BIG GAME
Finland/Germany/US, 2015, 85 minutes, Colour.
Samuel L.Jackson, Onni Tommila, Ray Stevenson, Victor Garber, Mehmet Kurtulus, Ted Levine, Felicity Huffman, Jim Broadbent.
Directed by Jalmari Helander.
Big Name is an old-fashioned adventure film, from a story by the Finnish director.
It is reminiscent of such adventures as Air Force One in the 1990s and is a cousin of such threats to the presidency films as Olympus is Down and London is Down where the intentions of the terrorists are rather similar to those here.
The scenery in Finland, the mountains, the forests for hunters, are quite spectacular and provide plenty of obstacles for the rescue of the President. At the centre of the film is a young boy, turning 13, Onni Tommila, being sent out into the forest to kill his first animal, but finding that he is not adept with his bow and arrows.
The American President is flying in Air Force One to a conference in Helsinki. An alleged hunting helicopter is carrying terrorists who shoot down the plane and those accompanying it. The serious chief of staff, Ray Stevenson, turns out to be the traitor, disgusted with a weak Presiden and sends the President in a safety pod intending to sell him to be terrorists and execute him.
But he is found by the boy who helps him – they find themselves in a freezer taken by helicopter but the boy cuts the connection and they fall to earth, rolling down cliffs into lakes, finding the crashed plane, using ejection seats to escape. Meanwhile, there are confrontations with the chief terrorist and the security head.
Samuel L. Jackson seems to be enjoying himself as a weak President who becomes strong, and acts very well with the boy who has a fine command of English. The character actors in the Pentagon include Vincent Garber as Vice- President, Ted Levine as the general, Felicity Huffman as the CIA chief and, especially, Jim Broadbent is also enjoying himself as an expert – with a twist at the end.
Saturday matinee kind of stuff – implausible but enjoyable.
1. A popular action show? Based in realism but far-fetched?
2. The Finland setting, the beauty of the scenery, the mountains, the lakes? The Washington setting, the Pentagon? The hunting action, in the forest, the President and the boy being pursued? The base camp, the hunters? The helicopter, Air Force One and its interiors, the crash? The musical score?
3. The plausibility of the plot, implausibility and plausibility – and that not mattering for the action and entertainment?
4. In Finland, the young boy, turning 13, the photo of his father with the bear, the challenge to the boy? His wanting to live up to his father, admiration for his father? At the camp? Unable to fire the arrow, his embarrassment? His father supporting him, pressurising the leader? The quest, overnight, to bring back an animal, a deer?
5. The boy out overnight, camping? His coming across the pod, thinking the President came from space, his questions? Opening the door with the code? His arrow, the confrontation?
6. The President, head of security, the detail of Air Force One, the President going to a conference in Helsinki? The President laid back, eating the cookies, the attention of security? The attack, the plane hit, the President in the pod, the betrayal of the head of security, in the past his having been wounded for the President? His shooting the men, parachuting?
7. The men in the helicopter, the leader from the Gulf States, landing, setting themselves up, glasses, the weapons, and ordering the pilot to run, destroying him?
8. Meeting with the security chief in the forest? Tracking the pod, the President missing, finding the boy, finding the President, taking him, in the freezer, the security chief killing two of the men? The helicopter, towing the freezer, the boy leaping onto it, their trying to shoot him, going low in the forest, bumping, the boy cutting the rope, landing with the President in the freezer? Getting him out? The issue?
9. The attack, bumping the freezer, its going downhill, into the water, finding the crashed plane, going inside, the leader getting into the plane, putting the bomb, the President and the gun and cocking it (after his attempt to shoot the security chief), the ejection seats, into the water? Landing near the base camp?
10. The plane, the rescue of the security chief, the boy’s arrow bouncing off him – but upsetting the bullet already within him and his death?
11. The Pentagon, the Chiefs of staff, the CIA head, the Vice President? Bringing in the expert on terrorism? His casual approach, eating the sandwich, his knowledge, information, getting the satellite focus, everybody being able to follow what was happening? The amazement? Losing the President the expert urging Vice President to be sworn in? And the President appearing?
12. Hunters, the puzzlement, the SEAL rescuing the President, the men and hands up, the boy, his father, having provided the deer’s head in the freezer, but the boy wanting to stand on his own feet? The newspapers, with the photo with the President and his medal?
13. The revelation that the expert and the Vice President had engineered the attack on the President, the expert and Vice President in the toilet block and going, scot-free?
14. A boy’s own adventure?
