“Mercury Rising” elaborates on one of the most complex ciphers ever to exist on Earth, as well as on people in it who exhibit far less intelligence than the audience. As the audience sits and contemplates the film, we come up with how and why things should be done, but the characters are contorted within the very rules they devised. This is most vividly seen during the characters elaborate struggles against the constraints of cinematic conventions.
The movie kicks off with the law personnel on the wrong side of the law, with their surpassing antics. The first scene is a hostage scenario that the hero, Bruce Willis saves the modern day Stephen King from. But first, let’s analyze the reality of the situation. Unlike in fantasies where an aimless hero dons the mask of a cavalier, this is a world where a trigger happy regime exists under the delusion that they are a first world power. Following towards the latter part of the movie, the hero seems to savory pop ready to be munched because of his boss and trigger happy superiors. This self contained sci-fi society in order easily stops Bruce of doing magic.
With enough on their plate, most fans of cinema should be able to put two and two together. While he is being hunted by a cop, Willis’ character Jeffries, an FBI agent, will get embroiled in even bigger cases. He will clearly attempt to crack it by himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually finds himself grappling with the diabolical puppet master of the charade. Best if this encounter takes place at a lofty altitude (see “Climbing Killer” from Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary). Not to mention, it is a fair guess that the hero will find a willing accomplice who will be too beautiful to disregard and who would want to get shot at while being on his side.
Anti-hero Baldwin’s character had some basic sociopathic quirks which helps explain the monotone voice without emotion: “A 9-year-old has deciphered the most sophisticated cipher system ever known and he’s autistic!??” Each quote Baldwin use gay ace is either true or there is a valid argument in his defense. Okay, so young Simon (Miko Hughes) is presented with a gamer wordsearch puzzle out of a children’s periodical, and voila, uh while an electronically charged sounding background is played, he discovers the hidden puzzle and the automated phone number he uncovers sends two geeks in a strong room jumping out of their seats.
Some agents are sent to try and eliminate the kid along with his parents residing in Chicago. Towards the end, Jeffries, an FBI agent, arrives where there parents are dead. He instantly puts together it is not a murder suicides and questions “how can someone as broke as an individual afford a gun worth $1500.” After this he also finds Simon hiding under a crawl space. While making deductions without the help of beeping noises, he figures Simon knows something important and there is someone with power trying to get rid of Simon.
At this point, the plot of the movie has taken a turn and returned to showing the scenes that, similar to the events that took place in Godfather, involve the police guard being taken off duty in mysterious fashion within a hospital corridor. Jeffries, on the other hand, ran down hallways with a child under his arm while various evil agents showcased that there was no way to hit important targets when there was still an hour to go. In the latest movie by David Mamet, Spanish Prisoner, the hero wonders what would happen if a marksman missed. It is as astute as Mercury Rising is foolish. The heroine speaks first and states that in that case, she would have to go back to the range. At this moment, the most drastic strain of disbelief within the film occurs when Jeffries, at the heart of a city-wide manhunt, walks into a restaurant while still being pursued. In an astonishing turn of events, Jeffries meets a strange figure called Stacey, portrayed by Kim Dickens, and requests her to assist him by watching care of the child. To this eventuality, Stacey, very obviously invites the agent alongside the child to her house in the middle of the night and offers her house as a safe rest point.
In fact, she is canceling her business trip to Des Moines and I do not blame her. What woman in her right mind would not believe a smelly man in a T-shirt with an autistic child in one hand and a gun in the other; especially while the cops chase him? I feel bad on the other hand that Willis, Dickens, and the small kid Miko Hughes put in a lot of effort to deliver average performances which I guess was better than expected. But, Willis does not go above and beyond in uttering his lines, which allows some of the material’s absurdity to be forgiven, and Dickens manages to reach for the bare minimum of the character’s requirements which enables her to escape the unreasonable actions of her character.
Where did Alec Baldwin’s BS-o-meter go? Time to change those batteries! His role quotes lines that are funny under any order, but especially this. “You know,” he complains, “my wife says my people skills are as awful as my cooking skills quick and tasteless.” And don’t forget his elegant voice in the rain as he has to explain himself. If you did not lose your BS-o-meter by then, now would definitely be the time.
And because of these issues some audiences may have with the plot, there arises the dilemma. (1) There exists certain modern forms of encryption which merely cannot be cracked by either rain men. And, for that matter, anyone without a supplied key. And, (2) if your code is easily breakable by a mere 9 year old, it is not the kid who needs to be killed, but the programmers who developed it.
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