Navy Seals (1990)
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Overview

Navy Seals is an early 90's action film staring Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn. The films was directed by Lewis Teague, written by Chuck Pfarrer and Gary Goldman, and produced by Brenda Feigen and Bernard Williams with consultant William Bradley.

Creation

The initial idea for the film was to capitalize on the success of Top Gun several years earlier by trying to make a similar film but instead of the characters being in the Navy Air Force they would be special operations soldiers. This was the aim and early drafts of the script even involved a close following of the Top Gun plot than the one that made it to screen and would have included a knife throwing contest instead of the Top Gun volleyball match, but this objected to by the films stars. Chuck Pfarrer wrote the screenplay and several events are inspired by his time spent in SEAL Team 4.

Plot Summary

Hawkins to the rescue

An American aircraft carriers receives a distress call from a merchant ship in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Palestine and responds by sending a helicopter to rescue the stranded crew. When the helicopter arrives it is shot down by a terrorist gun boat and the crew are taken prisoner. They are taken to the mainland by the terrorists and kept at their base but the groups leader is not please with this turn of events, worrying that they will bring unwanted attention and orders they be killed. With the first crewman shot dead and the pilot about to be killed, the room is attacked and cleared by soldier that reveal themselves to be SEALS their to rescue the crew. While checking the room for intel, Lt. Hawkins finds a locked door and breaks silence to open the door and finds what appears to be a beaten hostage in the room. Him not being American they leave him behind as they fight there way to the extraction point. The team gets bogged down in a fire fight and the leader, Lt. Curran orders Hawkins to buy them some time to escape. He and the Graham go off to create a diversion while the rest get the the extraction. While away they discover a warehouse full of missiles and after failing to destroy them regroup at the extraction point. Once there the team decides to get the hostages to safety rather than go back in for the missiles.

Debriefing

Once safely back on the aircraft carriers the team is debriefed and in detail go through their actions in the fight. While they are debriefed Hawkins is coming down from the rush of combat and is clearly on edge. They head back to the US and are again debriefed at the Pentagon where it is revealed that the hostage they left behind is the terrorist leader called Shaheed. He has threatened to strike back against the US with the missiles in retaliation for the bombing of his homeland. They SEALs are ordered to take time off as the commanders figure out what to do next. After a relaxing round of golf the team receives their orders for the next mission. Naval Intelligence has heard that the Stinger missiles are on board a merchant ship, The Latanya, off the coast of Syria. The SEALs deploy from a submerged submarine, the USS Nyack, and successfully board the ship, neutralizing two disguised gunmen, only to find out from an EOD team that the missiles are not on board after all.

Leaving on mission

After another set back due to poor intelligence Curran tries to get the information he needs by cultivating a relationship with the journalist Claire Varrens who had previously interviewed Shaheed. After a brief look at the SEALS training she agrees to help but will not betray her contacts. They soon identify one man that could help but he has gone missing and is probably in hiding. Curran takes the information to his superiors and at first is berated for suggesting kidnapping a foreign national but when he is revealed as a CIA contact the mission is given the go ahead. The team is inserted into the area by performing a HALO jump and swimming to shore. Curran leads several of the team inside a house to secure the informant while Hawkins, Ramos, and Graham remain outside. When Ramos is pinned down by gunfire from patrolling militia, Hawkins disobeys Curran's order to stay quiet and instigates a firefight. Although Hawkins finally succeeds in killing the militiamen, Graham is killed during the firefight.

The team prepares for the mission

With Graham's funeral the team begins to fall apart as Curran blames Hawkins for his death while he was looking for a rush. They have to come to terms with his death quickly as they soon receive a new mission to go and destroy the missiles that the now know the location of. The team is sent to Beirut and arrive by boat and have to cross the city to get tot eh missiles and avoid the renewed fighting. During the trip through the city they get stuck in a fight and Dane is killed but they make it to the missiles. The set about the demolition with Hawkins and Ramos giving watch, but things take longer than expected and the sun soon rises. As the team begins to leave they are spotted and Curran is shot in the leg. He orders Hawkins to blow the charges but instead he rescues Curran and then destroys the missiles.

Mission complete

With the mission complete they quickly treat Curran and then race for the coast and their pick up by the navy. To make better time they car jack a local and race through the city and are pursued by an armored car that kills Rexer before they can destroy it. With the car trashed the remaining men head for the coast on foot. They make it to the beach and go straight into the water to evade pursuit, but Shaheed arrives on a boat . The SEALS destroy his boat and Hawkins kills him with his knife. Now safe they wait for the pick up which looks to have left without them but at the last moment the submarine surfaces to taken them to safety.

Production

The film went trough several different drafts of the script and despite those named in the credits, the film went through another draft by Kevin Jarre. In one draft, Hawkins sacrifices himself to rescue Curran , who ends up with the love interest. In another version, Curran is killed off rescuing some kids, and Hawkins and Claire Varrens are left to mourn his passing. Also in one of those drafts, Curran is an accomplished boxer who squares off in a fight with Hawkins, who's into karate. The golf sequence in the film was a concession when the film's leads objected to a Top Gun-style scene with knife-throwing contests and bikini bimbos.

The actors spent two weeks in an intensive SEAL-style "boot camp." In the end, it was actors versus SEALs in a final "war game" showdown. The SEALs are reported to have graciously said that the actors made a good showing for themselves.

The film was produced by Orion pictures and released by MGM.

Critical reception

The movie had a mostly poor reception when it was released in 1990. It currently has a rotten tomatoes rating of 20%. It debuted at no.4 on it's opening behind Ghost, Die Hard 2 and Arachnophobia. It has since found a small success in home release.

	Charlie Sheen	Lt. Dale Hawkins
	Michael Biehn	Lt. James Curran
	Joanne Whalley	Claire Varrens
	Rick Rossovich	Leary
	Cyril O'Reilly	Rexer
	Bill Paxton	Dane
	Dennis Haysbert	Graham
	Paul Sanchez	Ramos
	Nicholas Kadi	Ben Shaheed
	Ronald G. Joseph	Capt. Dunne
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Name	Navy Seals
US Release	July 20, 1990
UK Release
AUS Release
Runtime	113
Language(s)	Add a new language English
Genre(s)	Add a new genre Action Adventure
Theme(s)	Add a new theme
Rating	R
Alias(es)

	Top Gun
	The Rock
	Tears of the Sun
	Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia
	The Expendables

	Bad Guys Can't Aim
	The Only Good Villain is a Dead Villain
	Explosions In Slow Motion
	Slow Motion Dramatic Emphasis
	Outrunning Explosions
	Explosions in Multiple Angles
	Shooting a locked door with gun
	Bringing A Knife To A Gun Fight

Domestic	$25,069,101
Foreign	+$0

Navy Seals (1990) Add