a5c7b9f00b The NSA has developed what they believe is an unbreakable code which they call MERCURY. Now they ran a test to see if anyone can decipher the code by putting it in a puzzle magazine. Now Simon Lynch, an autistic boy who has an affinity for puzzles sees it and deciphers it and calls the NSA. Concerned the men in charge call their boss Kudrow and inform of what happened. Kudrow worried what might happen if this gets out orders that Simon be terminated. The man he sends kills his parents but is unable to find Simon and leaves when the police arrive. The police call the FBI to send someone to take a report of Simon who is missing and the man they send Art Jeffries is not exactly in good standing with the FBI because of an incident that occurred recently and is also not exactly OK because of the incident. Art finds Simon, who was hiding and takes him to the hospital. While there, the assassin takes another try but Art saves Simon and they go on the run.
Shadowy elements in the NSA target a nine-year old autistic savant for death when he is able to decipher a top secret code.
There must be about a million action/thriller movies available these days. Some of them are good, some of them are great, and some of them are horrible. While `Mercury Rising' certainly doesn't fall into the last category, I would stop short of calling it `great.'<br/><br/>The largest flaw here is one of the most devastating nature you could expect: the story needs some serious work. If this were a novel, people wouldn't keep reading very far. At least, not critical people. The same goes for viewers, whether they know it or not.<br/><br/>Willis plays a rather cliche sort of action hero. At one point in time, he was a great man. Now he is a rather worn version of his former self. If you remember `Die Hard with a Vengeance,' then you get the idea. As the movie starts, he is trying to stop a robbery from turning deadly. As an under-cover agent, he is within the walls of a small siege. Just before he can stop it from turning into a bloodbath, someone on the outside gives the order to charge. In the chaos that follows, a young, teenage boy is shot to death by the government.<br/><br/>The scene is quite important. It serves as Willis' motivation for most of the rest of the movie. You see, he is going to be protecting an autistic boy from the government, who has found that he knows the code to their top secret military code.<br/><br/>When you watch, you quickly realize that there's no clear-cut villain. In an effort to make sure the villain was somewhat sympathetic, the writer went to far. Alec Baldwin plays a man who heads up a top secret branch of the government. He orders the murder of a child to save lives. The thing is, this actually makes sense. He is sacrificing one for the many.<br/><br/>In fact, you almost wish Baldwin would win, just because his logic works. Willis, on the other hand, works only to ease his own guilt. He works through the movie, mostly just pulling the boy out of the way of trains, so that the autistic child won't have to die. Of course, that means the code will remain 'not secret.' We're all supposed to cheer for Willis.<br/><br/>Don't get me wrong. I believe Baldwin's intention of having the boy killed is perhaps excessive. But Willis doesn't come across as a real saint, and Baldwin is a pathetic villain. In fact, you don't see him much. His only true menace comes from the fact that it's mostly night when you see him, and that he can order men to kill.<br/><br/>I don't expect a lot from the story of a movie like this. All I ask from a thriller is that it give me a villain to hate, a protagonist to love, a story with a twist or two, and some serious action. Any of those elements that appear in `Mercury Rising' are watered down, at best. At worst, they're enough to render this movie worse than average.
Mercury Rising's star, Bruce Willis, is what made me see this movie. By the time you get to "00:00:02" on you VCR counter, you're hooked. This is definitely a great thriller. My question to the movie is, "Why is Bruce Willis' name on the cover?" The reason I ask is that by the time you get into this movie, you care more about the kid. The play by play of this movie keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is -definitely- not a "Date Movie", more of a "Sitting in on a Friday Night" movie. When you get to the "Bruce Willis" section in the movie store, turn away from the Die Hard Trilogy (as much of a fan I am of them) and turn toward a more realistic, just as exciting movie, Mercury Rising.<br/><br/>P.S.: A tidbit- Bruce Willis is actually "William Willis"...
John Barry's score, with its reiterated 'autistic kid' theme, would have sounded corny to Ivor Novello, though it's in keeping with the general principle of patronising the audience.