Do you like helicopter crashes?

DATELINE: Somewhere over the Utah desert. Two nuclear missiles are aboard a stealth bomber on a test flight. The pilot and co-pilot are best friends. Without warning, the pilot turns on his partner, attempting to kill him, when the co-pilot looks over just in time to save his own life. The pilot pulls on the co-pilots ejection controls and forces him out of the aircraft. He then calls into base and says the co-pilot has gone crazy and he has to eject. The two nuclear missiles are now somewhere in the Utah desert and in the hands of an insurgent force holding the western United States hostage for $250 million…

OK -- so that isn’t the most original plot ever conceived. In fact, I can think to a James Bond movie called Thunderball where a very similar situation took place. I can also think of several other movies where the theft of nuclear weapons and the threat of world destruction unless a ransom was paid were the gist of the film (heck even Austin Powers had that theme!).

What we are watching is Graham Yost’s Broken Arrow. You may know Yost better from a more popular movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock named Speed.

Why the name of the movie? When the military loses a missile and can’t locate it, they call the missing weapon a “broken arrow.”

John Travolta does a marvelous rendition of a villain. I was surprised, because usually Travolta portrays some do-gooder. I was impressed beyond words as he acted the role of United States Air Force Major Vic Deakins, the pilot that suddenly went psychotic and turned on his partner.

Christian Slater does a believable job portraying Captain Riley Hale, the surprised partner. Hale tracks Deakins through the desert with the help of a beautiful (of course) park ranger named Terry Carmichael. Ranger Carmichael is played by Samantha Mathis who surprisingly enough isn’t in the movie as a bimbo role. Carmichael is a tough lady capable of defending both herself and anyone else from danger.

I’m not the biggest fan of Slater, but I do enjoy Travolta’s work. Again, I want to reiterate I was very impressed with how believable Travolta came across as the villain. In the opening scene you could almost see the devilish redness in his eyes as he is about to murder his partner. Throughout the movie I believed just how bad a man Deakins was. I have not seen Travolta play another villain except in the movie Face Off.

Director John Woo provides the audience with plenty of action and some impressive stunts. I was stunned with the explosion of the nuclear weapon in the desert and how it affected other events throughout the movie. The stunts were equally enticing and left me on the edge of my seat. I loved the plane and four helicopter crashes, and had a great time with the train scenes.

I do want to point out one fallacy in the movie, and am curious if anyone else noticed. When the nuclear weapon went off, it generated an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP). This EMP is supposed to burn out any electronic item no matter how it derives its power. So – how come all the electronic equipment in the helicopter froze up and caused it to fall from the sky, yet Deakin’s watch kept ticking? That’s one heck of a Timex!

For a fun film, I would recommend seeing Broken Arrow. If you are looking for a serious plot or a believable picture, I would look elsewhere.

Personally, I enjoyed this film.