Tears of the Sun (2003)
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A U.S. Navy SEAL team must navigate a brutal civil war to rescue a civilian doctor and her patients.
The story
Following a coup d'état in Nigeria led by General Mustafa Yakubu, the country descends into ethnic conflict between the Fulani Muslims and the Christian Igbo. Amidst this chaos, a U.S. Navy SEAL team led by Lieutenant A.K. Waters is tasked with extracting Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks, a U.S. citizen, from a rural Christian mission. Dr. Kendricks refuses to abandon her patients, forcing the team to make difficult moral choices as they attempt to navigate the jungle and evade rebel forces to reach the extraction point.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After a coup d'état by General Mustafa Yakubu triggers an ethnic war in Nigeria, a U.S. Navy SEAL team led by Lieutenant A.K. Waters is ordered to rescue Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks from a rural mission. While Kendricks initially refuses to leave her patients, Waters eventually agrees to take those who can walk. During the journey, the team is forced to kill a rebel to remain undetected. After the rebels massacre the remaining patients at the mission, Waters initially leaves the refugees behind but later feels remorse and returns to escort as many as possible to the Cameroon border. The SEALs discover the rebels are tracking them and find a refugee, Gideon, is an informant. They also learn the rebels are hunting Arthur Azuka, the last of the royal Ibo bloodline. In a final stand, the SEALs stay behind as a rearguard to allow the refugees to reach the border. Several team members, Slo, Lake, Flea, and Silk, are killed in the firefight. With air support and reinforcements arriving, the rebels are wiped out. Waters is wounded but survives, and Kendricks flies away while watching Arthur Azuka proclaim freedom to his people.
- First release year
- 2003
- Runtime (minutes)
- 121
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Antoine Fuqua
- Writers
- Alex Lasker · writer; Patrick Cirillo · writer
- Cast and characters
- Bruce Willis · Lieutenant Alec Kevin "A.K." Waters; Monica Bellucci · Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks; Cole Hauser · James "Red" Atkins; Eamonn Walker · Ellis "Zee" Pettigrew; Nick Chinlund · Michael "Slo" Slowenski; Tom Skerritt · Captain Bill Rhodes; Johnny Messner · Johnny Kelly "JKL" Lake; Paul Francis · Danny "Doc" Kelley
- Genres
- action; thriller; war
- Themes
- humanitarian crisis; moral dilemma; war's consequences
- Tone and mood
- action-packed; serious; stylish
- Premise and plot tags
- military; rescue mission; civil war; refugees
- Reception
- The film received mixed to average reviews, described as a stylish action movie that tries to be high-minded. It holds a 34% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 48/100 on Metacritic, while earning an A- from CinemaScore audiences.
- Production trivia
- The aircraft carrier scenes were filmed aboard the active USS Harry S. Truman.; The cast included African refugees living in the United States, some of whom were from the 'Lost Boys of Sudan'.; Director Antoine Fuqua and Bruce Willis did not get along during the making of the film.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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