Homeland Security Agent Michael Bookman (David Arquette) has not been spending enough time with his wife Lynn and son Sean. That may be about to change as they join 63,000 other fans at Washington's Memorial Stadium for the football game against New Orleans, a team which lost badly in the last game against Washington and now wants revenge.
Also watching the game: fans at a bar where masked terrorists enter and handcuff them to a bomb which will go off if they move. The bomb is set on a timer, so it will go off anyway unless ...
Somehow, one of the people in the bar moves carefully enough to make a phone call, and Bookman has to make yet another excuse to his wife and son.
The first bomb was only a warning. A phone call made by someone with a disguised voice warns that the football stadium will be destroyed at the end of the game unless a prisoner with a Middle Eastern name I won't attempt to spell is released, and $100 million is deposited in an offshore account. The terrorist group Circle of Fire is blamed. Al Qaida is mentioned in the movie, but it is apparently separate. No one can announce this news to the crowd, and if the people start leaving--BOOM! When Bookman gets this news, he is on the phone with his wife, and he warns her to leave the stadium with Sean. Unfortunately, someone connected with the bombing threat knows where they are.
Bookman and bomb expert Douglas Campbell (Richard T. Jones) must lead the search for the bomb or bombs, with numerous complications standing in the way of preventing a tragedy. Among these is the fact that in the event of nuclear war, Congress would move to quarters accessible from the stadium, and this is where the terrorists might be.
Only a few people connected with the stadium or the game are allowed to know what is going on, and they are required to keep quiet--with men standing nearby with guns making sure they do.
The tension level remains constant in this movie, and the excitement builds to a climax enhanced by spectacular mixing of audio and video from the game with audio and video of the efforts to prevent the bombing. If there were an Emmy for just editing in a TV-movie or miniseries, as opposed to just audio editing or video editing, they could hand that one out right now. This is also true because of the impressive job done for editing the disarming of the first bomb.
Angela Bassett gave the standout performance here as the Homeland Security Agent who communicated with Bookman from the office where the investigation was taking place. She had difficult decisions to make--some of them life-or-death, and some having to be made with little warning.
David Arquette also showed a take-charge attitude, though his character had trouble controlling his temper, and while his anger might have been justified, his performance needed a little more range.
The football announcers did quite a good convincing job, especially the play-by-play man, who had one moment that could be ranked with the 1980 Olympic Hockey victory among the great events in sports broadcasting.
I also need to single out the actor who played a suspect who was arrested. He didn't have a lot of lines, but he did a good job. At this point, I should also mention that several Muslims and Middle Easterners, or people believed to be one or the other, were unjustly accused. This to me was not a weakness because it added to the drama, though several valuable members of the explosives team could have been lost as a result.
The writers really seemed to know what they were doing. I don't know enough to know whether the explosives experts were doing everything right, but they certainly dealt with a number of confusing and dangerous situations.
The football game seemed real enough, though I know little about sports. Based on the commentary from the announcers, the game added a lot to the movie's excitement.
This was one of the season's better TV-movies.
Also watching the game: fans at a bar where masked terrorists enter and handcuff them to a bomb which will go off if they move. The bomb is set on a timer, so it will go off anyway unless ...
Somehow, one of the people in the bar moves carefully enough to make a phone call, and Bookman has to make yet another excuse to his wife and son.
The first bomb was only a warning. A phone call made by someone with a disguised voice warns that the football stadium will be destroyed at the end of the game unless a prisoner with a Middle Eastern name I won't attempt to spell is released, and $100 million is deposited in an offshore account. The terrorist group Circle of Fire is blamed. Al Qaida is mentioned in the movie, but it is apparently separate. No one can announce this news to the crowd, and if the people start leaving--BOOM! When Bookman gets this news, he is on the phone with his wife, and he warns her to leave the stadium with Sean. Unfortunately, someone connected with the bombing threat knows where they are.
Bookman and bomb expert Douglas Campbell (Richard T. Jones) must lead the search for the bomb or bombs, with numerous complications standing in the way of preventing a tragedy. Among these is the fact that in the event of nuclear war, Congress would move to quarters accessible from the stadium, and this is where the terrorists might be.
Only a few people connected with the stadium or the game are allowed to know what is going on, and they are required to keep quiet--with men standing nearby with guns making sure they do.
The tension level remains constant in this movie, and the excitement builds to a climax enhanced by spectacular mixing of audio and video from the game with audio and video of the efforts to prevent the bombing. If there were an Emmy for just editing in a TV-movie or miniseries, as opposed to just audio editing or video editing, they could hand that one out right now. This is also true because of the impressive job done for editing the disarming of the first bomb.
Angela Bassett gave the standout performance here as the Homeland Security Agent who communicated with Bookman from the office where the investigation was taking place. She had difficult decisions to make--some of them life-or-death, and some having to be made with little warning.
David Arquette also showed a take-charge attitude, though his character had trouble controlling his temper, and while his anger might have been justified, his performance needed a little more range.
The football announcers did quite a good convincing job, especially the play-by-play man, who had one moment that could be ranked with the 1980 Olympic Hockey victory among the great events in sports broadcasting.
I also need to single out the actor who played a suspect who was arrested. He didn't have a lot of lines, but he did a good job. At this point, I should also mention that several Muslims and Middle Easterners, or people believed to be one or the other, were unjustly accused. This to me was not a weakness because it added to the drama, though several valuable members of the explosives team could have been lost as a result.
The writers really seemed to know what they were doing. I don't know enough to know whether the explosives experts were doing everything right, but they certainly dealt with a number of confusing and dangerous situations.
The football game seemed real enough, though I know little about sports. Based on the commentary from the announcers, the game added a lot to the movie's excitement.
This was one of the season's better TV-movies.