Masterminds - The Duel

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Movie
German title Masterminds - The Duel
Original title Masterminds
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1997
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Roger Christian
script Floyd Byars ,
Alex Siskin ,
Chris Black
production Floyd Byars ,
Robert Franklin Dudelson
music Anthony Marinelli
camera Nic Morris
cut Robin Russell
occupation

Masterminds - The Duel is the title of an action comedy that was made in 1997 and whose plot is based on the film Boy Soldiers , which was produced six years earlier, in 1991.

action

Ozzie is a computer freak who does illegal downloads or snoops around secret government files. Due to his idiosyncratic approach, the youngster has already flown from several schools, including the one his stepsister Melissa is attending at the moment.

When he took his sister to school one day on the orders of his parents, he suddenly found himself in a large-scale hostage situation. Rafe Bentley, a former Secret Service agent who was supposed to protect the school as security chief, takes the students and teaching staff into custody and demands hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom from the parents of some wealthy children.

Ozzie takes up the fight against Bentley and his gang. By hacking into the school computer, turning on the heating and triggering the sprinkler system, he can cause difficulties for the gang and ultimately prevent them from escaping through the sewers by blowing up the floor of the school hall pool. Only Bentley can escape with part of the ransom into a septic tank, where the police arrive.

background

The film, which was made in Canada (outdoors) and the UK's Shepperton Studios (indoors), attempts to combine elements from many films in which hostage-taking plays a role. Even parallels to Die Hard cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Nevertheless, the film is based on Boy Soldiers , with the difference that not a group of young people takes up the fight against the hostage-takers, but only a boy. Furthermore masterminds less brutal and shall make no political statement - unlike Boy Soldiers . The hostage taker (Stewart) even has a sense of humor.

By the way, Ralph Fiennes should originally have played the role of Bentley , but he canceled.

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