Rescuing The Hostages Day

Tonight's marathon is a combination of some intense yet great stories about rescuing hostages from heist and terrorist situations. The situations range from being true events to completely fictional and great works of entertainment. The stakes get bigger with each film from a group of hostages in Iran being taken hostage to a 40 story building and an entire city becoming under siege. Whether you agree with this marathon lineup or not, all the films work brilliantly together to show some of the greatest rescue missions and prevention of heist robberies and terrorism ever put on film. We have on our menu for this evening:

 Argo 2012, Inside Man 2007, Die Hard 1988, The Rock 1996, and The Dark Knight Rises 2012

We begin the lineup with Ben Affleck's 2012 Oscar Winning thriller Argo. Based on true events, a CIA agent played by Ben Affleck, acting under disguise as a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, he launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S hostage crisis in Iran in 1980. Winner of three academy awards including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Film Editing, this film is exciting, suspenseful, well executed, and begins the theme of hostages being taken and rescued beautifully. The next film in the lineup is 2006's Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen. Denzel Washington plays a police detective, Clive Owen as the bank robber, and Jodie Foster as a high-power broker, who all enter a game of high-stakes negotiations after the criminals bank heist turns into a hostage situation. Inside Man introduces the theme of a heist occurring inside a building and the police trying to negotiate the release of the hostages with the robbers. The third film in the lineup is the 1988 action movie classic Die Hard. This third film in the marathon is the movie that turned both Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman into overnight movie stars. Bruce Willis plays John McClane, a New York city police detective who got invited to a Christmas party by his wife Holly McClane played by Bonnie Bedelia. During the party, the guests are taken hostage by German terrorists in a heist led by Hans Gruber. It is up to John McClane to save the hostages including his wife while being trapped in a 40 floor building at Nakatomi Towers in Los Angeles. Die Hard is perhaps one of the greatest influential action movies of all time, and one of the cinemas most thrilling films. The film takes the theme of rescuing hostages, and preventing a major heist to the next level with rollercoaster action. Michael Bay's The Rock keeps this trend going with Alcatraz island being taken hostage in San Francisco. A mild -mannered chemist played by Nicolas Cage and an ex-con played by Sean Connery are left with the task of leading a counterstrike when a rogue group of military men, led by a renegade general, threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco. Two actors that steal the show in this film are Ed Harris and Michael Biehn in the epic shower standoff scene between the marines and terrorists over whose in control of the situation. The final film of the evening is the biggest film of them all in terms of scope. Christopher Nolan's epic conclusion to his Batman trio with The Dark Knight Rises places Bruce Wayne/Batman fighting to save Gotham city from being taken under siege by a terrorist named Bane. The twist is a nuclear bomb is set to detonate and destroy Gotham city unless the citizens as well as Batman stand up against the army that Bane has created to bring justice to Gotham city. All the themes that run through this marathon such as fighting terrorism, saving hostages, and bringing justice are brought together with this films climax.