Under Siege (1992)
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A former Navy SEAL must defend a battleship from a group of mercenaries who have seized control of the vessel.
The story
The battleship Missouri arrives at Pearl Harbor, where it is announced that the ship will be decommissioned. Casey Ryback, a former Navy SEAL and current culinary specialist, finds himself in a confrontation with the ship's executive officer, Commander Krill. The situation escalates when a group of mercenaries, led by a former CIA operative named William Strannix, takes over the ship and kills several officers. Ryback, who has been sidelined due to his past, must navigate the hijacked vessel and work with a local companion to stop the mercenaries from using the ship's weapons and launching a devastating attack.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After a group of mercenaries led by William Strannix takes over the battleship Missouri and kills several officers, Casey Ryback, a former Navy SEAL and current cook, must fight to retake the ship. Strannix plans to hijack the ship's Tomahawk missiles to sell on the black market, potentially triggering a third world war. Ryback teams up with a woman named Jordan Tate to navigate the ship, defeating mercenaries and overcoming an ambush set by the treacherous Commander Krill. During the conflict, Ryback manages to disable the ship's weapons to allow a Navy SEAL team to land, though they are initially repelled by the hijackers. In the final confrontation, Ryback engages Strannix in a knife fight and wins, subsequently using a launch code disk to deactivate the hijacked Tomahawk missiles. The film concludes with the remaining crew being released and a funeral ceremony held for the fallen Captain Adams.
- Original title
- Dreadnought
- First release year
- 1992
- Runtime (minutes)
- 103
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Andrew Davis
- Writers
- J. F. Lawton · writer
- Cast and characters
- Steven Seagal · Casey Ryback; Tommy Lee Jones · William Strannix; Gary Busey · Commander Peter Krill; Erika Eleniak · Jordan Tate; Colm Meaney · Ernest Daumer; Patrick O'Neal · Captain J.T. Adams; Andy Romano · Admiral Bates; Dale Dye · Captain Nick Garza
- Genres
- action; thriller
- Themes
- terrorism; military conflict
- Tone and mood
- action; tense
- Setting
- A U.S. Navy battleship (the Missouri) at Pearl Harbor and during its voyage to San Francisco.
- Premise and plot tags
- ship hijacking; nuclear weapons
- Source material / true-story basis
- original spec script
- Franchise connections
- Under Siege
- Reception
- The film was both a critical and commercial success, often considered Steven Seagal's best film to date.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 83% · scale: percentage · review count: 30; Metacritic · score: 58 · scale: 100 · review count: 17
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Sound Effects Editing · nomination; Academy Award · Best Sound · nomination
- Production trivia
- The film was the most successful film not screened for critics prior to its release.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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