Under Siege (1992)
Under Siege is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and written by J. F. Lawton. It stars Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones, on the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri. Released on October 9, 1992, Under Siege was both critically and commercially successful, receiving two Oscar nominations for sound production and is often considered Seagal’s best film to date. The musical score was composed by Gary Chang. It was followed by a 1995 sequel, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, which was less positively received.
Plot.
The battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) arrives at Pearl Harbor, where then-President George H. W. Bush announces that the ship will be decommissioned in California. Casey Ryback, a Chief Petty Officer assigned as a culinary specialist, prepares meals in celebration of the birthday of Commanding Officer Captain Adams, against the orders of Executive Officer Commander Krill, who is having food and entertainment brought by helicopter. Krill provokes a brawl with Ryback. Unable to imprison Ryback in the brig without clearance from the captain, Krill detains Ryback in a freezer and places Marine Private Nash on guard. A helicopter lands on the ship’s deck with a musical band and a group of caterers (who are in fact a band of mercenaries led by disillusioned former CIA operative William “Bill” Strannix), and also with Playboy Playmate Jordan Tate. Strannix’s forces seize control of the ship with Krill’s help.RELATED:
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) Biography, Plot, Filming, Box office, Scene.
Several officers are killed, including Captain Adams. The surviving ship’s company are imprisoned in the forecastle, except for some stragglers in unsecured areas. Ryback hears the gunshots and persuades Nash to call the bridge, inadvertently alerting Strannix of this loose end. Strannix sends two mercenaries to eliminate Ryback and Nash. Nash is killed, but Ryback slays the assassins, runs into Tate, who was sedated during the takeover, and reluctantly allows her to tag along.
Strannix and his men seize control of the ship’s weapon systems, shooting down a jet sent to investigate, and plan on covering their escape by using missiles to obliterate tracking systems in Pearl Harbor. Strannix intends to sell the ship’s Tomahawks by unloading them onto a submarine he previously stole from North Korea, as revenge for the CIA trying to assassinate him prior to the events of the film.
Production.
The film was based on an original spec script by J. F. Lawton called Dreadnought which sold for $1 million. Warners wanted Steven Seagal to star in the film but he turned it down at first. Seagal later said he had problems with the role of a character “who is at first a bimbo jumping out of a cake and gets paired up with me.” But he said that in revisions of the script, the role became a character “who gradually reveals her intelligence.” Lawton said “We are trying to make him [Seagal] more mainstream…getting him out of the pure action genre and into an acting role.” The writer added “I’m trying to bring the budget within a reasonable range. The original script was almost irresponsible, with things like battleships getting blown up…the way it was, Dreadnought would have cost $100 million-plus to make. Now we’re looking at the $30 million range… It was Steven’s idea to fit the Pearl Harbor Memorial into the film, because all these incredible ships would be there—a spectacular sight.”
Director Andrew Davis had previously made Above the Law with Steven Seagal. Davis later said “Terry Semel wanted us to get back together again saying that Seagal was only in the movie 41 minutes. Tommy Lee is in the movie longer than Steven. It was fine, it was fine. It worked out well. We had a nice time down in Mobile and had a lot of fun making the movie, and that was the movie that got me The Fugitive so it was worth it.”
USS Alabama (serving as a museum in Mobile) stood in for many of the Missouri sequences, and USS Drum (museum ship) portrayed the North Korean submarine. The film also featured footage of the real Missouri sailing in Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Ocean, and San Francisco Bay.
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.
