Basic
2003 · Movie · R · 98 min · ★ 6.5 · 28% critics
A hurricane hits a US Army base near the Panama Canal, disrupting a jungle training exercise for an elite covert team. When only two survivors are brought out, they give conflicting accounts about what happened to their hardened leader and the rest of their platoon, prompting an investigator to dig for the truth.
Also known as Formation Extrême
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Streaming on fuboTV — or rent from $3.99.
2 hours to watch.
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Details
- Years
- 2003
- Release date
- 2003-04-18
- Language
- English
- Rated
- R
- Runtime
- 98 min
- Critic score
- 28/100
- TMDB rating
- 6.5/10 (1,139 votes)
- Box office
- $42,000,000
- Budget
- $50,000,000
About
You’ll likely enjoy Basic if you like an interrogation-style thriller with lots of shifting accounts and unanswered questions; Not for you if you want a straightforward story, since it can feel tedious and implausible compared with The Negotiator or Along Came a Spider.
Pros: intriguing mystery; moody rain-soaked tone; strong performances | Cons: confusing plot; plot holes; disappointing twists
Themes
- hurricane
- recruit
- panama
- covert operation
- interrogation
- dea agent
- jungle warfare
- military crime
- army training
- ex army
- unexplained deaths
- plot twist
- +2 more
Cast & crew
John Travolta
as DEA Agent Tom Hardy
Connie Nielsen
as CPT Julie Osborne
Samuel L. Jackson
as Drill Sgt. SFC Nathan West
Tim Daly
as COL Bill Styles
Giovanni Ribisi
as 2LT Levi Kendall
Brian Van Holt
as SGT Ray Dunbar
Taye Diggs
as Pike
Dash Mihok
as SGT Mueller
Cristián de la Fuente
as Castro
Roselyn Sánchez
as Nuñez
Directed by John McTiernan