Hollywood has always been keen on disaster movies and I guess movies about a massive terrorist attack could be put in that same category. And it has to be said, terrorism may well be a hot item today, but it already existed in the seventies. Take for instance the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 during which several Israeli athletes died after being taken hostage by a group of Palestinians. Hollywood saw those images too of course and they were obviously inspired by it. What other explanation could there be for this movie?
A terrorist organization called Black September is planning to attack a large target in the USA. One of them is Michael Lander, a Vietnam veteran, who is psychologically scarred because he was held as a prisoner of war and lost his wife because the government didn't help him. Another member is a German-Arabian woman called Dahlia who leads the operation and who appears to have a personal reason for this attack. When her house is invaded by the Israeli secret service, Major Kobakov has his gun on her, but doesn't shoot. They let her live, but before blowing up the house, the secret service manages to capture some vital information, which they give to the USA to inform them about what is about to happen. They don't know what the target will be, but Kobakov is convinced that there will be plenty of victims and that the damage will be large. With the help of FBI-agent Corley, he tries to stop them before it's too late, but his methods aren't always appreciated by the Americans...
Normally I'm not too much a fan of action or disaster movies, but this one was different. Thanks to the tension that is built up throughout the entire movie, I kept my interest in this film. For a long time this felt much more like a thriller than like the average action movie and that's a very good thing. Also the fact that it isn't immediately obvious why 'the bad guys' want to attack the USA is interesting. Normally that's the kind of information that they give away immediately, but not this time. I really appreciated that. Also worth mentioning is the acting and the relevance of the subject today. It will all feel quite familiar, although I don't think the makers of this movie could ever have thought that it would..
The only 'problem' that I had with this movie is the ending. In my opinion that was a bit too much and quite predictable. It just didn't seem to fit in with everything that I had seen before that and I admit that it spoiled a part of my fun. Still, that's no reason to believe that this movie isn't any good. I still give it a 7/10.
A terrorist organization called Black September is planning to attack a large target in the USA. One of them is Michael Lander, a Vietnam veteran, who is psychologically scarred because he was held as a prisoner of war and lost his wife because the government didn't help him. Another member is a German-Arabian woman called Dahlia who leads the operation and who appears to have a personal reason for this attack. When her house is invaded by the Israeli secret service, Major Kobakov has his gun on her, but doesn't shoot. They let her live, but before blowing up the house, the secret service manages to capture some vital information, which they give to the USA to inform them about what is about to happen. They don't know what the target will be, but Kobakov is convinced that there will be plenty of victims and that the damage will be large. With the help of FBI-agent Corley, he tries to stop them before it's too late, but his methods aren't always appreciated by the Americans...
Normally I'm not too much a fan of action or disaster movies, but this one was different. Thanks to the tension that is built up throughout the entire movie, I kept my interest in this film. For a long time this felt much more like a thriller than like the average action movie and that's a very good thing. Also the fact that it isn't immediately obvious why 'the bad guys' want to attack the USA is interesting. Normally that's the kind of information that they give away immediately, but not this time. I really appreciated that. Also worth mentioning is the acting and the relevance of the subject today. It will all feel quite familiar, although I don't think the makers of this movie could ever have thought that it would..
The only 'problem' that I had with this movie is the ending. In my opinion that was a bit too much and quite predictable. It just didn't seem to fit in with everything that I had seen before that and I admit that it spoiled a part of my fun. Still, that's no reason to believe that this movie isn't any good. I still give it a 7/10.