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1%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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3* AntiClimaxBoss:
4** [[spoiler: Jennings. Even though he's the film's big bad, he's smart enough to know he's no challenge to Taft at all and attempts to merely insult him and walk away. Taft still executes him.]]
5** [[spoiler: Also, [=MacGruder=] who attempts to flee in a helicopter and gets stopped by Taft. He pulls a gun and is quickly disarmed, blubbers for his life, and when Taft makes it clear he's going to kill him, he attempts literally one punch on Taft before getting a face full of the helicopter's rear rotor.]]
6** [[spoiler: Finally, Stone. He lives long enough to gloat over catching Taft off guard whilst holding him at gunpoint with a shotgun, then of course during his gloating monologue he gets close enough for Taft to spin the shotgun in his hands and blow him away.]]
7* {{Anvilicious}}: The movie's environmental message. The oil tycoon villain is so mean that he can't even stand the smell of caribou to film one commercial.
8* AudienceAlienatingPremise: One of the many reasons why the film was verbally eviscerated by both critics and audiences alike stems from it being a hybrid of action mixed in with an extremely {{Anvilicious}} GreenAesop. Action fans (and really, most audiences in general) are likely to be turned off by how heavy-handed the environmentalist message is, and [[DontShootTheMessage environmentalists themselves]] will most likely be put off by the [[{{Gorn}} gratuitous violence]] and the BrokenAesop, such as the destruction of the oil rig that would end up causing more harm.
9* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: If there's one thing Creator/StevenSeagal did right during production, it was hiring Music/BasilPoledouris to score the movie (and the Seagal/Nasso Productions logo at the end). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0heez-7wlE Here's a suite]].
10* BrokenAesop: The film is supposed to have a GreenAesop, yet FridgeLogic says that destroying an oil rig would cause far more environmental damage than simply letting it run. Also, it portrays the oil company as exploiting the natives. But it also says they have a contract... generally, those contracts include paying out dividends to the original owners of the mineral rights.
11* DesignatedHero: '''Forrest Taft''', so very much. All throughout the film, he comes off as a complete psychopath. What Jennings is trying to do is wrong, but Forrest commits [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorism]] on a grand scale, murdering several people in the facility, including people who are unarmed and unable to defend themselves. When told they have enough evidence to go to the police and stop the oil rig from beginning operation legally, Forrest blows off this option and simply blows the rig up. Which, [[FridgeLogic when you think about it]], would also have some pretty devastating effects on the environment Forrest was sworn to protect.
12* DontShootTheMessage: The film's environmental message and criticism of the damage done by major companies and how they undermine any efforts to make cleaner energy a reasonable alternative is not a bad one. It just suffers due to Forrest's actions being totally over the top and the film coming across as a monument to Seagal's ego.
13* DracoInLeatherPants: While Liles probably deserves some sympathy for her RasputinianDeath, regardless of exactly how involved she is in Jennings's criminal activities, she's still an objectively unpleasant person, something her actress even admits. She has lines of dialogue like "It seems to me like the long-term benefits for the surviving spouses were unnecessarily generous" (referring to the widows of firefighters who died saving one of Jennings's oil rigs) and "Alaska is a Third World country. It's just one we happen to own." Despite this, some fans talk about her as if she's a blameless PunchClockVillain, which may have something to do with her being played by former ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' model Creator/ShariShattuck.
14* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: At the end, Taft and Masu head home after defeating Jennings as the rig starts to blow up.... only for an explosion to happen the way they're going and go the other way.
15* HarsherInHindsight: This film's main theme about oil-well disasters caused by using faulty blowout-preventers turned out to be an ominous foreshadowing of the infamous real-life "[[Film/DeepwaterHorizon Deepwater Horizon]]" oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, where a non-operative preventer caused that horrific accident, as well.
16* HesJustHiding: While Liles is seen stuck in a wrecked car and failing to open a blocked door before it explodes, it is possible to wonder if she might have had time to escape out the door on the other side.
17* InferredHolocaust: Forrest blowing up an oil rig should undoubtedly cause more environmental damage than just letting it run normally.
18* KarmicOverkill: Liles. At worst, she (1) works as the BigBad's secretary and (2) has a bit of an ego. Yet the movie's logic = her deserving probably the most CruelAndUnusualDeath here. To be fair, she is [[AmbiguouslyEvil possibly]] involved in her boss's actions (she's the one who tells him that the EPA has been receiving tips about him), but her final fate can still feel too extreme and excessive to some viewers.
19* MoralEventHorizon:
20** Macgruder after Hugh's torture, and more so after the Inuit village raid.
21** Arguably Forrest himself when killing many {{Designated Villain}}s (e.g., Liles) who just happen to work for Jennings' company.
22* {{Narm}}:
23** Forrest's dramatic introduction which perfectly highlights how much the project was a testament to Seagal's bloated ego: from the slow pan up while he steps off his helicopter, complete with cheesy music swelling in the background, to the offscreen voice triumphantly proclaiming: "Forrest is here! That fire is as good as gone!"
24%% ** "THERE IS NO I IN TEAM! [[CaptainObvious THERE IS T-E-A-M!!]]"
25** Creator/JoanChen dramatically telling TheDragon, "I will watch you die" in the most [[DullSurprise emotionless voice imaginable]].
26** The scene where Forrest schools a bigoted bar patron. After beating the bigot to the point of bleeding, Forrest somehow makes the man realize the error of his ways in a drawn-out attempt at drama while cheesy music swells in the background.
27* NightmareFuel: Hugh's torture scene stands out for being disturbingly graphic in a movie that is mostly impossible to take seriously. The poor guy is bound to a chair and has his fingers broken with a whalebone, then later has a pipe cutter used on him. Part of this scene is cut from the UK release.
28* ProtectionFromEditors: Probably because, for all intents and purposes, Seagal ''is'' the editor for this movie. He was the director and one of the producers.
29* QuestionableCasting:
30** Aside from a Knighted British legend, they got Creator/RLeeErmey in this film. R. Lee Ermey! Ermey's death in this film involves him basically walking up behind Seagal's character and allowing Seagal to get within arms reach of his shotgun... Yeah, they must have paid him a lot to put up with that. Worse, they reportedly didn't let him ad-lib, which is why several of his lines sound completely nonsensical, to the point of self-parody.
31** Many viewers were incredulous that Steven Seagal would even presume he could direct Creator/MichaelCaine. As if that isn't enough, reportedly Creator/AlanRickman and Creator/AnthonyHopkins were both sought for the role, and Creator/JeremyIrons was actually cast in the role before Caine replaced him. It's just as hard to imagine Seagal directing any of them.
32** Meanwhile, they brought in John C. [=McGinley=] pre-''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' to play... a psychotic torture expert? Although this last one is probably the most YMMV of the whole lot; to some, he's the best thing in this movie, and genuinely creepy. It's not the first time before and after that series that he's played a convincing villain. This time, of course, one ends up wishing the rest of the movie deserved him.
33* RetroactiveRecognition:
34** Creator/JohnCMcGinley is a torture expert. He's a far cry from Dr. Perry Cox in this.
35** A pre-stardom Creator/BillyBobThornton is one of the mercenaries.
36* SoBadItsGood: This movie is ripe with moments of Creator/StevenSeagal making a total fool out of himself and other actors saying ridiculous dialogue, not to mention how blatant the GreenAesop is and how carelessly the movie handles it.
37* TakeThatScrappy:
38** For viewers who resent Forrest due to his dickish DesignatedHero tendencies, the wonderful sight of him being viciously mauled by a pack of sled dogs (one of whom actually appears to bite him in the [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments nuts]]) is very, ''very'' cathartic to say the least.
39** Although it was likely unintentional, hearing Hugh call Forrest a "whore" is very amusing.
40* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
41** Creator/RLeeErmey plays a tough mercenary leader that could've provided a formidable challenge to Taft but is easily taken out due to his BondVillainStupidity. Furthermore, his lines sound [[{{Narm}} nonsensical]] due to the fact that Seagal refused to allow Ermey to improvise his own lines, something that even the famously controlling Creator/StanleyKubrick allowed and made ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' better for it.
42** The same could also be said of Creator/BillyBobThornton as a colorful MookLieutenant who is abruptly blown up.

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