Mercury Rising (1998)

When an autistic boy decodes a government national security code FBI agent Art (Willis) is assigned to protect him from assassination.

10 years on from the first Die Hard film and Bruce Willis starred in a cop role once more as an FBI agent and whilst there is no swagger and humour in this film, the serious nature of Willis' character once more sees the actor on top form in a stunning crime drama.

The opening sees Art undercover and after a confused result Art makes his feelings known which sets him on the way to be reassigned to detective work, which sets the drama rolling.

A sentimental montage sees Miko Hughes' protagonist Simon coming home from school, making a cup of hot chocolate before going to bed with his father. It is very heart-warming without being cheesy as the nature of Simon's autism is depicted with sentimental understanding dialogue and appreciation of the disease. Obviously autism is a very delicate issue to tackle which the script appreciates. From Simon's constructed environment to the untimely departure from his family the script weaves around how uncomfortable it is for the young boy. His familiar surroundings are taken away as Art struggles to keep Simon out of trouble.

Hughes is the catalyst of this film with a very powerful turn as Simon. The slow speech to the lack of eye contact is a remarkable trait of autism and for such a young person to comprehend and tackle such ideologies is staggering.

Despite the nature of the drama encoded into this 1998 picture there is still plenty of action and thrilling suspense to generate that bold masculinity. A too close to call train sequence to the final helicopter showdown this is every bit as tense as the last Die Hard picture. And given the nature of the plot and the lead up to the conclusion, it is little wonder.

Director Harold Becker is able to cement realism to the picture through careful planning but bold assertiveness. From Simon's dramatic walk on the edge in the end to the shooting of one of the team in his own apartment everything is thought out in real life motion. The wine scene in Alec Baldwin's cellar is a bit of an awkward arrival at confrontation but the knock over moment is vintage Willis bravado.

It will take an exceptional script to knockout the character John McClane. Willis has his moments in cocky cheek in this picture and adds a strong drama to his protagonist. But if you're looking for the same spice as a John McClane epic, then this isn't it.

This is in many respects better as we dive deep into an emotional journey of autism with still a strong crime fast paced script that spills with emotional value with just enough action and suspense to make it a very watchable and appreciable picture

Fmovies: The movie left me feeling like a lot was missing from it. I think it is because there isn't a lot of dialog. Bruce Willis plays a man-of-few words who has trouble fitting in with the politics of his organization; Miko Huges plays an autistic child (also of few words). Because they are hiding, all the conversations are short (even with other people), leaving you unsatisfied, and feeling like not enough was said, like emotional connections were never forged. And at the end of the movie, they show scenes showing that emotional connections were made. At first this bothered me. But then I remembered my own experiences, and I think the whole movie, crazy government plot and all, rings true.

This movie isn't for everyone, but it is a must see if you have any interest in personality and learning disorders.

I haven't read the novel that this is based upon. In fact, I didn't know there was one. This happened to be on TV, I had no set in stone plans, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm honestly not sure why this is rated so low. Sure, there are some clichés. Yes, the idea of the government putting out a hit(with rather sloppy killers, at that) on a kid for a code is silly(besides, what if another one cracks it? How high a body-count is acceptable, exactly?). Look past those aspects. I haven't watched anything else by this director except for Malice, which was also a nice piece of work. This is put together quite well, with the editing and cinematography building tension and doing a decent job of conveying Simon's "ability". I've had experiences with Autistic people of different ages and varied severity of condition, and the depiction here is convincing and fairly respectful(do note that far from all who have the syndrome are as distant and/or helpless on their own as seen here), and this serves to explain and demystify it a tad(certainly more than I remember Rain Man doing). Miko researched for his role, and he does a great job. Willis is good(when isn't he?), and they do well together. Baldwin is as delightfully detestable as we know he can be. There is a nice amount of talent in the cast, if not all of it is allowed to shine. Granted, there could be more action. There is a little brutal, bloody violence in this. I recommend this to fans of thrillers. 6/10

Mercury Rising fmovies. This movie has one huge problem: *its basic premise makes no sense at all*. Killing the kid is in absolutely nobody's interest. His codebreaking skill would be of immeasurable value to the very people who are trying to kill him, while safeguarding the code without killing him would be fairly straightforward. This is so obvious that it essentially ruins the whole movie.

The rest of the movie is OK if you ignore that problem. The performances are generally good, and Miko Hughes is excellent as Simon. There is nothing here you haven't seen a dozen times before, but it's generally well done. It's not worth making any real effort to see this movie, but you probably won't have a bad time if you do.

There are two great acting performances in this film. Bruce Willis plays Art Jeffries, an FBI agent with attitude. Miko Hughes plays Simon Lynch, an autistic savant with a gift for codebreaking. Both are believable but Miko Hughes is astonishing – one of the best ever screen performances by a child. The scenes between the pair of them are really touching and you can believe that Willis really likes kids. Perhaps he does.

The US government's pursuit of Lynch in this film may at first appear overly far-fetched and scaremongering. Then you remember the US attitude towards the British savant, Gary McKinnon, who was accused of perpetrating the biggest military computer hack of all time by hacking into 97 US military and NASA computers in 2002. Well, they didn't kill his mum and dad, and hunt him like an animal. But after 10 years of attempted extradition, and speculation of a 70-year jail term, maybe this story is just an exaggeration of reality, and not quite as ridiculous as some commentators have suggested.

It's not really a downside but if you come to this film expecting a shoot-em-up action movie, you may be disappointed. It's much more than that and consequently slower – it's a touching drama with action scenes, and so we can forgive, just about, the pace through the middle of the film. The writing is actually very good and Pearson, Konner and Rosenthal all deserve credit.

I did find the score a bit distracting. Sort of 'too big' and too 'James Bond' for the film. Scenes without music were better. Though the music being played at the club Jeffries visits was really good and I would have liked to have heard more of Koko Taylor (now no longer with us) belting out some blues.

I was finding it difficult to see where this film was going. When Wills is with a kid, like in 16 blocks or Die Hard 4, you expect a visible end point, and there wasn't one. There was a sense of going around in circles. Until the last 5 minutes. Ultimately that cost it a couple of stars and the score lost another one. So seven out of ten for this.

Mercury Rising is a very conventional "government bad guys" story about evil agents out to kill an autistic boy who can break their top code. Of course, the premise of the movie, that the government would rather kill someone who can break their code rather than fixing the problems with the code, is incredibly stupid. If one boy can break the code, isn't is reasonable that some other boy in Russia or wherever can also break it? If it has a flaw that allows the kid to find the pattern, doesn't it need to be fixed? Of course, not. We just kill the kid and pretend nothing ever happened.

But, what is really sad is that there is a grain of truth in this story. It is the policy of the US Government that TRYING to break codes is illegal. If you are smart enough to figure out that the DVD encryption has a major flaw, it's not the fault of the designers, it's your fault. Researchers who have discovered flaws in codes, watermarks, etc, have been arrested. This "head in the sand" policy has been around for a long time.

So, next time you see this movie, just think how easy it would be to combine this attitude with someone a bit too gung ho.