved the whole way through. I like George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, but I will admit they don't get a whole lot to do here. Like the similar MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, there's not a whole lot of character development for the heroes, so the film depends on whether or not you like the stars, and fortunately, I do.

The one distinguishing factor of the movie is the villain, played by Marcel Iures. While the one who steals the missiles is your standard action villain, there's a gravity and sadness Iures brings that's unexpected in a film like this. This is no sneering DIE HARD rip-off, but a guy who takes an action because he feels it's the only choice he has, and the film at least brings forth the notion that if that's how he feels, we the Western powers are somewhat culpable.