John Travolta and Christian Slater are military pilots testing a stealth plane armed with two nuclear missiles. But Travolta seizes the weapons and holds the world to ransom. The action plays out in the Utah desert (the scenery is stunning), where Travolta is helped by a gang of henchmen and Slater is joined by a friendly park ranger (Samantha Mathis).
The action is unrelenting. There are plenty of James Bond tropes – a ticking timer on a bomb, fighting on top of a train, macho feuding and plenty of helicopter explosions – but it’s all done with John Woo’s sense of heightened reality. Everything is turned up to 11, with a deliberately absurd element. It’s made even more exciting by Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack, which incorporates motifs from westerns and clanking industrial interludes.
