The
disappearance of a military leader and the death of four of his men leads
two investigators to wade through a morass of deceptions and half-truths in
search of the facts in this thriller. Sgt. Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson)
is the leader of an elite team of U.S. Army Special Forces operatives known
as the Army Rangers; West is known as a highly effective officer, but one
with a short temper and aggressive attitude who is not well liked by his
soldiers. During a seemingly routine training exercise in Panama, a
hurricane sweeps in, and four of West's six men are dead, while West himself
seems to have vanished. Eager to get the facts behind what happened, Col.
Bill Styles (Tim Daly) assigns Capt. Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) to
investigate. However, Osborne is having a hard time getting the two
survivors to talk, so Styles brings in Tom Hardy (John Travolta), a former
Army Ranger who served under West and became a first-class interrogator;
Hardy later became a DEA agent, but left law enforcement after allegations
of corruption. Hardy interviews Dunbar (Brian Van Holt), who claims that the
four soldiers had been murdered, and West was killed in retaliation. Kendall
(Giovanni Ribisi), the other survivor (whose father is a powerful officer)
has a very different story of how the five men turned up dead, and it's up
to Hardy and Osborne to determine who is telling the truth — or if anyone is
saying exactly what happened. Basic marked the first time John Travolta and
Samuel L. Jackson appeared in the same film together since their
breakthrough roles in Pulp Fiction.| John Travolta | Agent Hardy |
| Connie Nielsen | Lt. Julia Osborne |
| Samuel L. Jackson | Sgt. Nathan West |
| Giovanni Ribisi | Kendall |
| Brian Van Holt | Dunbar |
| Tim Daly | Col. Bill Styles |
| Cristián de la Fuente | Castro |
| Dash Mihok | Mueller |
| Taye Diggs | Pike |
| Roselyn Sanchez | Nunez |
| Harry Connick, Jr. | Vilmer |
| Margaret Travolta | Nurse #1 |
| Curtis Ricks | MP |
| Jonathan Rau | G.I. on the Tarmac |
| Tait Ruppert | Jepp Driver |
| Timothy S. Wester | Doctor |
| Clayne Crawford | |
| Charles L. Fails | MP |
| Chris Byrne | MP |
| Steven Maye | CID officer |
| Nick Loren | Lt. Choppa |
| Cliff Fleming | Helicopter Pilot |
| Dena Johnston | Nurse #2 |
| Georgia Hausserman | Pilot |
Genre/Type - Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Detective Film
Produced by - Columbia Pictures / Intermedia Films / Orbit Entertainment Group /
Phoenix Pictures
Release - Mar 28, 2003 (USA)
Released by - Columbia Pictures / Intermedia Films / Sony Pictures Entertainment
Running time - 98 min.
High Crimes (2002, Carl Franklin)
The Presidio (1988, Peter Hyams)
Joint Security Area (2000, Park Chan-wook)
Off Limits (1987, Christopher Crowe)