[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mercury_rising.jpg]]

''Mercury Rising'' is a 1998 [[{{Thriller}} action thriller]] film, based on the novel ''Simple Simon'' (1996) by Ryne Douglas Pearson. The novel was actually a sequel to ''October's Ghost'' (1994) and ''Capitol Punishment'' (1995), both of which also feature the main character Art Jefferson, renamed "Art Jeffries" for the film. The film was directed by Creator/HaroldBecker, previously known for such films as ''Film/{{Malice}}'' (1993) and ''Film/CityHall'' (1996). The main stars were Creator/BruceWillis, Creator/AlecBaldwin, and child actor Miko Hughes.

The novel was based on an [[UrbanLegends Urban Legend]]: "that secret military intelligence codes were sometimes leaked to the public in puzzle magazines to see if civilians could crack them." The film begins with a HostageSituation in South Dakota. FBIAgent Art Jeffries (Willis) is TheMole within the villains' ranks. He is trying to convince the others to surrender while protecting a teenaged boy. However the FBI task force attacks and kills both the robbers and the boy. Art confronts his superior and ends up demoted. Further, his psychological evaluation reports him as suffering from "delusional paranoia".

Elsewhere, 9-year old Simon Lynch (Hughes), an [[UsefulNotes/HighFunctioningAutism Autistic]] IdiotSavant, manages to break the code in a puzzle magazine and finds a telephone number. Which he innocently decides to call. He has just, unwittingly, broken a cryptographic code called "Mercury", created and used by the National Security Agency (NSA) since the UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Administration (term 1981-1989). The code was allegedly so complex that its creators believed no computer on Earth can decipher it. But two of them, Dean Crandell (Creator/RobertStanton) and Leo Pedranski (Bodhi Elfman), had decided to put this to the test. They had published the code in the magazine to see if anyone could solve it. Unfortunately for all involved, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Kudrow (Baldwin) sees the boy as a liability. He sends [[ProfessionalKiller Hitman]] Peter Burrell (Creator/LindseyGinter) to take out Simon and his parents. He already has plans on how to deal with the security leak.

Burrell kills the parents but fails to locate Simon, who was hiding in a closet. The police and FBI briefly investigate the crime scene, though they incorrectly identify it as a murder-suicide. Jeffries locates Simon and takes the boy under his protection. However the boy is unable to explain what actually happened and the authorities are not particularly inclined to protect him. Jeffries is convinced that Simon is still in danger and takes matters into his own hands. Kudrow manipulates events to discredit Art and have him charged with kidnapping. Art has to crack the case, save Simon and protect his own reputation. He finds allies in fellow agent Thomas Jordan (Creator/ChiMcBride) and friend Stacey Siebring (Creator/KimDickens). He also receives unexpected help by Emily Lang (Carrie Preston), the girlfriend of the already assassinated Pedranski.

The film was a modest box office hit, its worldwide gross estimated to 93,107,289 dollars. About 33 million of these dollars came from the United States market, where it was the 61st most successful film of its year. It received mostly negative reviews, dismissed as an uninspired action film with stock situations. Willis won a UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward as Worst Actor for three of his 1998 films: ''Film/Armageddon1998'', ''Mercury Rising'' and ''Film/TheSiege''. On the other hand, Hughes was praised for his realistic depiction of autism and won a Young Artist award.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas No relation to]] ''Film/JupiterAscending''.

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!!''Mercury Rising'' provides examples of:

* AndThisIsFor: Art kicks Kudrow in the gut during their first meeting, before saying that was for Simon's parents.
* BadassAndChildDuo: Art and Simon.
* BigBad: NSA Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Kudrow, who orders the manhunt after Simon as a supposed threat to national security.
* BullyingADragon: Art trying to really piss off Kudrow on purpose, by ruining a sizable portion of his wine collection.
* CIAEvilFBIGood: Although it's the NSA which is the SinisterSpyAgency of the tale (and only a minor element within), the trope still fits: the FBI, aside from a pair of ObstructiveBureaucrat-types that ruin things, are law abiding and definitely not willing to stand aside while a nine-year-old is murdered. Kudrow is an NSA higher-up willing to order his personal [[TheDragon dragon Burrell]] to kill said kid (and many other people) to cover his own ass over the screw-up of two technicians that is [[ItsAllAboutMe threatening his promotion]] and tries to sell said murder as [[TheNeedsOfTheMany a necessary step to protect America]].
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: How Burrell dies -- the explosion of various windows because of gunfire ends with him being peppered with dozens of shards which cut him to death. Also an aversion of SoftGlass.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Invoked to show how evil Kudrow is. He is more concerned and upset about losing a sizable portion of his wine collection when Art is trying to upset him than ordering the death of several people.
* TheDragon: Burrell to Kudrow.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Kudrow, though he had been shot before falling off the building.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Kudrow. It says something when he's more concerned about his wine collection than killing an autistic kid. He also acts friendly towards Simon when he meets him which makes him more sinister considering that he just had his parents murdered and now he's trying to personally do the same thing to him.
* HollywoodAutism: {{Averted}}. Actually a not-too-unrealistic portrayal.
--> '''Art Jeffries:''' Autism... does that mean nothing gets through?\\
'''Nurse:''' No. It means ''everything'' gets through.
* HollywoodSilencer: Burrell equips both his [=H&K=] handguns that make the typical "fwip" sound.
* IdiotSavant: Simon Lynch. Just to show to the audience how good he is, he is seen solving a jigsaw puzzle from the blank, reverse side. The term "savant" is actually used by the technicians to describe Simon's ability to (''instinctively'') break Mercury to Kudrow.
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Burrell shows up at the Lynch house pretending to be a police detective supposedly investigating a bus driver.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: After Art saves his life, Simon accepts him as a friend and a trusting figure.
* InTheBack: Burrell kills Simon's mother by shooting her in the back. He also kills [[spoiler:Crandall]] by shooting him from behind while passing him on the street.
* IOweYouMyLife: While not verbally said, it's clear that's what Simon at the end feels about Art.
* JustOneLittleMistake: Aside from Simon still being alive Burrell kills the Lynch family, Kudrow's attempts at keeping the Mercury leak quiet just runs on this:
** Burrell tries to frame his assassination of Simon's parents as a murder-suicide, but his preference for top-of-the-line, highly expensive handguns means leaving one of said guns behind, and Art questions why the heck Mr. Lynch (who was a plumber, not exactly the most affluent of jobs) would purchase a gun worth more than his yearly income to kill his wife.
** Burrell's continuous attempts to kill Simon [[spoiler:and his assassination of Crandall]] leave a lot of mayhem behind.
** Burrell [[spoiler:kills the other technician as he has finished writing a confession letter on a typewriter and is mindful enough to take the letter, but he does not thinks of checking the room's wastebasket and leaves the letter's carbon copy behind for Art to find.]]
* KilledMidsentence: [[spoiler:Crandall is assassinated]] while bringing Art up to speed about the government's cryptography program, and the extents it will go to protect it.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Kudrow wished Simon dead because Simon can crack the Mercury code reflexively, and Mercury is not only the toughest code the NSA has, but also the one used by every single one of the spies that America currently has on assignment (so if an enemy power gets hold of Simon, it would risk the entire intelligence community). Kudrow ''tries'' to sell this to Art, but Art points out that Kudrow's unhesitating use of MurderIsTheBestSolution [[FauxAffablyEvil makes it very insincere]]. What Kudrow leaves out is that Mercury was also the project that got him in line for a cushy promotion and that he sold it to his superiors as completely unbreakable, so if it gets out that Mercury has been broken, it will be ''his'' head that will roll for it.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Lomax, Art's boss.
* PapaWolf: Art is very protective towards Simon to the point he's willing to put his own job and reputation at risk.
* ParentalSubstitute: Art is this to Simon for the majority of the film. At the end of the film, Simon is adopted by foster parents off-screen.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: As part of his EstablishingCharacterMoment, Kudrow labels Simon ([[IdiotSavant and others like him]]) "people with diminished capacity" during his tirade about how he didn't approved the publishing of a message with Mercury on a magazine. He later calls Simon "one of Nature's mistakes."
* ProfessionalKiller: Peter Burrell.
* PublicSecretMessage: After a very extensive formal test of the Mercury code labeled it as completely uncrackable, one of the NSA technicians published a message created with Mercury (which included a contact number) on a puzzles magazine. He tries to explain away that he was trying to check out if it was possible for it to remain uncrackable when tossed against puzzle experts and the occasional IdiotSavant, but Kudrow [[SurroundedByIdiots is quick to (quite angrily) point out that this publishing was done without his permission]].
* RevealingCoverup: One autistic boy knows how to break your code, and has thus far only informed you that he knows it. Was trying to kill the entire family really the best solution they could come up with?
* RooftopConfrontation: The final fight between Art and Kudrow on the helipad.
* ShutUpHannibal: When Kudrow tries to pitch to Art to just hand Simon over so he can kill him [[TheNeedsOfTheMany and keep safe the lives of the many spies keeping America safe]] ([[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist not that he really believes it]]), he is halfway into talking about one of the spies (a guy that is infiltrated among UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein's honor guard and hasn't seen his family in years) when Art [[TalkToTheFist hits him in the gut]] and tells him to just stop and call back the spies if he needs to, and then smashes some of Kudrow's wine on the way out to add more insult to injury.
* SkewedPriorities: Lampshaded by Art during his confrotantion with Kudrow in the wine cellar:
-->'''Nick Kudrow:''' I asked you not to handle the wine, please!\\
'''Art Jeffries:''' You know, it's good to see you've got your priorities in order. ''[takes a slug from another bottle]'' That's better. You're not worried about murdering a nine year-old boy but you're worried about this fuckin' wine! ''[throws the bottle away]''\\
''[Kudrow winces at the sound of the bottle breaking]''
* TheSociopath: Both Kudrow and Burrell. The former is a murderous SocialClimber under the guise of a patriot who is willing to have anyone killed, children included, for the purpouse to save his own career. The latter is simply a PsychoForHire who will go after anyone he's instructed to.
* TookALevelInBadass: While Art and Kudrow are duking it out on the roof, what does Simon do? He risks falling off the roof of the building just so he could hand Art his gun back.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A teacher at Simon's school gives him the puzzle book as a gift. Let's just say that had she not given Simon that book, we wouldn't have much of a plot.
* WouldHurtAChild: Neither Nicholas Kudrow, nor Peter Burrell find killing a child abhorrent.
* WouldntHurtAChild: The technicians don't want Simon to get hurt, and one of them even tries to tell Art about what happened to atone for the boy's parents getting killed.
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