The Peacemaker (1997)

This was an intelligent thriller with some over the top action. It was interesting watching an attempted terrorist attack on NYC that still had the twin towers though.

George Clooney and Nicole Kidman team up as counter-terrorists for the United States. In this world, the USA is watching out for the earth, so when a nuke goes missing in Russia (and one is detonated too), they have the responsibility to catch it. In this film, the United States are nearly flawless and all the motivations are altruistic. It is the rest of the world that has fallen prey to becoming terrorists and using the bomb for their own purposes.

The action in the film was suspenseful and the acting was enjoyable. An inevitable romance didn't develop, so that was refreshing. The film takes you around the world as though it were a Bourne film - Russia, Austria, New York, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Turkey.

The terrorist is made to be sympathetic, but his motives, losing his wife and daughter, ultimately don't tug too strongly at your heartstrings... after all, several tens of thousands of people are killed in the first 15 minutes of the film.

The procedures seem well researched and you have the sense throughout the entire film that there is always someone higher up that they need to get permission from in order to carry out an operation, so it's not Rambo. The story is contrived and the characters a little to superhuman for my liking when the film isn't as entertaining and far-fetched as Die Hard. It's fun. It's just not that great.

IMDB