Film / Doomsday Gun

A 1994 spy thriller, based on the Real Life events leading up to the Gulf War. Starring Frank Langella, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Tony Goldwyn, and Clive Owen.

Dr. Gerald Vincent Bull (Langella) is a Canadian munitions engineer specializing in building long range artillery. After decades of helping NATO maintain a leading edge in the Cold War, his career comes to an end after he is arrested for violating a U.N. arms embargo. Embittered and disillusioned with NATO, Bull receives an offer to build an experimental rail cannon, dubbed Project Babylon, for the Iraqi Military. Fearful of the threat that Babylon may pose to Israel, a Mossad team led by Colonel Yossi (Arkin) begins surveilling Bull, as does an unidentified party who seems to want him dead. Bull’s old CIA contact, James Price (Spacey) attempts to stop his friend from digging himself too deep, along the way unmasking the shady government dealings that have been feeding the Iraqi war machine.

The film contains examples of:

• Adaptational Name Change: The real Mrs. Bull was named Mimi Gilbert. She is called Sophie in the film.
• Aesop Amnesia: During his final confrontation with Agent Price, Dr. Bull compares himself to the Gingerbread Man. Seems he forgot how that particular fairy tale ended.
• Affably Evil: Hugh Mackler is an arms dealer who doesn’t make an honest living. But he’s generally polite and helpful with Agent Price.
• Alliterative Name: Donald Duvall, Price’s boss in the CIA.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  Yossi: I’m doing you a favor, Gerry, because you helped us. We protected Golan Heights with your shells. But we will not allow Saddam Hussein to use those same shells, fill them with Anthrax germs, and drop them on our country. Is that clear enough?
  Bull: That’s between you and him.
  Yossi: Right now it’s between you and me.
• Big Bad: Though he only appears in archived news footage, Saddam Hussein is essentially this; his gearing up for the events of the Gulf War ultimately drive much of the plot.
  Price: Give Saddam that gun, and he’ll hijack the whole Middle East. He’s a gangster. And don’t tell me that’s okay because he’s OUR gangster.
• Bittersweet Ending: Price has lost his job and failed to save Bull, who is killed either by Mossad or his own paymasters. However, he does anonymously feed information on Project Babylon to MI5, who seize the remaining components before they can be shipped to Iraq.
• Break-In Threat: Colonel Yossi sneaks into Bull’s apartment and leaves two wine glasses as a calling card.
• Broken Pedestal: The CIA and the Defense Department are this for Dr. Bull. During the Angolan Civil War, the CIA recruited Bull to covertly arm UNITA against the communist MLPA. He was arrested for exporting restricted materials in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 418^note a trade embargo against South Africa to protest their racist Apartheid policies and disavowed. Though he was supposed to have been pardoned, he ended up spending a year in prison regardless.
  Bull: Look, I didn’t just give you HARP; I gave you myself – my loyalty. You betrayed me.
  Price: What do you want me to say, Gerry? You were fucked! Up, down, and sideways.
  Bull: Yeah, and that’s a great way to reward loyalty.
• CIA Evil, FBI Good: The British variant (MI6 = CIA, MI5 = FBI) is subtle, but it’s there: MI6 is perfectly aware of what Dr. Bull is doing but covertly supports it; MI5 would rat the whole operation to Customs on principle, so they are kept in the dark.
• Death Glare: Marouf and Hashim have a particularly intimidating one.
  Bull: You know, you people really know how to scare the shit out of a guy just with a look. That's a real talent. I wish I had it. I can't even scare my secretary. Think you can teach it to me?
• The Dragon: Dov provides muscle for Colonel Yossi in Mossad. Saddam Hussein has two Co-Dragons, General Amir al-Marouf and Hussein Hashim, that serve as his primary intermediaries with Dr. Bull.
• Eagleland: Donald Duvall is a bonafide Type 2.
  Duvall: You know how the game is played: You’re a little country and we’re a big one. So you listen to us and you’ll continue to…
  Yossi: Yes, you’re a big country and we’re a small one... like Vietnam was a small country.
  Duvall: You leave Vietnam out of this!
  Yossi: We are NOT a small, insignificant country!
  Duvall: I am warning you…
  Yossi: No you’re not, you’re threatening me.
  Price: Listen boys, can we start all over again?
  Yossi: Let me tell you what you can do with your threats. You can stick them in the same place Saddam Hussein puts the toilet paper you so graciously send him.
  Duvall: Well, fuck you too, Colonel.
  Price: Ah, that’s what I like: Diplomacy.
• Foregone Conclusion: Dr. Bull will be assassinated by unknown party (possibly his own bosses), and his work will be used by Iraq to invade Kuwait. While the money laundering that enabled Saddam to build his military machine is ultimately exposed to the public, it never really amounts to much beyond (possibly) hurting the re-election prospects of George H. W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher
• Gentleman Snarker: Hugh Mackler is the British variant, working in “old boy” in every other sentence.
  Mackler: It’s called a scam, dear boy. Paid for by generous American taxpayers.
• Girl Friday: Bull’s secretary, Monique.
  Bull: How did I ever get along without you?
  Monique: Not very well.
• Happily Married: Dr. Bull and his wife, Sophie.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Depictions of Bull in fiction run the gamut from “Victor Frankenstein as an arms dealer” to an Unwitting Pawn who genuinely believed his work would be used for scientific endeavors such as launching satellites into space. This film depicts Bull as a charming, avuncular genius who relishes a challenge only holds grudges against those who genuinely screwed him over. His only real flaws are Pride and an inability to let go of those aforementioned grudges even when pragmatism suggests that he probably should.
  Bull: You think I'm some kind of idiot genius who wants to be immortal. I know I’m going to die just like you. I just want to be remembered.
  Yossi: You don’t want to be remembered for this.
• Insufferable Genius: Dr. Bull in his worst moments.
  Bull: If you were normal, you wouldn’t be working for me.
• Jurisdiction Friction: CIA, MI6, and Mossad.
• Kavorka Man: Hugh Mackler is pushing 60, but he has an attractive blonde girlfriend who is several years his junior.
• Ms. Fanservice: We get to see Brigit, Mackler’s mistress, in a swimsuit.
• No Sense of Humor: Duvall.
  Duvall: For my entire life people have told me that, and it used to make me very upset. Then I realized it’s an asset.
• Not Me This Time: Or perhaps more accurately, It Might Not Be Me Next Time:
  Yossi: You think we’re the only ones who want Bull? What happens when the Iranians find out that that gun can also point at Tehran, or the Syrians Damascus, or the British discover that they don’t want the whole world knowing that they helped him stop the embargo… or that YOU decide you don’t need him anymore?
• Only Sane Man: Agent Price fills this role in the CIA, he genuinely believes that Bull got a raw deal over the Angola debacle, and correctly warns his superiors that Saddam Hussein will screw them the moment he stops seeing his alliance with the United States as convenient.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist:
  • Agent Price wants to stop Project Babylon, but he doesn’t want to see Bull dead. He tries to get his former friend out before he gets in too deep.
  • While Colonel Yossi acknowledges that he may be ordered to kill Bull, he doesn’t want to do it, and attempts to warn him to back out.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The threat of Bull falling victim to this is lampshaded by several characters.
  Yossi: He knows too much. And in Iraq, only Saddam Hussein is allowed to know too much.