History Film / MercuryRising

* CoolGun: Deconstructed. The Heckler & Koch [=P7M8=] Burrell uses to kill Simon's parents is a pistol known for being expensive in real life and just makes their deaths look conspicuous because Mr. Lynch probably couldn't afford such a weapon on a plumber's salary.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: During the climax, Burrell is killed by the getaway helicopter's downwash shattering the windows he's in front of.

** Burrell's continuous attempts to kill Simon [[spoiler:and his assassination of Pedranski]] leave a lot of mayhem behind.

* KilledMidsentence: [[spoiler: Pedranski is assassinated]] while bringing Art up to speed about the government's cryptography program, and the extents it will go to protect it.

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 (Robert Stanton) 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 (Lindsey Lee Ginter) to take out Simon and his parents. He already has plans on how to deal with the security leak.

* RareGuns: Burell's preference for expensive high-end foreign handguns becomes a plot point when Art points out during the initial investigation of Burrell's faked murder-suicide of Simon's parents why a low-wage worker would buy an imported $1500 dollar German handgun just to kill himself and his family.

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/{{Armageddon}}'', ''Mercury Rising'' and ''Film/TheSiege''. On the other hand, Hughes was praised for his realistic depiction of autism and won a Young Artist award.

* CIAEvilFBIGood: The "NSA is Evil" variation of the Trope, represented by Kudrow and [[TheDragon Burrell]] (the NSA technicians involved in the plot are very innocent about the situation, even if they were the ones who created the whole mess). Though technically it's less the entire NSA, and more just Kudrow personally, since none of his superiors know what he is up to and he is really just trying to cover his own ass.

* 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 greedy PsychoForHire with no qualms about killing innocents for a quick buck.

* AdultFear:
** The mere idea that you can either lose your child or their life if they call a strange phone number. Art is horrified when he walks through the crime scene and seeing it play out as a home invasion. He's trying to figure out where Simon is and finds him hidden when the child imitates the phone ringing.
** The technicians go OhCrap when Simon calls them again, knowing that Kudrow has the kid on his death list. They talk to him in calm and reassuring tones, scared that Kudrow is going to find out.

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 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 (Robert Stanton) 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 (Lindsey Lee Ginter) to take out Simon and his parents. He already has plans on how to deal with the security leak.

* HollywoodAutism: Actually a not-too-unrealistic portrayal.