Collateral Damage (2002 film)

Last updated
Collateral Damage
Collateral Damage film.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Andrew Davis
Written by
  • David Griffiths
  • Ronald Roose
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Adam Greenberg
Edited by
Music by Graeme Revell
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates
  • February 4, 2002 (2002-02-04)(Premiere)
  • February 8, 2002 (2002-02-08)(United States)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish
Budget$85 million [1]
Box office$78.4 million

Collateral Damage is a 2002 American vigilante action-thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas, Francesca Neri, Cliff Curtis, John Leguizamo, and John Turturro. The film tells the story of Los Angeles firefighter Gordon Brewer (Schwarzenegger), who seeks 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.

Contents

Collateral Damage was released in the United States on February 8, 2002, to negative reviews, and was a commercial failure. [2]

Plot

A bomb detonates in the plaza of the Colombian Consulate building in Los Angeles, killing nine people, including a caravan of Colombian officials and American intelligence agents. Among the civilians killed are the wife and son of an LAFD firefighter, Captain Gordon "Gordy" Brewer, who was injured in the explosion. A tape is sent to the U.S. State Department, in which a masked man calling himself "El Lobo" (The Wolf) claims responsibility, justifying it as retaliation for the oppression of Colombia by the United States. The FBI believes El Lobo is a Colombian terrorist named Claudio Perrini. CIA Officer Peter Brandt, the Colombia Station Chief, is harshly reprimanded for the incident by a Senate Oversight Committee, which promptly terminates all CIA operations in Colombia. Brandt angrily returns to Mompós and meets with his paramilitary allies to plan a major offensive to take down Claudio.

Frustrated at the political red tape regarding the investigation, Brewer travels to Mompós to personally hunt down Claudio but is quickly arrested for illegal entry. The guerrillas stage a prison break to free their comrades and abduct Brewer to demand a large ransom for him. Brandt's unit is alerted to Brewer's presence in Colombia but arrive too late. Brewer escapes the prison, evades capture, and secures a guerrilla zone pass from Canadian mechanic Sean Armstrong. Armstrong introduces him to drug runner Felix Ramirez, the manager of the cocaine distribution facility that finances the guerrillas. Masquerading as a "mechanic", Brewer rigs several improvised explosives and destroys the facility. Felix is blamed for the destruction of the drug plant and is executed in front of a hiding Brewer's eyes. Brewer infiltrates Claudio's headquarters and plants a bomb to kill him, but he is captured when he tries to prevent a woman, Selena, from being caught in the blast radius along with her son, Mauro. At Claudio's home compound, Selena reveals she is Claudio's wife. She and Claudio once lost their own child during an American attack, which compelled Claudio to become a terrorist; Selena found and adopted Mauro, whose parents were killed in the attack. Regardless, Selena eventually sympathizes with Brewer and admits that Claudio is planning another bombing in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Brandt's unit locates Claudio's compound and launches an attack. During the ensuing shootout, Selena helps free Brewer and, along with Brandt, travels back to the State Department in Washington, D.C. to help the search effort for Claudio. Selena identifies Union Station as the target, and the FBI investigates. On the pretense of using the lavatory, Selena excuses herself from the command room and becomes irritated when Mauro refuses to come with her. When Brewer sees Selena make the same gesture as the masked man who claimed to be El Lobo in the tape, he realizes that she was the Wolf all along, and Claudio serves as her figurehead, and that the entire motive behind their cause is personal revenge for the death of their daughter at the hands of the US. Furthermore, Brewer surmises the real target is the State Department, and that he was used to help Selena get past the building's security. Brewer quickly throws Mauro's bomb-laden toy dinosaur out a window seconds before it explodes. Brandt, realizing Brewer's suspicions, is shot and killed trying to stop Selena from fleeing the building.

Brewer chases Selena to the basement of the building where she and Claudio ride off through the tunnels on a motorcycle. Brewer finds the tunnel control console and shuts the gates, preventing their escape. Brewer uses an axe to rupture some gas lines along the walls of the tunnel and, as they ride back, Selena shoots at Brewer, unwittingly igniting the gas. Brewer jumps through a doorway just as the entire tunnel explodes. Selena and Claudio survive the blast, however, and attack him simultaneously. After a short, hand-to-hand fight, Selena is electrocuted by being tossed on the exposed circuitry of the control panel, and Claudio is himself killed when Brewer throws an axe into his chest before he can detonate a second bomb in the State Department.

In the aftermath, Brewer carries Mauro in his arms as they leave the State Department. A newscast voiceover explains that Brewer will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom for preventing one of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history from taking place.

Cast

Production

The original script for the film had the same plotline but would have addressed American policy in the Middle East by taking place in Libya; director Davis and his screenwriters chose Colombia as the new location because it had not been used as extensively and touched on a current geopolitical conflict area.[ citation needed ]

The film was shot in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. The scenes that represent Colombia were shot in the town of Coatepec in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Filming in Mexico lasted ten weeks. First were shot during first eight weeks and then returned to roll other two.[ citation needed ]

Release

Marketing

The September 11 attacks affected the release and editing of the final film. The film's original trailer was scrapped because it showed a major bomb attack in the United States. The film was originally scheduled to be released on October 5, 2001, but it was postponed due to its terrorism theme and the attacks. [3] Following this, Warner Bros. removed any mentions of Collateral Damage from the website, radio stations, television and movie theaters. All trailers and posters for the film were also recalled. [4] Eventually, it was released on February 8, 2002. The premiere was held four days earlier. [5] Collateral Damage was also supposed to include Colombian actress Sofía Vergara in the role of an airplane hijacker; however the scene where Vergara would hijack a plane was cut from the film. [6]

Home media

Warner Home Video released the film on DVD and VHS in the United States on July 30, 2002. [7] [8]

Reception

Box office

Collateral Damage earned a total of $15.2 million during its opening weekend. [9] It ranked number one at the box office ahead of Big Fat Liar , Rollerball and Black Hawk Down . This was also the first Arnold Schwarzenegger film to do so since Batman & Robin in 1997. [10] For its second weekend, the film dropped into fifth place behind John Q. , Crossroads , Return to Never Land and Big Fat Liar, making $8.7 million. [11] In Spain, it opened in second place behind Monsters, Inc. with $1.1 million in its first weekend. [12] The film made $78.4 million worldwide against its $85 million budget. [13]

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes, rated it 19% based on reviews from 142 critics, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's consensus reads: "Despite its timely subject matter, Collateral Damage is an unexceptional and formulaic action thriller." [14] Metacritic rated it 33 out of 100 based on reviews from 34 critics. [15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. [16]

Desson Howe of The Washington Post called the film "head-scratchingly ordinary" and wrote, "Even by the fast-and-loose standards of action filmmaking, Collateral Damage is a disappointment." [17] Claudia Puig of USA Today said, "It's laughably unbelievable, yet it's hard to snicker at anything involving terrorists, even Collateral's obscure Colombian variety. What we get is simply another opportunity for Schwarzenegger — who seems to be in perpetual Terminator mode — to flex his muscles." [18] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four stars and described it as "a skillfully made example of your typical Schwarzenegger action film". [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnold Schwarzenegger</span> Austrian and American actor and politician (born 1947)

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, filmmaker, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder known for his roles in high-profile action movies. He served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011 and was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.

<i>True Lies</i> 1994 American action comedy film by James Cameron

True Lies is a 1994 American action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron, based on the 1991 French comedy film La Totale! The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, a U.S. government agent, who struggles to balance his double life as a spy with his familial duties. Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Art Malik, and Tia Carrere star in supporting roles. True Lies was the first Lightstorm Entertainment project to be distributed under Cameron's multimillion-dollar production deal with 20th Century Fox, as well as the first major production for the visual effects company Digital Domain, which was co-founded by Cameron. It was also the first film to cost $100 million.

<i>Eraser</i> (film) 1996 action film by Chuck Russell

Eraser is a 1996 American action film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn, and Robert Pastorelli. The film tells the story of a U.S. Marshal of WITSEC who protects a senior operative testifying about an illegal arms deal and is forced to fight his former allies when one of the players is revealed to be a mole inside WITSEC.

<i>Predator 2</i> 1990 film by Stephen Hopkins

Predator 2 is a 1990 American science fiction action film written by brothers Jim and John Thomas, directed by Stephen Hopkins, and starring Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Ruben Blades, María Conchita Alonso, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Peter Hall. It is the second installment of the Predator franchise, and sequel to 1987's Predator, with Kevin Peter Hall reprising the title role of the Predator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Liberation Army (Colombia)</span> Revolutionary left-wing group

The National Liberation Army is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla insurgency group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict, which has existed in Colombia since 1964. The ELN advocates a composite communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism and liberation theology. In 2013, it was estimated that the ELN forces consisted of between 1,380 and 3,000 guerrillas. According to former ELN national directorate member Felipe Torres, one fifth of ELN supporters have taken up arms. The ELN has been classified as a terrorist organization by the governments of Colombia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and the European Union.

<i>Invasion U.S.A.</i> (1985 film) 1985 American film by Joseph Zito

Invasion U.S.A. is a 1985 American action film produced by Cannon Films, and starring Chuck Norris. It was directed by Joseph Zito. It involves the star fighting off a force of Soviet/Cuban-led guerrillas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord</span> American far-right militant group active during the 1970s and 80s

The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) was a far-right survivalist anti-government militia which advocated Christian Identity and was active in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s. The CSA developed from a Baptist congregation, the Zarephath-Horeb Community Church, which was founded in 1971 in Pontiac, Missouri. Over time, Zarephath-Horeb evolved into an extremist militant group and it was rechristened the CSA. The group operated a large compound in northern Arkansas which was known as "the Farm".

<i>Live Wire</i> (film) 1992 film by Christian Duguay

Live Wire is a 1992 American action film directed by Christian Duguay, written by Bart Baker, and starring Pierce Brosnan, Ron Silver, Ben Cross, and Lisa Eilbacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jsu Garcia</span> American actor

Jesus "Jsu" Garcia, also credited as Nick Corri, is an American film and television actor and producer. Together with author John-Roger, he runs the production company Scott J-R Productions.

In the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as terrorist acts that were carried out within the United States by U.S. citizens and/or U.S. permanent residents. As of 2021, the United States government considers white supremacists to be the top domestic terrorism threat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesca Neri</span> Italian actress (born 1964)

Francesca Neri is a retired Italian actress.

<i>Bad Company</i> (2002 film) 2002 film

Bad Company is a 2002 American action-comedy film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins. Based on the script for a cancelled sequel to Blue Streak, the film became somewhat famous for its connections to the September 11th terrorist attacks; amongst other things, it was the last major production to film inside the original World Trade Center. The film plot, written years before the attacks, involved a variety of Serbo-Balkan extremists planning a huge attack in New York City. The film's release date was moved out of its late 2001 spot and into a summer 2002 release, similar to several other films with terrorism or violent crime-related stories, including Collateral Damage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 El Nogal Club bombing</span> Terrorist attack in Colombia in 2003

The 2003 El Nogal Club bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred in Bogotá, Colombia. On 7 February 2003, a car containing 200 kg of explosives that was parked in a garage on the third floor of the multi-story El Nogal club, an elite, high-class social and business club, exploded, killing 36 people and wounding more than 200. There were approximately 600 people in the building at the time of the explosion. The attack was the worst in Colombia for more than a decade.

Multiple terrorist attacks have occurred in Greece.

Daniel Beretta was a French actor. He dubbed over Arnold Schwarzenegger in the French versions of all his films from 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism in the United States</span> Systematic or threatened use of violence to create a general climate of fear

In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.

Progressive war is a military strategy in which only enemy combatants are targeted, and non-combatants killed or wounded by collateral damage are kept to a minimum. Its principles were established by Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, who is considered to be a founder of international law, in his book De jure belli ac pacis libri tres, published in 1625. A successful practitioner was Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, as chief of staff of the Prussian Army in the 19th century.

Terrorism in Ecuador is a rare occurrence as the country, despite recurrent periods of economic and political instability, has

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 World Trade Center bombing</span> Terrorist truck attack in New York City

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. The 1,336 lb (606 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower crashing into its twin, the South Tower, taking down both skyscrapers and killing tens of thousands of people. While it failed to do so, it killed six people, including a pregnant woman, and caused over a thousand injuries. About 50,000 people were evacuated from the buildings that day.

<i>Kindergarten Cop 2</i> 2016 American film

Kindergarten Cop 2 is a 2016 American comedy film starring Dolph Lundgren and directed by Don Michael Paul. It is a standalone sequel to the 1990 film Kindergarten Cop, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Principal photography in Maple Ridge, Langley, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada took place for 28 days, from July 27 to August 24, 2015. The school at which the film was produced is Kanaka Elementary. The film was released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on DVD in the United States on May 17, 2016.

References

  1. "Collateral Damage (2002) - Financial Information". The Numbers .
  2. "Warner Bros. Pictures to Release Action Thriller Collateral Damage, Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nationwide on February 8, 2002". Business Wire . Berkshire Hathaway. November 14, 2001. Archived from the original on November 16, 2001. Retrieved June 9, 2019 via Yahoo.com.
  3. "Violent TV shows, movies postponed".
  4. IGN Staff (September 13, 2001). "Hollywood Halted in Wake of Tragedy". IGN. Archived from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  5. Karger, Dave (2002-02-12). "Collateral Damage tops the box office". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  6. "Collateral Damage". E! Online . Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  7. Thomas, George M. (July 19, 2002). "Sales of DVDs slowly pushing videocassettes closer to the finish". Knight Ridder Newspapers. The Indianapolis Star. p. 82. Archived from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved May 27, 2023 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  8. Holm, D. K. (2002-07-05). "Collateral Damage". DVD Talk . Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  9. "'Collateral Damage' top film". The Manhattan Mercury. February 11, 2002. p. 16. Archived from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2023 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  10. "Schwarzenegger's 'Collateral Damage' strongarms way to No. 1 at box office". The Muscatine Journal. February 11, 2002. p. 12. Archived from the original on July 31, 2023. Retrieved July 31, 2023. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  11. "Washington's 'John Q' quickly No. 1". The Atlanta Constitution. February 18, 2002. p. D14. Archived from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2023 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  12. "Rings sets new Polish box office record".
  13. "Collateral Damage". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  14. "Collateral Damage (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  15. "Collateral Damage". Metacritic . Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  16. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  17. Howe, Desson. "Minimal 'Damage'". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  18. Puig, Claudia. "'Collateral' is damaged goods". USA Today . Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  19. Ebert, Roger (February 8, 2002). "Collateral Damage". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved 2023-03-13.