History Film / Masterminds1997

* BadassMustache: Bentley. Creator/PatrickStewart is Law Enforcement!

Oswald 'Ozzy' Paxton (Vincent Kartheiser) is a PlayfulHacker who is forced to take his stepsister Melissa (Katie Stewart) to her prep school Shady Glen (where he was kicked out after a prank) after being busted by his parents for downloading an illegal copy of the game ''Scream II'' (no relation to [[Film/{{Scream 1996}} the film]]). Before leaving, Ozzy decides to pull one last prank...until he sees men armed with guns arriving on the scene.

[[caption-width-right:250:The criminal masterm

[[quoteright:250: https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/3/6/1/9/9/36199-masterminds-0-230-0-345-crop.jpg?k=12144246f1]]
[[caption-width-right:250:The criminal mastermind of the century just met his match.]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1412231657420110.png]]

Not to be confused with the 2016 comedy film.

-->'''Ozzy:''' I'm tellin' ya, we've got a DieHard situation here.

* [[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard In A Boarding School]]: This sums up the plot of the film quite well, [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Ozzy.

* [[IHaveYourWife I Have Your Sister]]: Bentley near the end of the movie.

* AdultsAreUseless: Bentley has the grown-ups all figured out, so it's all up to teenage Ozzy.

* [[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard In A Boarding School]]: This sums up the plot of the film quite well.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Bently has a bunch of [=ATVs=] tricked out with rocket launchers waiting in the sewer tunnels as an escape route.

* TheMole: Rafe, head of security at the school. [[spoiler:Also, Foster Delroy, the CFO of Ozzy's father's company who makes sure the bills that get to.]]

* XMeetsY: The film is basically ''Franchise/DieHard'' meets ''HomeAlone''.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Literally, as the film has only been released on VHS.

Oswald 'Ozzy' Paxton (Vincent Kartheiser) is a PlayfulHacker who is forced to take his stepsister Melissa (Katie Stewart) to her prep school, Shady Glen (where he was kicked out after a prank), after being busted by his parents for downloading an illegal copy of the game ''Scream II'' (no relation to [[Film/{{Scream 1996}} the film]]). Before leaving, Ozzy decides to pull one last prank...until he sees men armed with guns arriving on the scene.

Turns out Rafe Bentley (Creator/PatrickStewart -- yes, ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration that]]'' Creator/PatrickStewart), Shady Glen's new head of security, has hatched a plan to hold the children of Shady Glen as ransom to extort money from their wealthy parents. So now Ozzy has to use his hacker skills to save the day.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Bently has a bunch of [=ATVs=] tricked out wit rocket launchers waiting in the sewer tunnels as an escape route

* BadassMustache: Bentley. Patrick Stewart is Law Enforcement!

* DieHardOnAnX

* HollywoodHacking: Computer hacking consists of playing a literal computer game, consisting of hunting for a "valid entrance" in a 3-D animated dungeon (with hostile skeletons!), while the system itself proclaims full awareness of your activities and their illegality. It's a good enough sport to let you proceed without a fuss if you win
* [[IHaveYourWife I Have Your Sister]]

* The Mole: Rafe, head of security at the school. [[spoiler: Also the CFO of Ozzy's father's company who makes sure the bills that get to.]]
* NoodleIncident
* {{Mooks}}
* PlayfulHacker
* UnlikelyHero
* XMeetsY

Turns out Rafe Bentley (PatrickStewart -- yes, ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration that]]'' PatrickStewart), Shady Glen's new head of security, has hatched a plan to hold the children of Shady Glen as ransom to extort money from their wealthy parents. So now Ozzy has to use his hacker skills to save the day.

* HotMom: Yep, Ozzy's stepmom is quite a looker.

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** Everyone will recognize [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Captain Picard]] as Bentley, and [[Series/{{Angel}} Connor]] as Ozzy.
** Isn't that the pigeon lady from ''[[HomeAlone Home Alone 2]]'' as the headmistress of Shady Glen?
** Katie Stewart would later play Kitty Pryde in X-men 2, alongside PatrickStewart. They are not related, btw.

Oswald 'Ozzy' Paxton (Vincent Kartheiser) is a PlayfulHacker who is forced to take his stepsister Melissa (Katie Stewart) to her prep school, Shady Glen (where he was kicked out after a prank), after being busted by his parents for downloading an illegal copy of the game ''Scream II'' (no relation to [[Film/{{Scream}} the film]]). Before leaving, Ozzy decides to pull one last prank...until he sees men armed with guns arriving on the scene.