Information about Under Siege

For the video game see Under Siege (video game).

Under Siege
Under Siege movie poster
Directed by	Andrew Davis
Produced by	Arnon Milchan Steven Reuther Steven Seagal Joel Chernoff
Written by	J. F. Lawton
Starring	Steven Seagal Tommy Lee Jones Gary Busey Erika Eleniak
Music by	Gary Chang
Cinematography	Frank Tidy
Editing by	Don Brochu Robert A. Ferretti Dov Hoenig
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	October 9, 1992
Running time	103 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12,000,000
Followed by
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Under Siege is a 1992 action film in the Die Hard mold. It stars Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones, on a U.S. Navy battleship. It was followed by a 1995 sequel, .

Plot

A band of ruthless mercenaries, led by psychopathic former CIA agent William Stranix (Tommy Lee Jones), board the American battleship USS Missouri to steal its arsenal of nuclear missiles. They arrive in the guise of a group of musicians and caterers hired for a surprise birthday party for the captain, and they seize control of the ship with the help of the corrupt Executive Officer, Commander Krill (Gary Busey). They plan to sell the nuclear weapons on the black market by unloading them onto a renegade submarine, which Stranix may have hijacked on a previous CIA mission—he had reported it sunk. Several of the officers are killed during the takeover, including Captain Adams (Patrick O'Neal), and the whole ship's company (with a few overlooked exceptions) is imprisoned below decks in the fo'c'sle.

The only thing in their way is ship's cook Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal), who is really a Chief Petty Officer and former Navy SEAL with extensive special-weapons and counter-terrorism training. (He was relegated to his current posting for striking an officer who had gotten his men killed in a botched commando mission. He had lost his security clearance and could therefore serve only as a yeoman or a cook. Fortunately, he is a good cook and is making bouillabaisse for the captain's birthday at the beginning of the film.)

Under arrest for insubordination to Krill—in the refrigerated meat locker, because the insubordinate Krill can't put anyone in the brig on his own authority (and doesn't want to alert the captain to potential trouble)—Ryback escapes and starts causing trouble for the boarders, with the assistance of Playboy Playmate "Miss July '89" Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak), who was supposed to jump out of a cake and strip, but fell asleep in the cake due to anti-seasickness pills given to her by Krill. Ryback contacts Naval Headquarters in Washington and apprises his superiors of the situation. When a helicopter-borne SEAL team is wiped out trying to retake the ship, he frees a small group of imprisoned sailors and proceeds to take back control of the ship, killing most of the terrorists in the process.

Meanwhile, Stranix begins loading the weapons onto the submarine, which departs with Krill on board. With the aid of his fellow sailors, Ryback uses the battleship's artillery guns to sink the submarine. Frustrated and apparently on the verge of a mental breakdown, Stranix orders the remaining terrorists out of the control room as he launches two nuclear-tipped Tomahawks towards Honolulu. Ryback finds his way into the control room, where he is caught off guard by Stranix. Ryback manages to disarm Stranix, and the two engage in a knife fight. Ryback dispatches Stranix, recovers the launch codes, and proceeds to disarm the missiles before they reach their target.

At the end, the remaining crewmembers are freed from their below-deck prison as the ship sails towards harbor. As he is checked by a doctor, Ryback kisses Jordan Tate as the crew looks on and cheers.

Cast

• Steven Seagal ... Casey Ryback
• Tommy Lee Jones ... William Stranix
• Gary Busey ... Cmdr. Krill
• Erika Eleniak ... Jordan Tate
• Colm Meaney ... Doumer
• Patrick O'Neal ... Capt. Adams
• Andy Romano ... Adm. Bates
• Dale Dye ... Captain Garza
• Nick Mancuso ... Tom Breaker
• Damian Chapa ... Tackman
• Troy Evans... Granger
• David McKnight ... Flicker
• Lee Hinton ... Cue Ball
• Glenn Morshower... Ens. Taylor
• Leo Alexander ... Lt. Smart
• John Rottger ... Cmdr. Green

Production and distribution

Based on an original screenplay by J. F. Lawton, Under Siege was rated 'R' ('Restricted') by the U.S. MPAA. It stars Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, Andy Romano, Dale Dye, Patrick O'Neal and Erika Eleniak and was directed by Andrew Davis. It was followed by a sequel, .

Trivia

• Based on the million-dollar spec script Dreadnought by J.F. Lawton, screenwriter of Pretty Woman.
• Though it was set aboard USS Missouri, very little of the movie was actually filmed there. Instead it was mostly filmed aboard USS Alabama, at the time already a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama.
• The film makes extensive use of the IntroVision process, a variation of front projection that allows realistic three-dimensional interaction of foreground characters with projected backgrounds without the heavy cost of traditional bluescreen effects. The technique was also used in the films Outland, Megaforce, Army of Darkness and Andrew Davis' The Fugitive.
• The UK release was edited for violence to get a more commercial 15 certificate. Thirty seconds were removed from the film, chiefly from the workshop fight and a shot of Seagal ripping out a man's throat.
• The issue of Playboy shown in the film, in which Erika Eleniak's character is the centerfold, was actually the issue in which Erika herself was the centerfold.

Goofs

• Though Seagal plays a Navy chief petty officer, he is wearing the uniform of a flag officer in the movie's poster. (The gold shoulder boards are barely visible.) Curiously, in a scene at the end of the movie he is wearing the correct uniform for his character: an identical tunic with CPO insignia pinned onto the choker collar instead of the shoulder boards.
• The terrorists who wear IFBs wear them incorrectly. They have them clipped on the front of their shirts, and then put in the ear. The correct way is to have the cable clipped onto the back of the shirt, and then cord goes over the ear, and into it, making sure the cords do not get in their way.
• When Commander Krill reads Chief Ryback's file, he states that Ryback was awarded a Purple Heart with a cluster. The U.S. Navy denotes multiple awards with Service Stars, not Oak Leaf Clusters. (Oak Leaf Cluster is Army terminology, and a Navy Commander would not use the Army term.)
• When a plane does a fly-by of the Missouri, they shoot it down with the CIWS (Machine gun). This is not possible, the CIWS is a anti-missile system not designed for attacking planes.

External links

•  • [ e] Steven Seagal
Major films	Above the Law (1988) • Hard to Kill (1990) • Marked for Death (1990) • Out for Justice (1991) • Under Siege (1992) • On Deadly Ground (1994) • The Glimmer Man (1996) • Fire Down Below (1997) • Exit Wounds (2001)
Albums	Songs from the Crystal Cave (2005) • Mojo Priest (2006)
See also	Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt • Steven Seagal Enterprises