Taglines: Deception is their most dangerous weapon.
Tom Hardy, an ex-Army Ranger turned DEA agent, is drawn into an ever-widening mystery surrounding the disappearance of the feared and often hated Sgt. Nathan West, as well as several of his elite Special Forces trainees on what appears, at first, to have been a routine training exercise during a hurricane in the jungles of Panama. Only two survivors are found, Dunbar, and a badly wounded Kendall, the son of a high-profile Joint Chiefs of Staff official. Neither is willing to cooperate with Capt. Julia Osborne’s investigation.
So base commander Col. Bill Styles calls in ex-Ranger Hardy, an old friend and a persuasive interrogator. Osborne disapproves of Hardy who is on leave from the D.E.A. after having come under suspicion of accepting bribes from local drug traffickers. She is also uneasy when she learns that Hardy once trained under West and hates him almost as passionately as his current recruits.
Basic is an American / German mystery-thriller film directed by John McTiernan and starring John Travolta, Connie Nielsen and Samuel L. Jackson. As of early 2015, the film is McTiernan’s latest film, and it is the second collaboration of Travolta and Jackson, following 1994’s Pulp Fiction.
In Panama, a team of Army Ranger trainees and their instructor, Master Sergeant Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson), engage in a training exercise: navigate the jungle in hurricane conditions using live fire to hit targets before rendezvousing at a bunker.
Later, a rescue chopper sees Sergeant Ray Dunbar emerge from the jungle, carrying wounded Second Lieutenant Levi Kendall. The two men are pursued by a third soldier, Sergeant Mueller, who is shooting at them. Dunbar kills Mueller in self-defense. Although no other bodies are found, the rest of West’s team are presumed dead.
Dunbar refuses to talk to Captain Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen). Instead he insists on speaking to a fellow Ranger from outside the base and draws an “8” inside a circle on a piece of paper. Spooked on seeing the “8”, base commander Colonel Bill Styles (Timothy Daly), calls in an experienced interrogator and friend, DEA agent Tom Hardy (John Travolta) who is also an ex-Ranger. Even though he is now under investigation for suspicion of bribery, Styles assigns him to Osborne. The pair have only 6 hours before the CID transport from Washington arrives to take Dunbar and Kendall away.
Directed by: John McTiernan
Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Brian Van Holt, Timothy Daly, Giovanni Ribisi, Taye Diggs
Screenplay by: James Vanderbilt
Cinematography by: Steve Mason
Production Design by: Dennis Bradford
Art Direction by: Gary Kosko
Film Editing by: Mauri Freed
Costume Design by: Kate Harrington
Set Decoration by: Vera Mills
Music by: Klaus Badelt, Ramin Djawadi
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: March 28, 2003
