The film finally narrows to a pursuit of Shabal in Mexico, where he’s intending to send his Filipino allies, armed with exceptionally potent suicide bombs, through cross-border tunnels used by Mexican drug cartels. As seemingly theatrical as the scene is - even echoing hints of chatty, Tarantino-style confrontations - it’s also probably the closest to docu realism Van O is the only SEAL in the cast who puts over the feeling that this is actually how he goes about his business. The SEALs now must spread out, with a pair headed on an amphibious trek to Somalia to spy on Shabal’s planes loaded, mysteriously, with Filipino men and women, while Van O, with touches of dark wit and menace, interrogates a slimy Christo as the baddie tries to flee to a safe haven in the South Pacific. Veadov’s and Cottle’s over-the-top characterizations trigger flashbacks to scenarios hatched by the multinational cadres of baddies favored by “24,” only with Kiefer Sutherland’s galvanizing Jack Bauer missing from the picture. The successful mission delivers some bad news: Morales’ cell phone has data linking Christo with Chechen terrorist Abu Shabal (Jason Cottle), suggesting an imminent Stateside terror attack. Though the sequence contains momentary thrills, it’s also shot much like a vidgame, which tends to sap deeper emotional involvement. Rorke’s unit is given their marching orders, and after an exhilarating parachute jump into the jungle, “extraction” is the name of the game. ambassador in the Philippines, CIA agent Morales (Rosalyn Sanchez) is abducted in Costa Rica during her pursuit of international smuggling kingpin Christo (Alex Veadov).
Enjoying a day of surfing and a night on the beach with their families, the guys are super-relaxed for men about to go on a tough mission, with Dave stiffly joking about Rorke and his wife (Ailsa Marshall) expecting a baby.Ĭoinciding with a terror attack on an American school and the U.S. Rorke, with Dave as his second-in-command, leading a team comprised of Sonny, Weimy, Ray, Ajay, Mikey and ace interrogator Van O - all played by non-pros who bring real service experience but limited acting ability to their roles.
Kurt Johnstad’s script derives from several actual SEALs operations, but rather than serving up the action more authentically as separate ops, the pic ties them together with a global terror plot that pushes this would-be docudrama closer to the territory occupied by TV’s “24.” What’s gained in conventional narrative build-up is lost in authenticity in a film that was conceived as a chance to depict real SEALs in their element.īookended by a letter written and narrated by one of the SEALs (Dave, going only by his first name, as everyone in the unit does), the pic begins Stateside at the San Diego home base of the stalwart unit, led by Lt.
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