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Broken Arrow

R Released Feb 9, 1996 1h 48m Action List
54% Tomatometer 35 Reviews 44% Audience Score 100,000+ Ratings
Air Force pilots Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and Riley Hale (Christian Slater) are sent on an overnight top-secret mission with two nuclear weapons aboard their aircraft. But, after they are in the air, Deakins changes the plan. He attempts to kill Hale and then steals the weapons with the intent of selling them to terrorists. However, Hale survives the crash and meets up with park ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis). Together, Hale and Terry attempt to thwart Deakins' plan. Read More Read Less
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Broken Arrow

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Critics Consensus

John Woo adds pyrotechnic glaze to John Travolta's hammy performance, but fans may find Broken Arrow to be a dispiritingly disposable English-language entry for the action auteur.

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Critics Reviews

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Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader Broken Arrow is beautifully crafted, mindless entertainment–nothing more, but also nothing less. Jun 7, 2022 Full Review Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: C Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Rated: 3/4 Jun 18, 2002 Full Review Robin Holabird KUNR (Reno, NV) The movie Broken Arrow remains rentable, while the region's monolithic cliffs still overwhelm the senses. Jul 23, 2021 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Despite a lot of mayhem taking place on screen, the only memorable component of this ramshackle actioner is Hans Zimmer's score. Rated: 2/10 Sep 11, 2020 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews An inane thriller for those with a penchant for films that nuke themselves on purpose. Rated: C Aug 8, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Joe M One of the best action movies, awesome sound track, a cool movie for escapism. Good actors Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/19/24 Full Review Gerald H 80ies-Scheissdreck in the 90ies. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 06/05/24 Full Review James T Great soundtrack! Over the top action. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/10/24 Full Review Aaron G If you need something to put on to kill a couple hours, this is the movie for you. Plot feels like it was written by an Elementary student. Plenty of plot jumps and cheesy one liners. I was expecting more from John Travolta & Christian Slater. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the wilhelm scream during a concluding fight scene. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 12/27/23 Full Review DanTheMan 2 For lack of a better phrase, Broken Arrow doesn't really feel like a John Woo movie, lacking so much of his style, influence and trademarks but it does have explosions... lots and lots of explosions. Having been gifted a larger budget, it's well-crafted but completely mindless entertainment, existing purely as a way to showcase the film's action scenes which, in all fairness, do deliver (the finale on the train being more than worth the price of admission). It seems Woo was met with even more studio interference here than with Hard Target as there's no rhyme or reason as to why any does anything, no coherency with its characters or story with empty clichéd dialogue but it's tongue in cheek amid its seriousness with Travolta, delivering as the film's villain, hamming it up to near Face/Off levels of brilliance. Meanwhile, Slater brings next to no charisma to his role and his chemistry with Samantha Mathis is non-existent, I can't be the only one thinking that Nicholas Cage would have been a way better pick for Slater's role. Despite a lot of mayhem taking place on screen, the most memorable component of this otherwise ramshackle of an actioner is Hans Zimmer's awesome score. Broken Arrow is ultimately a subdued effort, one with a lot of cheese but not a lot of energy which in turn can make it feel like a slog. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/21/23 Full Review Sebastian L Woo has absolutely no interest in what makes sense as long as there are guns and explosions. This isn't even funny bad, it's just bad. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 10/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Broken Arrow

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Movie Info

Synopsis Air Force pilots Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and Riley Hale (Christian Slater) are sent on an overnight top-secret mission with two nuclear weapons aboard their aircraft. But, after they are in the air, Deakins changes the plan. He attempts to kill Hale and then steals the weapons with the intent of selling them to terrorists. However, Hale survives the crash and meets up with park ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis). Together, Hale and Terry attempt to thwart Deakins' plan.
Director
John Woo
Producer
Mark Gordon, Terence Chang, Bill Badalato
Screenwriter
Graham Yost
Distributor
Fox, 20th Century Fox
Production Co
Mark Gordon Productions, 20th Century Fox, WCG Entertainment Productions
Rating
R
Genre
Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 9, 1996, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA)
$70.6M
Runtime
1h 48m
Sound Mix
Surround
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