Great blockbusters have simple, paper-thin plots but succeed because of great characters and fast-moving action. John Woo's second Hollywood outing after Hard Target proves that. Air Force Major Vic "Deak" Deakins (John Travolta) is bitter after being passed over for promotion but has a pension plan: steal a Stealth bomber armed with nuclear warheads and sell them to the highest bidder.
The only fly in the ointment is his number two, Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater) but hitting the eject button mid-flight solves that. As Hale, aided by Forest Ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis), sets off in pursuit of Deakins, with the authorities believing he had a hand in the theft anyway, the missiles change hands several times and, as the film draws to its climax, are primed and ready to explode.
What Woo, best known for all out Hong Kong thrillers such as The Killer and Hard Boiled, brings to the film a series of all-out action sequences, from exploding copper mines to fights on a burning train and a car chase across the flats of Utah. The cat-and-mouse duel between Travolta (a most satisfying villain) and Slater is non-stop and Graham Yost, who scripted Speed and Hard Rain, writes in enough exposition to keep the plot believable but the rest is all in Yoo's capable hands.
Broken Arrow is a Film programme that first aired in 1996 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
