Film / Interceptor

Interceptor is a 2022 Netflix action drama starring Elsa Pataky and Luke Bracey, and directed and co-written by Matthew Reilly.

A terrorist group led by former US intelligence officer Alexander Kessel intends to launch 16 nuclear missiles against the United States. The only thing capable of stopping him is a pair of missile interception bases capable of shooting down the missiles before they reach America.

Captain J.J. Collins is a recent transfer to SBX-1, the missile interception base located in the central Pacific. When her commanding officer is killed by Kessel in an attempt to take and disable the base, she locks herself into the command center with two surviving techs, Corporals Shah and Beaver. Knowing that Kessel cannot launch his missiles so long as she is capable of destroying them, the fate of over a hundred million lives depends on her ability to hold the command center until reinforcements can arrive from the Pacific Fleet to relieve her.

Not to be confused with a 1992 movie called Interceptor.

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This film provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Collins, who singlehandedly goes toe-to-toe with the terrorists.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Collins when Kessel reveals he has her father hostage.
• Air Vent Infiltration: After they've sealed off the control room, Collins asks Shah if there is any other way in. Shah says the air conditioning system is isolated (explaining why they haven't been gassed with the others) and the cable ducts are too small. Then a merc bursts in through the escape hatch, having made his way along the underside of the rig to get to it. Beaver and Collins both use the same route later in the movie.
• Artistic License – Economics: Beaver is bribed by Kessel to turn his coat for ten million dollars and he tries to bribe Collins with five. Nobody points out that if a third of the population of the US, including the capital and the New York Stock Exchange, were to simultaneously vanish in nuclear fire, the value of the dollar would tank.
• Artistic License – Military: The SBX-1, or Sea-based X-Band Radar, in real life has no weapons systems other than possibly small arms such as machine guns for security, as well as whatever the security teams have lying around. It's also primarily crewed by civilian mariners and technicians not the military.
• Artistic License - Firearms: The SM-3 missile interceptor is fired out of a vertical launch system. Missile turrets usually don't launch those sorts of weapons. They also usually streak out forward, then turn towards the target on an intercept course.
• Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: At the end of the final fight a Russian sniper aims at Collins and seemingly shoots her... until it turns out it's Alexander who got shot in the chest as punishment for his failure and plausible deniability.
• Big Bad: Alexander Kessel.
• Big "NO!": Collins, when the terrorists seemingly kill her father.
• Blaming the Victim: Collins' career dead-ended after she reported a general for sexual harassment, resulting in the army unofficially and anonymously destroying her life for standing up for her rights instead of staying quiet to maintain the reputation of the service, to the point where she attempted suicide. This was why she ended up assigned to a duty posting 1500 miles from anywhere.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Whenever Collins gets hold of a gun, there are no extra magazines and she quickly runs out of ammo.
• The Cameo: Chris Hemsworth as the TV salesman who cheers on Collins.
• Cat Fight: Averted; the fight between Collins and the sole female terrorist is brutal and it's Collins of all people who asks Why Won't You Die?
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: Collins' mission is to hold SBX-1 until a SEAL team can chopper in to relieve her. By the time they arrive, all that's left for them to do is medevac the surviving crew - Collins and Turbo the Turtle.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Early on, Beaver brags that his personal laptop has enough processing power to run the entire interceptor rig by itself (depending on when SBX-1 was built, and given the rapid rate at which computer technology improves, that's actually fairly plausible). Collins later uses the laptop to substitute for damaged control consoles. It could be that the computers are still operational, and as long as the RADAR systems are still up, the only thing the laptop needs to do is provide the commands.
  • Also the plate carriers they get out of the armory locker. Both of them are shot in the plate by Beaver, and Collins is hit at least once more time in the plate afterwards.
  • Collins uses a can of sealant to patch up a bullet hole in a pipe. Later she uses the sealant to choke the female terrorist.
  • The camera pans across the Hazmat Suits that Collins later uses to hide in plain sight.
  • The Russian submarine that had been stalking SBX-1. Kessel was in contact with the submarine, intending to use it to escape.
• Climbing Climax: A justified version when Collins falls into the sea and has to climb back up to the escape hatch and then onto the roof in time to launch the interceptors. All this with one arm out of action.
• Compensating for Something: Shah cracks that he'd seen Kessel in the base showers, and can guess where his obsession with missiles came from.
• Crazy Enough to Work: With the rig sinking and the SEALs not likely to arrive in time, Collins comes up with a desperate plan - let Kessel take the command center so he'll launch the nukes immediately, and then retake the center and launch the interceptors to destroy them. When an expert in the White House Situation Room claims that such a plan has only a 14% chance of working, Collins replies that every other option available has a 0% chance of working.
• Crazy-Prepared: Kessel spent years planning his operation and put multiple contingency plans into place just in case he might be unable to seize the control room in the initial assault. He had an acrobatic accomplice scale the outside of the base to get into the control room through the escape hatch. He also recruited Beaver as his inside man to let him in if everything else fails. When all of that failed, he simply sabotaged the base so it would sink and cannot fire its interceptors. He also had knowledge of Collins' transfer to the base 72 hours in advance (although that can also be chalked to her superiors being jerks who dropped it on her lap at the last minute) and placed a team in her father's retirement home to put a gun to his head if he needed a trump card to break Collins (although that ended up failing).
• Daddy Issues: Kessler despises his father who inherited his wealth and got a diplomatic position he wasn't suitable for thanks to his political contributions. Collins lampshades the trope right before Kessler uses her own daddy issues against her.
• Death by Transceiver: Everyone at the other interceptor base at Greenly, except for the dying soldier at the gate. Later Beaver kills Shah and then taunts Collins about it using Shah's headset.
• Defiant to the End: When Collins' father is taken hostage, Kessel gives Collins a few seconds to talk to him and either surrender or he will die. Collins' father takes that moment to tell Collins to "never stop fighting!" and Kessel orders his execution while Collins can only watch. The audience (and the two on the rig) hear the gunfire as Kessel hangs up the call but it turns out to be a Bait-and-Switch Gunshot - the gunfire was actually Kessel goons being killed by the good guys interrupting the execution.
• "Die Hard" on an X: Die Hard on a nuclear missile interceptor rig.
• Disney Death: Collins' father appears to have been executed by Kessel's men, except it turns out he was rescued by fellow retirement home veterans at the last minute, thanks to Kessel broadcasting the torture to all of America on live TV.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Kessel hijacks the Emergency Broadcast System so that he can give his manifesto on how America has failed to live up to its principles to the world, and therefore must burn in nuclear fire so that the survivors can get it right when they rebuild from the ashes. The main thing he accomplishes is to make himself look like a sadistic jackass and Collins look like a heroic badass.
• Duct Tape for Everything: Collins uses it as an impromptu bandage, then to tape up the door viewport so Kessel can't see what she's up to.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Collins observes the attackers at Greenly were American and that there might be people on the inside, which turns out there is—the janitors standing right down the corridor as she's talking.
  Collins: If they had people inside Tavlinka, and the shooters at Greenly were all ours, they might have someone... here.
• Everyone Has Standards: Kessel is appalled by what happened to Collins and how horribly the army treated her. He is also not happy with Beaver's misogyny.
• Eye Scream: Collins stabs a terrorist in the eye with a gun.
• Face Death with Dignity: When he is about to be killed Shah does not run or beg but instead faces his executioner and makes one last appeal to the man's humanity.
• Fatal Family Photo: Not a photo exactly, but we don't need to know if Shah has family, but he names his three kids anyway.
• Faux Affably Evil: Kessel is charismatic, has great respect for Collins and treats her like an equal after their first clash, even seeming genuinely sympathetic to her appalling treatment by the army. However, he's still willing to wipe out 16 cities and hundreds of millions of people, all for a massive payday from the Russians.
• Foreshadowing:
  • A character points out that they play poker with the janitors. This is a big clue for later on.
  • The mercenary breaking though the escape hatch to attack Collins foreshadows Collins being able to get back on the rig the same way, though we don't see how at the time.
• Greater-Scope Villain: It's implied that a faction of the Russian military or government is supporting the attack, enabling the terrorists to steal the missiles and having a submarine ready to exfiltrate Kessel and his mercenaries.
• Handwave:
  • Elsa Pataky's accent is explained by J.J. being raised in Spain when her father was posted to a NATO base there.
  • With Collins and Shah trapped in the control room, the question is raised as to why the mercenaries don't just destroy the radar and missile installations. Collins says that they are as well protected as the control room (unlikely as the radome at least has to be permeable to radio waves).
• Hannibal Lecture: Kessel provides an Info Dump of Collins' backstory (sexual harassment from a superior officer, then bullying because she exposed him, then attempted suicide and reassignment to SBX-1) as a preface to, paraphrased, "are you really willing to give your life for these people?". Collins tells him to go to hell. He also spends a crazy amount of time staring at her through the hatch's window.
• Hate Sink: Beaver is a smug, racist and misogynist traitor who calls himself a "patriot" despite throwing his country under the bus and threatens to rape a captive. Obviously, we're not meant to find him even remotely sympathetic.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shah is killed while activating the drainage pipes to slow the sinking of the rig after Kessel decides that the easiest way to disable it given Collins' resistance is to destroy the entire place.
• Hospital Epilogue: The final scene shows Collins recovering in a hospital, reuniting with her father, and being showered with flowers and balloons.
• Hypocrite: Kessel rails against the Western idea that money is all that matters, but Collins deduces that the numerical code he left in the command centre is actually his Swiss bank account number, with his getting very well paid for the mission being more important than any principles he might have.
• Infodump: There's a lot of people playing Mr. Exposition early on:
  • The Soldier greeting Collins has a few lines to explain Collins's Spanish accent.
  • Collis has been called to the control room for an emergency and to bring her sidearm but the group there is allowed to take some time to introduce each other and talk about the things everyone already knows before the reason for the emergency is explained.
• Insane Troll Logic: Kessel's manifesto on why America needs to be obliterated and rebuilt from scratch centers around how rich white guys (like him) can get away with anything, while women and minorities (like the people trying to stop him) are treated like dirt. The people listening likely would have been more likely to buy it had the roles been reversed.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Kessel's men infiltrate SBX-1 as the janitorial staff. In a twist, they really are the janitors, and it took them six years to build up their front company's legend so they could get the custodial contract for SBX-1.
• Just in Time: Collins launches the interceptors to stop the second flight of missiles with less than a second left before they passed out of range.
• Macross Missile Massacre: How the nuclear missiles are taken out in the climax.
• Malevolent Architecture: In the final Race Against the Clock Collins, having fallen into the sea, has to climb a ladder to the underside of the platform, then swing from one exposed pipe to another with one arm out of commission until she reaches the escape hatch to the control room. The last set of pipes are a lot further apart.
• Meaningful Echo: Collins' father tells her to "never stop fighting" during the flashback to the events that led to her being assigned to the SBX-1 after she tried to kill herself, and says it or rather roars it again when he encourages his daughter to keep fighting even if that means Kessel will have him executed. The line comes out a third time as Collins fights to climb to the top of the SBX-1 to fire the interceptor missiles and prevent the nuking of America.
• The Mole: Beaver is revealed to be working for Kessel when he regains consciousness and shoots Collins and Shah with a concealed weapon.
• Off with His Head!: Collins kills Beaver by wrapping barbwire around his neck, then throwing him off the rig which ends up beheading him.
• Old Shame: After her sexual harassment accusations a 'bounty hunt' was conducted for any lurid pictures of Collins, especially a calendar shoot she did for charity that showed Underboobs.
• Pass the Popcorn: On hearing that a nuke is heading towards Los Angeles, staff and customers at the electrical store where Chris Hemsworth's character works rush out the door. He just enjoys the action on the widescreen TV's he's selling, and in The Stinger is shown chilling out on a massage bed after all the action is over.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Compared to his well-intentioned boss, Beaver is a borderline racist terrorist who wants to nuke the country because of those he considers non-American.
• Psycho Knife Nut: When sent after Collins, Beaver makes a point of borrowing a large knife from one of the mercenaries rather than use his firearm.
• Race Against the Clock: Once the nukes are launched, there is a short window during which SBX-1's missiles can intercept them. At the same time, Kessel has to disable the base and launch the nukes before his launching sites are tracked down and destroyed and/or the Navy SEALs get to the base and kill him. This means this trope comes up on several occasions as Kessel and Collins fight for control.
• Rank Up: While there are no official promotions or commendations given, at the end of the film Collins' dead-end career has been restarted when the President offers her a posting in the White House on the staff of the National Security Advisor - in person.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: SBX-1 is a weaponized oil rig in the middle of nowhere. There are no off-base recreational options by virtue of the base being 1500 miles away from the nearest town. As such, it's not a choice posting. However it becomes a Reassignment Backfire when Collins changes from being ostracized by most of the army to a national heroine.
• Reliably Unreliable Guns: The control room has a shotgun as part of its emergency armament. However, it has not been tested or maintained in quite a while and proves itself to be too unpredictable and dangerous to use.
• Rogue Soldier: Alexander Kessel is a former US intelligence officer who recruits other disillusioned US military soldiers to carry out his scheme.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Collins lampshades the fact that Kessel spent years planning his operation but could not account for the fact that Collins would have her orders changed at the last moment and end up on SBX-1 just in time to foil his takeover. Then double-subverted. Kessel reveals that he had knowledge of Collins' reassignment three days before Collins was sent, enough time to create a dossier and place an assassin team at Collins' father's retirement home to strong-arm Collins if needs be. The second subversion being that Collins ended up being too driven for Kessel's good.
  • Beaver was supposed to assist in taking the control room, but he was knocked out by being grazed by a loose bullet by the bad guys.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Torturing an innocent man to manipulate an opponent is one thing, but broadcasting his location on national television will guarantee that someone would intervene.
• Tank-Top Tomboy: Collins has to remove her uniform jacket early in the movie as she gets acid splattered on it during her fight with a Giant Mook (he's carrying the acid to destroy equipment). She's wearing a white undershirt that she wears for the rest of the movie. As well as being symbolic of an Action Girl, it also contrasts with the midriff-baring photograph that keeps being brought up to slut-shame her.
• Tempting Fate: The CO says the report of stolen Russian nukes must be an exercise. "If it were real, the Pentagon would have called us by now." Cue Hotline ringing.
• Token Evil Teammate: Beaver is the most psychotic of the terrorists due to his racism and sexism.
• Took a Level in Badass: Shah is portrayed as a Bollywood Nerd who's such a Non-Action Guy he doesn't even shoot the terrorist that breaks into the control room, leaving Collins to take him out. However he toughens up enough to volunteer to dive out the escape hatch and stop the sea fort from sinking.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Alexander wants to nuke America because he genuinely believes it’s become too corrupt and beyond saving, and destroying it is his only solution. Until it turns out that some unknown party (implied, but never explicitly stated, to be a faction of the Russian government) was paying him to do it.
• Western Terrorists: Alexander and his men.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Beaver goes on a rant about Kessel not shooting Collins right away, though he's as guilty of this as anyone, deliberately shooting Collins and Shah in their vests to immobilize them, and taunting Collins during their final fight instead of killing her on the spot.
• Worthy Opponent: Kessel really admires Collins and wishes that he did not have to kill her to complete his mission. At the end, the Russian sub captain shares that admiration and not only leaves her alive but also tips his cap to her.

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