Mercury Rising (1998)

Shadowy elements in the NSA target a nine-year old autistic savant for death when he is able to decipher a top secret code.

Director:

Harold Becker

Writers:

Ryne Douglas Pearson (novel), Lawrence Konner (screenplay)

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Miko Hughes, Alec Baldwin

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Willis	...	Art Jeffries
Alec Baldwin	...	Nick Kudrow
Miko Hughes	...	Simon Lynch
Chi McBride	...	Tommy B. Jordan
Kim Dickens	...	Stacey
Robert Stanton	...	Dean Crandell
Bodhi Elfman	...	Leo Pedranski (as Bodhi Pine Elfman)
Carrie Preston	...	Emily Lang
Lindsey Ginter	...	Peter Burrell (as L.L. Ginter)
Peter Stormare	...	Shayes
Kevin Conway	...	Lomax
John Carroll Lynch	...	Martin Lynch
Kelley Hazen	...	Jenny Lynch
John Doman	...	Supervisor Hartley
Richard Riehle	...	Edgar Halstrom

Storyline

Bruce Willis is an outcast FBI agent who protects a 9 year old autistic boy who is the target for assassins after cracking a top secret government code.

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Plot Keywords:

autistic child | child in danger | autism | assassin | 9 year old | 

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Taglines:

Someone knows too much.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 April 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mercury Falling

Filming Locations:

Greystone Park & Mansion - 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,104,715, 5 April 1998

Gross USA:

$32,935,289

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$93,107,289

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS DTS-Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Bruce Willis wears the same bomber jacket as he wore as Butch in Pulp Fiction.

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Goofs

The "$1,500 gun" that Jeffries identifies as the weapon used to kill Simon's mom and dad is a H&K P7. More suspicious than the fact that the gun is very rare and expensive would have been the fact that the barrel would have been an extended threaded barrel to attach a suppressor. These are only purchased when a person intends to add a silencer to the gun.

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Quotes

[first lines]
FBI Supervisor Hartley: Let's go down.

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Alternate Versions

The german TV-Channel RTL cut all of the violence out of the movie, to send it on an earlier timespot (8.15pm).

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Lost in Space/The Spanish Prisoner/Mercury Rising/Kurt & Courtney/Character (1998)

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Soundtracks

London Jam
Written by Pelham Goddard and Christopher 'Tambo' Herbert
Performed by Chicago State University Steel Band

User Reviews

Killed by its own premise

This movie has one huge problem: *its basic premise makes no sense at all*. Killing the kid is in absolutely nobody's interest. His codebreaking skill would be of immeasurable value to the very people who are trying to kill him, while safeguarding the code without killing him would be fairly straightforward. This is so obvious that it essentially ruins the whole movie.

The rest of the movie is OK if you ignore that problem. The performances are generally good, and Miko Hughes is excellent as Simon. There is nothing here you haven't seen a dozen times before, but it's generally well done. It's not worth making any real effort to see this movie, but you probably won't have a bad time if you do.