Mercury Rising (1998)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Harold Becker

Writers (WGA):

Ryne Douglas Pearson (novel)
Lawrence Konner (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

3 April 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Someone knows too much.

Plot:

Bruce Willis is an outcast FBI agent who is assigned to protect a 9 year old autistic boy who is the...

Plot Keywords:

Code | FBI | Puzzle | Assassin | NSA

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	Art Jeffries
Alec Baldwin	...	Nicholas Kudrow
Miko Hughes	...	Simon
Chi McBride	...	Tommy B. Jordan
Kim Dickens	...	Stacey
Robert Stanton	...	Dean Crandell
Bodhi Elfman	...	Leo Pedranski (as Bodhi Pine Elfman)
Carrie Preston	...	Emily Lang
Lindsey Ginter	...	Burrell (as L.L. Ginter)
Peter Stormare	...	Shayes
Kevin Conway	...	Lomax
John Carroll Lynch	...	Martin Lynch
Kelley Hazen	...	Jenny Lynch
John Doman	...	Supervisor Hartley
Richard Riehle	...	Edgar Halstrom

Also Known As:

Mercury Falling (USA) (working title)
Simon (USA) (working title)
Simon Says (USA) (working title)
Simple Simon (USA) (working title)
Das Mercury Puzzle (Austria) (Germany) [de]
A kód neve: Merkur (Hungary) [hu]
Al rojo vivo (Spain) [es]
Alguien sabe demasiado (Argentina) (original subtitled version) [es]
Código Para o Inferno (Brazil) [pt]
Code Mercury (France) [fr]
Codice Mercury (Italy) [it]
Kod Mercury (Sweden) [sv]
Kod Mercury (Poland) [pl]
Kodenavn Mercury (Norway) [no]
Kodenavn: Mercury (Denmark) [da]
Kodikos: Mercury (Greece) [el]
Mercure à la hausse (Canada: French title) [fr]
Mercure se hausse (Canada: French title) (TV title) [fr]
Mercury Rising (Spain) [es]
Merkurjev srd (Slovenia) [sl]
Misión - Máxima seguridad (Mexico) [es]
Nome de Código: Mercúrio (Portugal) [pt]
Nume de cod: Mercury (Romania) [ro]
Salasana: Mercury (Finland) [fi]
Sifre Merkür (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS-Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Denmark:15 | Canada:AA (Ontario) | South Korea:15 (original rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Belgium:KT | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | South Korea:18 (DVD rating) | Ireland:15 | Italy:T | Spain:13 | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Imagine Entertainment

Trivia:

Actor Miko Hughes spent time with many autistic children at a special school. He also worked with a Chicago child psychologist to understand how to portray an autistic child.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Emily walks into her boyfriend's apartment, her lips stop moving for a brief moment but she doesn't stop talking.

Quotes:

[first lines]
FBI Supervisor Hartley: Let's go down.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Watch the Mercury Rising (1999) (V)

Soundtrack:

London Jam

Killed by its own premise

This movie has one huge problem: *its basic premise makes no sense at all*. Killing the kid is in absolutely nobody's interest. His codebreaking skill would be of immeasurable value to the very people who are trying to kill him, while safeguarding the code without killing him would be fairly straightforward. This is so obvious that it essentially ruins the whole movie.

The rest of the movie is OK if you ignore that problem. The performances are generally good, and Miko Hughes is excellent as Simon. There is nothing here you haven't seen a dozen times before, but it's generally well done. It's not worth making any real effort to see this movie, but you probably won't have a bad time if you do.