#Executive Decision

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F-14 Tomcat from VF-84 "Jolly Roger" Squadron, Executive Decision (1996)

[portablesleep]

Reflection

[thequantumranger]

Executive Decision (1996) for @greatrunner 💖

[academicelephant]

I wish Chicago Med's new season would start already... I've been watching 9-1-1 while waiting, and it's quite okay (especially the fact that the emergency centre has a proper role in it is great) but it's still not as good as Chicago Med. Or Chicago Fire for that matter. I've also watched Oliver Platt's movies, some of which are actually good, like Executive Decision (1996), but really I just want Dr. Charles. He makes me feel good like no other character does. He's great, he really is

[anarchic-miscellany]

Shoutout to Cahill (played by the wonderful Oliver Platt, always the best thing he's in) the DARPA scientist who gets pulled along into the plot of "Executive Decision". A panicked civilian contractor/scientist, who ends up having to be the bomb disposal guy because their usual one gets incapacitated during the arrival. And he spends the movie being normal in that situation, not annoying.

[blvqebird]

Do you ever get disappointed so many times that you can't even cry about it anymore?

Still loving, but exhausted, dry eyed, numb.

It's December and i'm closing this cycle out once and for all.

It's time for practicality. Being cold now is the only viable solution.

I will not bring another year in feeling this way. Doing these things. Hoping for better but never actually receiving.

The trust just isn't there. I'm believing the actions now, what I see everytime.

The benefit of doubt is now futile.

I'm not a monster, so why do you run?

That doesn't matter because I wash my hands of this now. Forever.

[makemerainbows]

[seph7]

J.T. Walsh as Senator Jason Mavros in Executive Decision (1996)

[knackfandomarchive]

Since I'm going to be learning how to use tumblr to its fullest extent (?), going from almost super noob, would y'all like to see me post about what I'm learning? When I look at the #how to use tumblr tag, the posts I have seen so far are mainly concerned with etiquette, which I appreciate. But I'm going to focus on the mechanical side of things.

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lip scar canon for sapphic reasons

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Various computer graphics, Executive Decision (1996)

[thecurefordepression]

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Movie Review | Executive Decision (Baird, 1996)

This review contains mild spoilers.

After I decided to give Under Siege a rewatch because I saw it was about to leave Canadian Netflix, I saw this other Steven Seagal "classic" was about to leave too, and ended up squeezing in a rewatch. This despite the fact that I can say with certainty that I own this movie, as I bought one of those four packs years ago for the express purpose of watching this movie. But you see that date lingering in the corner of the Netflix screen, and well, some things take priority. Also, I don't remember where I placed my copy of this either. Maybe I should get better at organizing my collection? Anyway, while its ownage is less firm than that of Under Siege, I still had a pretty good time.

As far as Die Hard clones go, this has the most in common with Air Force One, which came out the following year. They both take place on a plane, and also feature an opening commando raid and kidnapping (here, two separate scenes, in the other movie, combined into one). I do think this movie compares unfavourably to that one, and Under Siege, and of course, Die Hard, for one main reason: not a lot happens here. All those other movies, after their initial setup, give their heroes a weapon but also a series of problems to solve, so that there's a constant stream of incident. Here, once we get onto the plane, there's really just a handful of problems that the heroes have to solve for, all bundled together: defuse the bomb before the terrorists can set it off or kill any of the hostages. There isn't much shooting until the last few minutes, and while it's competently staged, it lacks the verve of those other movies. Where those movies have the heroes navigating all different parts of their respective settings, here much of the movie has them sweating it out in the belly of the plane.

That being said, I don't think this is inherently a flaw, and does make the movie involving in another sense, in that it's essentially an ode to problem solving and using brains over brawn. (The film's nerdy streak also manifests in the way it lovingly lingers on all the technical equipment, from all the flickering lights on the plane's different consoles and systems, to the extreme wide angle pinhole cameras used by the commandos.) The commando raid at the beginning of the movie yields paltry results, and once the characters are on the plane, a shoot 'em up solution favoured by the de facto lead commando is quickly understood to be the worst possible option in this situation. The heroes largely operate with intelligence and a good amount of deliberation. This whole subgenre came out of a reaction to the meathead muscleman action movies of the '80s, and despite Seagal also emerging as a star after that period, his casting as the trigger-happy lead commando is effective in evoking that period. Also, his death scene is really funny. Seagal's character is such an asshole (a trait inherited from real life) from when he first appears on screen that we start sweating like the heroes later do. We begin to dread that we're stuck with this guy as the hero for the whole movie, so it's a joy to see him get killed off as unceremoniously as he does so we can hang out with Kurt Russell and his friends instead. I like to say this is a good movie if you like Kurt Russell, but a great one if you hate Steven Seagal.

A few other notes:

Whereas in Die Hard the authority figures attempting to manage the situation from the outside are actively detrimental, and in most other examples of this subgenre, they're usually useless, here they are operating with a certain logic. The solution they lean towards is not a desirable one, but makes a certain amount of tactical sense given what information they have and what the stakes are. And once they reestablish contact with the team on the plane, they wisely get out of their way.

It is a bit jarring to see a 9/11-style scenario with Islamic terrorists in a movie made before 9/11, which probably makes it go down less easily than other movies in this subgenre. The version I watched on Netflix changed some of the dialogue to downplay the religious motivations of the villains. This is noted by Vern in Seagalogy as having one of the most bizarre examples of the "guy in a control room" trope, where a movie tries to mitigate negative portrayals of certain demographics or dodge accusations of racism by placing a character from that group in the "control room", so he's technically helping the heroes even if he might not be doing a lot. This one has one of the terrorists push back on the lead terrorist's plan for being too extreme, which, uh, is a choice. This might have gone over better had the movie attempted to define them as individuals, but they're basically cartoon villains here. For what it's worth, David Suchet is effective as the lead terrorist in a mustache-twirling way, even if he appears sans mustache.

[pineapples101]

Executive Decision- Blu Ray Artwork

High resolution pdfs can be found here: https://www.deviantart.com/pineapples101/gallery?catpath=/

[ittakestwopod]

[jimsmovieworld]

EXECUTIVE DECISION- 1996 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kurt Russell, Halle Berry and Stevey Seagall star in this action thriller about a plane being taken over by terrorists. The army send in an elite team to take them out...

Was enjoying it certainly but had no business being 2 hours and 15 minutes long, some scenes were dragged out way too long and lost a bit of interest.

Steven Seagall was reportedly a nightmare to work with, he didnt want to film a scene of him dying as he said his fans wouldn't like it, he left the project but was forced to return after the studio took legal action. Seagall made strange comments to the other actors saying he was in command and what he says goes. John Leguizamo thought he was joking and laughed, Seagall flew into a rage, attacked him and choked him out.