For no particular reason, I’ve been on a John-Travolta-cop film kick of late. Only a few days ago, I watched The General’s Daughter (1999) for the first time, which was a decent viewing experience. That put me in the mood for Basic, a movie that struck me as inventive when I first saw it back in 2003. But that was then; this is now. Now, I’m a lot more discerning, perhaps even pedantic. Either way, I don’t think I’m wrong in thinking that Basic is the opposite of its title – which was likely the point – but not in a good way. Written by James Vanderbilt, the guy who wrote Zodiac, and directed by John McTiernan, the guy who directed Predator and Die Hard, Basic has to be one of the most notable flops of the 2000s. And considering McTiernan hasn’t helmed another film since, its failure is one that continues to haunt cinephiles to this very day, 20 years later.

Before I get into this, I’ll warn you that I’m going to spoil the whole movie, or at least, the sections of it that are intelligible. Basic takes place in Panama during a violent hurricane, or rather, one that’s violent only when Tom Hardy (John Travolta) isn’t traipsing through Day of the Dead parades. Yes, his character’s name is Tom Hardy, and yes, it’s humorously distracting. Hardy, an ex-Army Ranger turned DEA agent, is called in to investigate a whodunnit murder at a US Army base by his old friend and base commander, Colonel Bill Styles (Tim Daly). A renowned Master Sergeant named Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson) has been killed, along with most of the squad he was drilling, during a training op in the jungle. Partnered with Captain Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen), Hardy is tasked with getting the truth out of the two rangers who survived. Perhaps one of the two is the killer, or perhaps, something more sinister is afoot. Does this plot synopsis intrigue you? I wouldn’t blame you if it did.

Sadly, what sounds so promising on paper ends up a convoluted mess on-screen. For starters, Basic tries so hard to incorporate Usual Suspects-esque unreliable narrators into its snappy interrogations, but fails to do effectively every time. Normally, if you’re going to have multiple people – in this movie, Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) and Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi) – offer up wildly different accounts of a crime (shown via flashbacks), then you’d at least include useful clues and colorful characters. The Usual Suspects may have had an unreliable narrator, but if nothing else, its narrative often hinted at the truth, and its characters always remained compelling. In Basic, almost nothing that’s portrayed actually occurred, and the characters range from unlikeable to cartoonishly unlikeable. This means that, unlike those in the The Usual Suspects, the twists in Basic feel manipulative and unearned.

To describe it another way, nearly everything you “see” is in service to the huge surprise in the film’s final ten minutes. That’s when it’s revealed that Hardy is actually still in the military and in charge of a black ops unit called “Section 8”. As it turns out, West contacted Hardy, who he served with back in the day, and told him that he’s uncovered a cocaine smuggling operation at his base in Panama. Realizing that the conspirators – specifically their ringleader, Colonel Styles – will want West silenced, Hardy concocts an insane scheme to expose the criminals and “kill” West, allowing him to join Section 8 afterward. Is this a cool twist? Sure, if it made any sense whatsoever. So many questions are raised as soon as the credits blast onto screen, accompanied by gratingly terrible music. For instance, why would these covert operatives infiltrate the Army Rangers and roleplay a complex ruse? Wouldn’t surveilling Styles be much easier, given they already know he’s probably the big bad? What happens if Osborne does something vaguely competent, like peeking at the suspects’ files for more than a few seconds? If literally one thing didn’t go as planned with Section 8’s intricate deception, it could’ve screwed up everything. Why risk it?

When the big revelation comes, its ultimate undoing is that everything Section 8 did throughout the movie is recklessly unnecessary. Apparently, Tom Hardy never heard the saying “work smarter, not harder”. Sure, he doesn’t know the identities of all the culprits, but anyone with two eyes could spot them a mile away. Are we supposed to believe Section 8 got lucky to include Kendall and Mueller (Dash Mihok) in their faux training op? I hope not, because that’d be extremely contrived. No, I choose to believe they knew ahead of time that those two rangers were part of Styles’ crew. Although, if that’s the case, then why all the subterfuge? Fine, without it they wouldn’t be able to “kill” West, but I’m not even sure that’s necessary. And okay, they still need to discover who’s been supplying Mueller with pharmaceutical grade drug cocktails, which ends up being Pete Vilmer (Harry Connick Jr.), the Army hospital’s head doctor. But, those kinds of drugs could’ve only come from the base’s hospital, so unmasking Vilmer should’ve been elementary.

There’s so much more I could pick on and question, like how exactly did Kendall know about Section 8’s involvement? I have a few theories, but am I even supposed to care enough to have them? Basic clearly doesn’t care, so why should I? Why? Why? WHY? That’s all I could think when this movie ended. This all goes back to my primary point: Basic is needlessly complicated. Every reveal is supposed to answer a question, but each one only adds to the confusion. I suspect there’s a simple reason for this: the ending had to be altered at some point. James Vanderbilt is by no means a legendary screenwriter, but he did pen Zodiac, so there’s no way he overlooked all of this. It feels like the original ending had to be a bad-guys-win sort of thing, where it turns out that Section 8 really is a rogue unit running amuck in Central and South America.* That ending not only seems more plausible, but it also would’ve justified a lot of the nonsense that preceded it. Of course, this is all speculation that stems from my desire to give the guy who co-wrote The Rundown (underrated) the benefit of the doubt. I could easily be wrong, though.**

While it’s entirely possible that Vanderbilt simply wrote a stinker, it’s undeniable that McTiernan directed one. To this day, it perplexes me that the man who made Predator and Die Hard also made Rollerball and Basic, two films that are clumsy and ugly. I hate the way that Basic looks, especially during the headache-inducing flashback scenes in the jungle. Those scenes are too dark, too loud, dramatically devoid, and entirely unbelievable. Actually, all of the military stuff in this movie comes off as amateurish and unrealistic. McTiernan can’t even muster solid performances from his actors. Travolta is merely rehashing his much better protagonist from The General’s Daughter, while Jackson just shouts his way through his limited screen-time. Don’t even get me started on Roselyn Sánchez and Harry Connick Jr., whose performances are so awful that they literally made me wince. The only actors who earn their keep are Nielsen and Van Holt, who are both properly cast. I feel bad for Nielsen especially, since she’s forced to play the idiot who stumbles upon the clues and culprits that Hardy and Co. already know about. Her acting belonged in a better movie.

In retrospect, I’m finding it hard to believe that I enjoyed Basic as much as I did the last time I watched it. I guess, if there’s one thing it has going for it, it’s never slow or dull. Maybe that, combined with my past reluctance to reflect too much on films after the fact, is why I liked it all those years ago. Now, though, I tend to [over]think more about every movie I see, and Basic is one of those flicks that suffers when given such contemplation. In truth, I’m not even sure it merits the level of thought I put into this retrospective. Quite simply, Basic is subpar in every facet, and it will always vex me that it’s McTiernan’s final film (as of now). The man is a master, and I know he may not deserve another shot behind the camera, but I’ll always hope he gets one, if only to make up for this dreck… and Rollerball.

Notes:

* I should also point out that once the purpose of Section 8 is revealed, that they’re a group of legally deceased soldiers that covertly hunt bad guys, all I could think about is how awesome that movie would be. I don’t need a shoddily made whodunnit; I need an action thriller where Travolta and Jackson infiltrate and destroy drug cartels or terrorist groups. Just think of what McTiernan could’ve done with that cast and plot. What a waste of a concept.

** Basic‘s trailer (see below) seems to support my theory that its final cut may have deviated from its original script. Much of the dialogue in the trailer is never said in the movie, especially all the talk about “deception” and West’s “disappearance”. There are also some visuals shown in the trailer, like a recording of West discussing deception, that never made the final cut. Sure, it’s possible some of this stuff was created specifically for the trailer in order to disguise the film’s actual twists, but that’s also pure speculation (same as my theory). Either way, the trailer really makes Basic look way more intriguing than it actually is, so props to whoever threw it together.