el_kabong said:
Well done, ninja. This is seriously the first guy I think of when I am confronted with the topic at hand.
Same here. Of couse, part of the reason my be because Ed Harris is one of my favorite actors. So there is that.
Treblaine said:
He may not be malevolently villainous but he sure is certainly incompetently villainous.
If he wants to get money, and get money from the government, and he's willing to go to this amount of effort, then there are easier ways. Like for example to his commanders writing a letter:
"Pay us our dues in money and honours or we tell the New York Times EVERYTHING! We will name names, dates, orders, the complicity of politicians. Once it's open on the internet, you cannot shut this down."
Government: "What? We have no idea what he is talking about. He is making shit up. There is absolutly no data on this mission he is refering too. Besides, that is an illegal type of mission he is refering too. We would never have dont that. He is just making shit up to try and get attention for his "cause"."
There. The government just destroyed his threat, even if he went through with it. These are fricking BLACK OPS missions. There is NO paperwork. There is NO way to prove it ever happened. And even IF there is, it is classifed level Black...beyond top secret. The only people who even HAVE access to this info is the president.
But instead he's done the equivalent of robbing a bank with a loaded gun, taking hostages threatening to kill them and being like "lol, I was only bluffing". Fuck that, you can't bluff with such lethal weapons.
The particular Chemical weapons he stole were a type that can only be destroyed by very high-heat weapons like Thermite Plasma[footnote]Not real. Made up for movie.[/footnote]. I know what your thinking. "Then just Nap' his ass and be done with it." They have afew problems:
1) He has taken about 40 people hostage on the island. If they bomb it, EVERYONE will die.
2) He is in a national landmark (Alchatraz Prison). Destroying that would make the government look very bad.
Besides, the government has no reason to believe he is serious. Even when he has chemical weapons pointed at them, many of the Generals briefing the president get angry if anyone says ANYTHING negative about Hummal, because they respect him, and can understand why he did it, but say he took it too far. He is well respected in the military community and known for getting the job done without being too violent. This is even shown in the beginning of the movie. When his soldiers are stealing the warheads, his men are armed with non-letal tranquilizer dart guns so they just knock out the men guarding the weapons for 30 minutes. And when he is first taking hostages and his men are hiding in the crowd, he makes sure abunch of kids on a field trip get off the island BEFORE he does anything. He even shows regret over his men shooting SEALs sent in to try and take him down (although, his men defied orders when that happened, and is the first sign some have turned).
As for his bluff, he gets dangerously close to it NOT being a bluff. He fires one of his rockets at a packed football stadium in Oakland, but at the last second turns the missile away and crashes it into the ocean, where it harmlessly detonates (the saltwater cancelled out the chemicals). His men then start complaining about how it makes them look weak. Hummal then tells them the mission is over, they are to follow the origional plan, which is "Take the remaining missile and 4 hostages [and flee to another country]. I will personally accept all responsiblility of blame for this mission." His men then start complaining that they cant do that because they dont have thier money (and they are mercs now, not Marines), and that they need to get paid, even if it means hitting civilians. To which Hummal replies "This mission was based on the THREAT of force. I'm not about to kill 80,000 innocent civilians. Do you think I am out of my F***ing mind!? We bluffed, they called it. The missions over." *que Mutiny*
Why couldn't he just use his amazing special forces skills to disappear and threaten to blab all the bad news to the media where the US Government would have no choice but to comply rather than risk the embarrassing truth coming out? Why stealing weapons of mass destruction and taking hostages?!?!
Government: "What, this again? We told you before, it never happened. Hes lying. There is no evidence to support his claim. He just needs to get that through his thick skull and STFU."
And if the truth DOES come out, take your special forces buddies and march on Washington. THAT is how you get shit done.
Yeah, because a Coup d'etat is SO much better in the public eye. :/
If he just wants money from anywhere, then it's well known that Special Forces operators make more money advising for the private sector than serving their country. A whole lot of foreign banks, overseas oil companies and so on that want advice on how to protect themselves, not usually with arms but sound security advice.
He wanted the money from a very specific source: the "Red Rock Trading Company" which is a slush fund the government uses to house money from illegal weapons deals. Sure, he could have gotten the money from other sources, but that doesnt change the fact the government threw these soldiers under the bus to save face and that their families dont even know what happened to them. THAT is what he really wants. For the government to tell the truth. Not exactly to the whole world, but to the families of these men.
