Terror Plots Return to Movies

Hollywood froze with the rest of the world on Sept. 11. Terrorism-themed movies vanished from the schedule, and studios grappled with the notion that the reality of the terrorist attacks might sap viewers' tastes for film violence of any sort.

It was a short freeze. The industry generally is back to business as usual, relieved that Sept. 11 seems to have left moviegoers unaffected in the types of films they want to see.

Problematic films postponed after Sept. 11, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Collateral Damage," Tim Allen's "Big Trouble," and Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock's "Bad Company," were quickly put back in the lineup for this year. Releases of two major war movies scheduled for 2002, "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Black Hawk Down," were moved up to last fall.

With audience appetites for violence and combat undiminished, Hollywood can boast that it acted with sensitivity to the nation's sorrowful mood last fall. And now, after what it deems a suitable period of mourning, the industry can return to its bread-and-butter of big explosions and high body counts.

"I have a phrase for it. I call it the dynamic hypocrisy of Hollywood. It's always moving, always changing. There's always a bit of a hypocritical element to it," said Frank McAdams, author of "The American War Film: History and Hollywood," a book due out this spring. "It's the famous line from `Casablanca,' where Claude Rains says, `I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy.'"

The prevailing wind in the days after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks hinted at doom for the big action flick. The TV images of hijacked planes ramming the trade towers made fiery Hollywood special effects appear silly, insignificant and vulgar.

The reality of violence and terrorism had superseded the comic-book variety of the movies. Critics of film bloodshed said the attacks were a wakeup call for Hollywood to examine its conscience and reconsider its preoccupation with violent films.

Some terrorist-centered projects were shelved, but whatever soul-searching occurred has not dissuaded studios from moving forward with violent films already in the can.

"People asked me last fall, `Do you think they'll quit making such violent movies?' I said at the time and I'll say again, Hollywood will make whatever sells," said actor Billy Bob Thornton.

"What I said then was when this blows over to a degree, they'll start coming out with those movies again. That's the way it'll always be."

Once it knew the film would be ready in time, Sony never hesitated on bumping up "Black Hawk Down" to a limited release in December to qualify for the Oscars, said Jeff Blake, the studio's president of worldwide marketing and distribution. Though heavy on ferocious, close-quarter battles, the film deals with a 1993 military raid in Somalia that the studio felt was well removed from "mercurial current events," Blake said.

"It's very dangerous at any period of time to start thinking only certain kinds of films should be made or only certain kinds will do well," Blake said. "High quality films will always find an audience, regardless of moods."

Still, some analysts wondered early on if "Collateral Damage" — in which Schwarzenegger plays a firefighter hunting down a Colombian terrorist whose bomb killed his wife and son — could ever find an audience in the post-Sept. 11 world.

"There definitely were people in the press that speculated several movies maybe we would never see, including `Collateral Damage,'" Schwarzenegger said.

Turns out the public had a stronger stomach. In the days after Sept. 11, people flocked to video stores to rent films such as "Die Hard" and Schwarzenegger's "True Lies," in which American heroes vanquish terrorists.

Violent — albeit non-terrorist — movies such as "Training Day" and "Don't Say a Word" performed well at the box office. "Black Hawk Down" and "Behind Enemy Lines" drew healthy crowds, as did "Spy Game," an espionage thriller set partly in the early '90s world of Mideast terrorism and which features a frightening car bombing.

Positive reaction from test audiences who saw "Collateral Damage" two months after the terrorist attacks convinced distributor Warner Bros. it was safe to reschedule the film this year.

"Things heal. Time heals everything, and we all have to move on," said Dan Fellman, Warner head of distribution. "It's a well-made action movie, and I think action movies will certainly continue to be made."

The test screenings indicated the public was hungry to "see movies with a positive outcome, where there's some imaginary American who's kicking butt and is wiping out terrorists," Schwarzenegger said. "They want to see that because in reality, you can't get rid of terrorism that quickly."

With the films costing $40 million to $70 million each, studios could not afford lengthy delays for movies like "Collateral Damage"; "Big Trouble," a comedy postponed because it features a nuclear device aboard a plane; or "Bad Company," which pits CIA agents against terrorists. Warner and "Big Trouble" distributor Disney already had to eat millions in advertising costs spent to promote the films before they were postponed last fall.

Delaying "Collateral Damage" more than a few months could have made matters worse for Warner Bros., director Andrew Davis said. Had "Collateral Damage" come out even later, moviegoers unaware that it was shot before Sept. 11 might have felt Schwarzenegger was cast as a firefighter to capitalize on the heroism of firefighters killed trying to rescue victims at the World Trade Center, Davis said.

"The longer they waited, the more it would have felt exploitative," said Davis, who also directed "The Fugitive" and "Under Siege," in which Steven Seagal beats up on terrorists. "People might have thought we made the movie because of the events."

Before shooting, there was discussion about rewriting the script to make Schwarzenegger's character a more typical action hero, an ex-CIA type with commando fighting skills and weapons knowledge. Schwarzenegger lobbied to keep the man an everyday hero who uses his firefighting background to jury-rig his own methods of battling villains.

"Then when the terrorist attacks happened, everyone said, `You play a firefighter. What a brilliant idea,'" Schwarzenegger said. "I think it worked actually to our advantage, that now the general public realizes firefighters are very heroic characters."

In New York on Sunday, however, a priest who ministers to workers at Ground Zero said "Collateral Damage" insults firefighters by making the main character a vigilante. The Rev. Brian Jordan, who also objected to the movie's portrayal of Colombians, had not seen it.

No changes were made to "Collateral Damage" in light of the war on terrorism. Warner and the filmmakers felt the story of a civilian fighting South American renegades connected to a drug cartel would not vex audiences still coping with real-life events.

As for the movie's violence, including a bombing in downtown Los Angeles, an attempt to blow up an inner sanctum at the State Department and a bloody assault on a rebel camp, the filmmakers said viewers are accustomed to separating fiction from fact.

"Drama has always had tragedy in it going back to the earliest stories. War is a theme all through dramatic history," said "Collateral Damage" director Davis. "Unless we stop having war and people treat each other better, I don't think we can get away from it." (Copyright DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer)