History Film / ThePeacemaker

* RedHerring: Subverted with "44E" written in the comments of a recepit found by the protagonists when they trying to track [[spoiler: the last missing warhead]]. At first, Kelly believes it refers to Sarajevo's longitude (44°E), but they don't find what they are looking for when they raid Gavrić's apartment there. They do, however, find a tape [[MotiveRant explaining his actions]] for some yet-to-be-committed act. Combined with finding out [[spoiler:Gavrić's is an alternate for a diplomatic delegation to a summit in New York, Kelly realizes "44E" refers to the address of the headquarters of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations on East 44th Street.]]

* OutrankingYourJob: As a Lieutenant Colonel, [=DeVoe=] conceivably is of appropriate rank for a Pentagon staff officer, however once the bullets start flying, he spends most of his time running and gunning alongside the troops assigned to him, rather than staying behind where he can see the big picture.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Both the Russian-Iranian and the Russian-Turkish borders have a key role in the plot. In a movie about WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell, no less!

** Kelly, in turn, realizes that Kodoroff is too petty to have been acting alone - he wouldn't have stolen the nukes unless he knew he had a confirmed buyer waiting to pay for them. And she realizes that the only kind of person willing to buy obviously-stolen nukes from Kodoroff would be someone who wanted to ''use'' them. Immediately. She thus guides the team past numerous false leads to Gavrić.

* RussiansWithRustingRockets: The degraded state of the Russian military post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar serves as a [[OnlyInItForTheMoney motivation]] for why some nukes were stolen.

* OhCrap: Kelly gets this when [=DeVoe=] reports successfully reclaiming [[spoiler:eight]] nuclear warheads - because [[spoiler:SS18 missiles have ''ten'' warheads - one of which was set off in an attempt to cover up the theft of the other nine. That leaves one unaccounted for - in the hands of someone pissed off enough to use it]].

** Kelly figures out that the initial explosion was a terrorist act because even a Russian nuke would only go off if it was purposefully detonated. As such, she specifically asks for a liaison with contacts in Russia, the easier to pick out someone who ''would'' do such a thing.
** [=DeVoe=] figures out that the train wreck was a hijacking because satellite photographs show men abandoning a second train about to collide with it - but not the one with the nuke, as everyone on it was already dead in a ''[[EmptyQuiver hijacking]]''. He also recognizes Kodoroff as being ''way'' too important to be on a nuclear missile transport - and thus the one who set off the nuke.

* OhCrap: Kelly gets this when [=DeVoe=] reports successfully reclaiming [[spoiler:eight]] nuclear warheads - because [[spoiler:''nine'']] warheads had been stolen from the train.

* OutrankingYourJob: As a Lieutenant Colonel, [=DeVoe=] conceivably is of appropriate rank for a Pentagon staff officer, however once the bullets start flying, he spends most of his time runnin and gunning alongside the troops assigned to him, rather than staying behind where he can see the big picture.

-->'''Dimitri Vertikoff:''' Kodoroff's generation of officers grew up in a crumbling system. Those pictures in your head of Russia; bread lines, shitty little apartments, ancient cars... Kodoroff and his friends made sure that it never applied to them. But now, even ''that'' system is crumbling.

-->'''[=DeVoe=]:''' "What do you think I am; some gung-ho stupid son-of-a-bitch?"
-->'''Kelly:''' "No, I don't think you're ''stupid''..."

-->'''Dimitri Vertikoff''': ''Kodoroff's generation of officers grew up in a crumbling system. Those pictures in your head of Russia; bread lines, shitty little apartments, ancient cars... Kodoroff and his friends made sure that it never applied to them. But now, even '''that''' system is crumbling.''\\
\\
'''Aleksandr Kodoroff''': ''I don't care what bitch gave birth to them; Muslim, Serb. I don't hate them for who they are. I hate them because they are '''poor.''' ''\\
\\
'''[=DeVoe=]''': ''Sir, it's not our war.''\\
'''[[spoiler:Dusan Gavrić]]''': ''[[BetterToDieThanBeKilled It is now.]]''

-->'''[=DeVoe=]''': ''...if a top-ranking Russian general is involved, any intel we get from Moscow is either compromised... Or a flat-out '''lie.'''''

[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peacemaker_imp_5904.jpg]]

A collision of Russian trains results in a nuclear explosion that turns out to be a cover for theft of other weapons. An official in the US State Department overseeing nuclear weapons, Dr Julia Kelly (Kidman) and a US Army Special Forces officer LTC Tom [=DeVoe=] (Clooney) must work together to find and recover the stolen nukes before they can be used. The movie was filmed in Slovakia and parts of the former Eastern Bloc as well as UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. An example of the post-[[{{TheGreatPoliticsMessUp}} Cold War]] era in film making, it still retains a great deal of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar focus on the Russian threat and American world supremacy.

* FromRussiaWithNukes: The movie.

* TheYugoslavWars: A major part of one of the antagonists' backstory.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Both the Russian-Iranian and the Russian-Turkish borders have a key role in the plot. In a movie about WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell, no less![[note]]For the geographically impaired, neither Turkey nor Iran HAS a border with Russia. They did previously have borders with the Soviet Union.[[/note]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Both the Russian-Iranian and the Russian-Turkish borders have a key role in the plot. In a movie about WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell, no less!

-->'''Kelly:''' "No, I don't think you're stupid..."
* EmptyQuiver: only regarding Russian nukes this time.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: [=DeVoe=]'s personality is fairly well presented with his [[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee testimony before a Senate Subcommittee]] on the interception of a shipment of nerve gas. [[LetMeGetThisStraight To note]]; it involved a Russian colonel friend, a hooker, and a $5,200 bar tab(that resulted in a {{Bar BRAWL}}). And he paid off the colonel by smuggling in a SUV for the colonel's teenage daughter.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Gavrić has a brother who [[spoiler:carries the backpack bomb. And a wife and a daughter whose deaths sparked his StartOfDarkness]].
* EveryManHasHisPrice: At one point, Dr. Kelly questions Colonel [=DeVoe's=] ethics due to his aptness in using bribery to get things done in Eastern Europe. He returns her scorn by explaining that when in Rome, you bribe like the Romans...
* FacialRecognitionSoftware: Portrayed properly for the technology of the 1990's.

* AntiVillain: Gavrić;. He is portrayed more sympathetically than the other main antagonists in the movie. While the others are in it for the money, he has more personal motivations: [[spoiler: his wife and daughter were killed in Sniper Alley during the Yugoslav Wars. Rather than blame any of the warring sides, he blamed the West for supplying them with the arms to commit those atrocities - his plan to set off a bomb at the UN Headquarters is an act of revenge.]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: When IFOR finds out the last nuke is already in New York, the city is placed under lockdown to try to find Gavrić;. He's carrying the warhead in a backpack, so anyone carrying one is searched, sometimes hastily and forcefully.]]

* RedHerring: Subverted with "44E" written in the comments of a recepit found by the protagonists when they trying to track [[spoiler: the last missing warhead]]. At first, Kelly believes it refers to Sarajevo's longitude (44°E), but they don't find what they are looking for when they raid Gavrić;'s apartment there. They do, however, find a tape [[MotiveRant explaining his actions]] for some yet-to-be-committed act. Combined with finding out [[spoiler:Gavrić's is an alternate for a diplomatic delegation to a summit in New York, Kelly realizes "44E" refers to the address of the headquarters of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations on East 44th Street.]]

* RuleOfSymbolism: Exploited by Kelly. When Gavrić;'s initial plan [[spoiler:to blow up the UN]] is interrupted, he flees and the protagonists lose track of him. [=DeVoe=] bemoans he can just hide behind a dumpster and wait for the timer, but Kelly, knowing his motivation, believes he will look for a location of symbolic significance. [[spoiler: They find him in a church.]]

* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler:Gavrić;'s plan to set off a nuke at the UN Headquarters as an attack of revenge against the West.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Gavrić; [[spoiler:turned terrorist after his wife and daughter were killed during the Yugoslav Wars.]]

* CentralTheme: WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell - and a better examination of it than most. The Americans are simultaneously relieved the UsefulNotes/ColdWar is over and exasperated that such a mess was left behind. The Russians are asking SoWhatDoWeDoNow The small countries that had been their battlefield are left with lots of combat experience, and just as much reason to use it on the people responsible for it. The result is a [[spoiler:a terrorist attack on New York]]. ''[[HarsherInHindsight Umm...]] '''[[TheWarOnTerror Ouch?]]''' ''

* MotiveRant: Inverted. Gavrić;'s tape is found before the act [[spoiler: of blowing up the UN]] was committed. This helps determine what act he was planning to do.

'''[[spoiler:Dusan Gavrić]]''': ''Who decided for my wife? My child, murdered. Huh? For what? For what? For breathing? For smiling? And now, I am left. Who decides for me?''\\

'''[[spoiler:Gavrić]]''': ''[[BetterToDieThanBeKilled It is now.]]''

'''[[spoiler:Dusan Gavrić]]''': ''Who decided for my wife? My child, murdered. Huh? For what? For what? For breathing? For smiling? And now, I am left. Who decides for me?''
'''[=DeVoe=]''': ''Sir, it's not our war.
'''[[spoiler:Gavrić]]''': [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled It is now.]]

* CentralTheme: WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell - and a better examination of it than most. The Americans are simultaneously relieved the UsefulNotes/ColdWar is over and exasperated that such a mess is left behind. Rhe Russians are asking SoWhatDoWeDoNow The small countries that had been their battlefield are left with lots of combat experience, and just as much reason to use it on the people responsible for it. The result is a [[spoiler:a terrorist attack on New York]]. ''[[HarsherInHindsight Umm...]] '''[[TheWarOnTerror Ouch?]]''' ''

[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peacemaker_imp_5904.jpg]]

->''I'm not afraid of the man who wants ten nuclear weapons, Colonel. I'm '''terrified''' of the man who only wants '''one.'''''

''The Peacemaker'' is a movie from 1997 directed by Mimi Leder, staring Creator/NicoleKidman and Creator/GeorgeClooney. It was the first film released by Creator/{{Dreamworks}}.

A collision of Russian trains results in a nuclear explosion that turns out to be a cover for theft of other weapons. An official in the US State Department overseeing nuclear weapons, Dr Julia Kelly (Kidman) and a US Army Special Forces officer LTC Tom [=DeVoe=] (Clooney) must work together to find and recover the stolen nukes before they can be used. The movie was filmed in Slovakia and parts of the former Eastern Bloc as well as UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. An example of the post-[[{{TheGreatPoliticsMessUp}} Cold War]] era in film making, it still retains a great deal of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar focus on the Russian threat and American world supremacy. The film received mixed reviews and performed modestly well at the Box Office.