Loudly staged action from “Face/Off” director John Woo, a dense tapestry of sound from Hans Zimmer and John Travolta in a delightfully nasty mood: “Operation: Broken Arrow” offers bombastic TV action fun, if you don’t tune in too early!

Nicolas Cage and John Travolta swap faces in a violent opera by director John Woo: when it comes to cult factor, ‘Face/Off’ hits the mark. But in the run-up to the crazy action thriller, Woo and Travolta already let it go in “Operation: Broken Arrow”. While the explosive actor has since been overshadowed in many ways by the face-swapping lead-rain frenzy, it shouldn’t be dismissed as just one piece.

“Operation: Broken Arrow” offers adrenaline-pumping entertainment with a style factor and a wonderfully mean Travolta. If you want to watch it (for the first time or again), don’t tune in too early: RTL II shows “Operation: Broken Arrow” today, February 18, 2023, from 20:15 CET in abbreviated form – but the uncut version will be available from 12:15 CET. If you have a Disney+ subscription, you can always find the full length of the movie there too:

» “Operation: Broken Arrow” on subscription with Disney+*

“Operation: Broken Arrow”: Inferno of flames and bomb atmosphere

During a test flight, Captain Hale (Christian Slater) is shocked: his friend and colleague, American fighter pilot Major Deakins (John Travolta), is betraying him and his country! Deakins confiscates atomic bombs and, along with a group of mercenaries, blackmails the United States government. Hale seems to be the best option the US has to keep the blackmailer at bay. So he and game warden Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) embark on the most dangerous and important mission of his life.

“Operation: Broken Arrow” falls between two stools in John Woo’s filmography: in his US debut “Hard Targets”, he made few compromises when it came to brutality and therefore ran afoul of US youth protection agencies. He then reduced his use of Blood Spatter and Bone Crushing. In Operation: Broken Arrow, however, he has not yet embarked on the opera madness of a “Face/Off”.

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Nevertheless, the action game nuclear bomb terrorism isn’t just worth checking out for Woo newcomers who want to get a feel for the action virtuoso’s signature style. Than Woo combines the narrative style of a neo-western with explosive action and stern, staged theatricality. Therefore, there is a relatively long, if spirited, build-up of tension between the combat and destruction interludes. But when it crashes, it hisses, rumbles and thumps violently.

These fiery, bombastic sequences alone, which range from acrobatic, whirlwind hand-to-hand combat to sheer devastating madness, make it worth avoiding the shortened version. Than the targeted violence escalation gives “Operation: Broken Arrow” a real boost.

Still, it’s not the liberal use of pyrotechnics that causes the biggest bang. That credit goes to John Travolta, who gleefully hits the nail on the head in his villain role. Hans Zimmer also wrote a score for his thickly applied, manic yet cool part, which echoes far beyond the confines of this film: the rocky, 90s-attitude revolving riff on gritty Western sounds served in later “Scream” parts as the signature tune for David Arquette’s character of friendly cop Dewey Riley.

Apart from Deakins’ main theme, Hans Zimmer provides a dense tapestry of sounds in “Operation: Broken Arrow” that perfectly complements Woo’s daring mix of noir westerns and adrenaline-pumping terrorism action thriller: playful and full of pathos, but free of unwieldy drama. Harsh fire rides of deftly orchestrated stunts, destruction and chases could slow down.

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