Collateral Damage is a 2002 action film which tells the story of a Los Angeles firefighter, Gordy Brewer (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), who looks to avenge his son's and wife's deaths at the hands of a guerrilla commando, by traveling to Colombia and facing his family's killers.
Plot
The movie begins inside a burning building. Fire fighters are searching for people inside. One of them, Gordon "Gordy" Brewer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), sees a woman trapped on the end of a burning corridor. He jumps across a gap in the floor and rescues her.
Later, at Gordy's home, his wife is waking up and sees Gordy playing with his son Matt (Ethan Dampf), helping him build a model plane. His wife Anne (Lindsay Frost) is taking their son to the doctor for a check up, and she wants Gordy to pick them up afterwards, to which he agrees.
However, Gordy is running late. His wife and son are waiting for him in a plaza near the Colombian consulate. "The Wolf", Claudio Perrini (Cliff Curtis), disguised as a police officer, pulls up to the consulate in a motorcycle. He leaves the motorcycle in front of the entrance and starts to leave. Gordy parks near the consulate and sees the Wolf as he comes by. Gordy thinks he is a police officer, and tells him that he is just parking for a second to pick up his wife and son. The Wolf smiles and nods, then leaves. Gordy sees his wife and starts across the street to her when the bomb in the motorcycle explodes. His wife and son are killed along with 7 other officials. Gordy is injured.
Later, while recovering, he sees the news footage of the explosion. He figures out that the motorcycle cop was the terrorist and informs the FBI. They bring him in for questioning, and he learns about The Wolf. He sees a video of a taped message from the terrorist organization supporting the Wolf. The person speaking is hidden from view, and the voice on the tape distorted. They tell him The Wolf has returned to Colombia and there is nothing they can do. But Gordy rebels and decides to go after the Wolf himself. He learns that the terrorists were retaliating for CIA operations within Colombia, and that one of the targets of the attack was CIA agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas). A Congressional committee chairman blames Brandt for the attack and promises to shut down his operations in Colombia, but Brandt knows he has some time before that can happen and quickly flies there to meet up with allies from the Colombian National Police Force.
After evading many guerrillas in the jungle, Gordy finally makes it to where The Wolf is staying. He is immediately targeted by the terrorists, who want to hold him for ransom, and the CIA and police, who do not want him to stir up anything.
The police get to him first and he is locked up in a prison. While there, he makes contact with Canadian hustler Sean Armstrong (John Turturro). The terrorists attack the prison to try to get to Gordy and free some of their members. Gordy manages to escape and rescue Sean. Sean returns the favor by hooking him up with Felix Ramirez (John Leguizamo), who manages the drug production that finances the terrorists.
After reaching the main drug plant, Gordy destroys it with explosives. Felix is blamed and he is killed.
Then, Gordy sneaks into The Wolf's headquarters. He plants a bomb near The Wolf's room and leaves. But he spots a woman and a child walking towards the room, he runs towards them and shouts to warn them. The Wolf hears and jumps out of the building just as it explodes. He and his men beat up Gordy. The woman, Selena Perrini (Francesca Neri), is the Wolf's wife.
Gordy is taken prisoner. He talks to Selena, trying to get her to help him. Selena explains to Gordy why her husband is a terrorist. Gordy tells her that no matter the reason, what he is doing is wrong and that she should help him stop him. Selena says Gordy and the Wolf are the same, both consumed by hate and vengeance.
Meanwhile, the early explosion at The Wolf's headquarters catches the attention of the CIA. They track down the Wolf's terrorist camp and launch an attack. During the confusion, Selena helps Gordy break out, on the condition that he takes her and her son to the US. She says the Wolf has gone back to Washington for another attack.
Gordy, Selena, and her son are taken back to the State Department in Washington to help the search effort for the Wolf. Selena points out the train station in a photo, and the FBI goes to investigate. Selena excuses herself to go to the bathroom. She tells her son to go with her. When he refuses, she becomes very irritated and angry. Gordy said the son would be fine in the room, and she reluctantly agrees. Gordy is suspicious. He then views the original terrorist video sent after the first bombing. He realizes that the person in the video makes the same gesture that Selena made. He realizes that she was working with The Wolf, and that the real target was the State Department. He warns everyone to leave, and throws the son's toy dinosaur out of a window just as it explodes, realizing it was never checked by the metal detectors upon entry. Brandt gets killed by Selena after trying to stop her escape.
Gordy chases Selena down to the basement of the building. The Wolf is waiting for her and they ride away in the underground tunnels beneath the building. Gordy finds the controls and shuts the gates leading out of the tunnels. The Wolf and Selena have to go back to the controls to open them. Gordy breaks open some gas lines along the walls of the tunnel and waits. As they ride back, Selena shoots at Gordy. Her gun ignites the gas. Gordy jumps through a doorway just as the entire tunnel explodes. When he goes back to survey the damage, Selena and the Wolf attack him - they had survived the explosion. He throws Selena through a control panel and she is electrocuted. The Wolf and Gordy continue fighting. Gordy throws a fire fighter's axe at the Wolf, which hits him in his chest, killing him.
At the end, Gordy holds Selena's son as they leave the State Department with a voiceover of a news person explaining that he's going to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest honor a civilian can get) for his actions.
Reception
Release
The September 11, 2001 attacks affected the release and editing of the final film. Interestingly, the original screenplay had Gordy going to Libya to avenge his family's death at the hands of Arab terrorists; the protagonists were made into Colombian terrorists because director Andrew Davis wanted to explore the conflict in that country (from a perspective that was critical of U.S. policy) and that the Arab terrorism angle had already been approached by Schwarzenegger in True Lies.
The film was originally scheduled to be released on October 5, 2001, but it was postponed due to its terrorism theme and eventually released on February 8, 2002. The premiere was held on February 4, 2002.
The film also was supposed to include Colombian actress SofÃa Vergara in the role of an airplane hijacker; however the scene where Vergara would hijack a plane was cut from the movie.
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Somewhat cheesy, but fun to watch
There are two types of action film viewers–those who are looking for
dmitriych from United States - 5 March 2009realism and those who want entertainment, even if it differs from
expected, most probable course of events. I think you can strike a
balance between these two ways of making movies.Those who blame action film makers for lack of realism forget that an
average person already has realism in his life with its limitations,
rules, laws, bureaucracy, politics and lack of interest in your
personal troubles. If I need realism, I can just go to Chicago south
side, get robbed by some friendly neighborhood minorities because I'm
white, only to see complete lack of action or response from the Chicago
police, because they are playing politics and will not protect me for
fear that those same "neighbors" who robbed me will start yapping all
over, call Jesse Jackson and it will affect them in an undesirable way
(I'm citing an actual reported incident here). Sorry, folks, but that's
the ugly reality.An action hero is a way to relax and get away from all that and finally
see a man get things done and set things right, for once be strong and
empowered. People identify with a hero. They sympathize, they believe
it would be great if they were so empowered. That is why people watch
action movies."Collateral Damage" is somewhat far-fetched, as others have mentioned,
but it does give you that feeling of empowerment, that an average Joe
can, in fact, stand up and avenge the death of his family in spite of
all those political games our government loves to play.Two things I found irritating in Collateral Damage was the ending and
Francesca Neri's silicon lips that make her look like a cheap blow-up
doll (pay attention to her face when she examines photos at CIA
headquarters). Arnie closes the door and an explosion takes place
behind it. The heavy metal door gets blasted off with the concrete wall
so hard that it flies and Arnie is dragged across the floor. He walks
back and is attacked by the terrorist who isn't even burnt, even though
he was in the middle of the explosion (not like Arnold behind a
concrete wall.) I think that was making it too far-fetched.But don't let the ending discourage you from watching the movie. It's
really not important, we all know the bad guy always dies in these
stories. It's the process we are after, the action, ass-kicking,
explosions…There's plenty here. There is a "Whole lot of Collateral
Damage".
Schwartznegger's most realistic
This is one of (if not the) last Arnold vehicles. The plot is using the
scootser-1 from Finland - 16 October 2008standard 80s action formula. Our hero's family gets slain by terrorists
and enraged he goes after the bad guys. What makes Collateral Damage
stand out from most of the other action movies is its realism. There
are no over the top stunts or mowing down hordes of enemies with a high
caliber machine gun. Instead Schwartznegger is acting his age as a
50-plus fireman who uses his skills realistically. All of the fighting
scenes are extensive and well choreographed so the hero doesn't come
off as having superpowers or fighting experience. Character development
leaves much to be desired as all side characters are literally
cardboard cut-outs which again is an attribute copied straight from the
80s. Towards the end the plot gets really absurd with many unnecessary
twists that really do not belong and could have easily been removed in
editing. If you have nothing new to watch or if you want to see all
Schwartznegger's movies then give Collateral Damage a shot. However, if
your time is limited and you have a variety of movies to choose from
then skip this and watch something else instead.
New Futurama movie just came out
Well, this was no Terminator movie but it had its moments. That is to
freakfire-1 from Texas, United States - 25 June 2008say, it had some entertainment value. And plus I do like the fact it
highlights some of the problems in Central America that are still
relevant today.Alas, however, Arnold could not solve them. But he can act out what he
would do in that situation. He loses is family due to factions in
Colombia acting out their transgressions in the streets of L.A.
Implausible in real life, but hey what isn't? Arnold plays his favorite
card, revenge. He goes in with the objective to kill the man
responsible. When he gets there, something improbable happens. His life
is spared by rebels and with no real reasoning given.But at least the twist near the end was good. And Arnold can be proud
he took on rebels and won. Just like he does in real life. So, its a
slightly above average movie, but nothing special. "C+"
It does tend to be entertaining
Some films are victims of circumstance. It could be argued that this
Grann-Bach (Grann-Bach@jubii.dk) from Denmark - 4 April 2008was dealt a bad hand on account of its(obviously unforeseen) timing;
however, that argument may be void and null. I'm not so sure it'd have
fared all that well, regardless… even if it hadn't coincided with the
tragic real-life event(this is not the appropriate forum to discuss
whether or not it could have been prevented), or subsequently undergone
changes. It's just not that strong, overall. It starts out pretty well,
but the way it continues… the movie and the people working on it
don't seem to realize(or if it does, no readily apparent measures to
correct this were taken) that the merciless berating(whether or not
it's true) of Colombia gets *really* old, very fast; rather, it
continues throughout, and whatever point may have once been present
disappears in all the repetition(how many times do the words
"kidnapping" and "drugs" have to be mentioned in just one feature in
connection to a single geographical location?). The plot starts out as
more or less usual revenge-flick stuff, and had it stayed there, this
would be fine. But it tries to judge and moralize, and it winds up with
too many things going on, too many pointed fingers, in various
directions, and apart from not fitting with the tone of the flick, and
worse than that, it just gets messy and unfocused. The acting is fine.
Both John's do their thing some, but they have very little to do, other
than advance the story. Cinematography and editing are decent, nothing
special, and they do manage to render unclear one or two parts of this
that'd be intense and fun if only the viewer could determine exactly
what was happening. The action isn't bad… this can be quite exciting,
and that's probably its greatest asset. Arnold dishes out some, and if
he is perhaps not as… liberated as in earlier efforts, he does fight
dirty some(I've decided to nickname him "Mike" from now on). Pacing is
OK. I recommend this to fans of Arnie, and the genre in general, but I
wouldn't suggest a purchase, or maybe even rental… but if you can
borrow it from a friend, or it's on TV and you've got to watch some
stuff blow up and such, this'll scratch the itch(if not as well as
other pieces could). 6/10
Propaganda at its best
I was unfortunate enough to see this movie on TV moments ago and was
bimtly from Australia - 1 January 2008completely astonished at the pervasive and relentless lies it threw in
my face.The 'Columbian guerrilla' are 'terrorists' setting off bombs to kill
innocent people… yeah there is one problem with that storyline,
reality. The Columbian para-military are not even mentioned and they
are one of the leading terrorist organizations in the world. This movie
is boarder line, actually it is, offensive to anyone with even a basic
concept of US and Columbia relations or an understanding of the last
20+ years of Columbian history.This movie could not pass an audience perhaps outside of Arnold fans or
Americans without dropping jaws and bowling people over. The US have
been attacking Columbian peasants for decades with chemical warfare
while helping the Columbian government, the military and the
para-military slaughter them.Watch this movie as a prime example of propaganda filtered through
Hollywood.
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