Bullet Points: Sniper

One shot, one kill, no exceptions. It’s an amazing tag line for a movie about snipers and still the first thing that I think of whenever the term sniper is brought up. Tom Berenger has quietly had an amazing action career with movies like Platoon, Shoot to Kill, One Man’s Hero, Gettysburg, and The Substitute. But I would say that Sniper has always been, without a doubt, my favorite Berenger film of all time. Let’s revisit.

Synopsis: Marine sniper Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) has 74 confirmed kills and has just received his newest mission; he is to team up with Olympic silver medalist Richard Miller (Billy Zane) to take out a South American drug lord deep in the jungle. The two unfamiliar men must battle against the environment, a mercenary sniper, and the building mistrust between the two of them if they are going to make it out of the jungle alive.

• No exceptions: I never pass up an opportunity to watch Sniper. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and still one that I would put in my top ten all time. I can honestly say that it helped me to make my decision to join the Army all those years ago and also gave me a few cool lines that I’m sure I uttered at some point in my military career.

• Meet the Snipers: No, it’s not a Ben Stiller movie. Sniper starts out with Beckett and his spotter moving through the jungle to take out a dude in a village. We are already treated to some of the dynamic between a shooter and his spotter in these first scenes. The two men communicate everything; movement of the wind, distance, and a description of the target. Beckett ends up putting a bullet in the guy’s heart and then the two men make their escape to the extraction point. Unfortunately for them, the chopper arrives early and puts them in a position that they never should have been in. It’s also a great set-up for what becomes Beckett’s foil. What does it take to stop a sniper? Another sniper, of course!
• Here comes the government: The National Security Council is designed to advise and assist the POTUS on national security and foreign policy issues. Their role in Sniper is to bring Richard Miller in on a covert mission to take out a South American partnership between some rebel military leaders and a drug lord. Miller served in the Army, won a silver medal in the Olympics, and then spent some time in SWAT before this assignment. Even though he has a great deal of experience, the almighty Marine Corps still find him unworthy of the mission. The difference between the career killer Beckett and the rising star Miller is clear from the beginning, but it’s only highlighted even more when they step off the military base and start their way through the jungle.

• Taking point: Even though government agent Miller has rank on the mission, Beckett takes the lead and makes all the decisions. Miller tries to push his weight around a couple of times but all Beckett has to do is hand him the map and tell him to take over. The experience that Beckett has is invaluable compared to whatever rank Miller has on him as a Fed but it does help to further the rift between the two. The lack of kills by Miller also comes up. Beckett has a hardened heart from years of killing. He understands the role that he plays in combat and even the men who he has trained (more on that later) get the type of warfare that snipers are responsible for. Miller tries to play it by the book and follow the mission as it is written on paper but Beckett knows the jungle like the back of his hand and calls audibles as often as needed to get the job done.
• A rival sniper: The two men are being hunted by another sniper. Not only is he the man who recently took out Beckett’s former spotter, but he is also a mercenary who was trained by Beckett himself in the ways of the sniper. He follows them for the majority of the movie, forcing them to take a couple of different routes. We don’t learn much about him, which is good. He’s much spookier when we don’t know what makes him tick. They finally are forced to confront the man in what can only be described as the prototypical sniper scene that we’ve now seen in nearly every film with a scope.

• Let’em rip: The two men finally find their way at the doorstep of their target. Only now, there are three targets! Mitchell and Beckett split up and take their aim at different targets until the proverbial shit hits the fan. It’s a very cool couple of scenes. Beckett finally gets to show us the mind-numbingly slow movement of the sniper as he changes positions right under the nose of the enemy (and their dogs!). Like always, Miller almost gets them killed only to freak out and lose his mind. The problems end up mounting as the amount of bad guys slowly dwindle. Berenger and Zane both get their chance to scream and go a little nuts as they’re put in an almost no-win situation.

The Verdict: The movie is as great as I always thought it was. It’s biggest issue is the lack of a good villain. The lack of a good baddie also causes the finale to fall a little flat. They kill a couple of guys, escape into the night rain, and then hop on a chopper without so much as a climactic battle. The film lives and dies with the two main characters and they are more than enough to carry the movie on their backs. It’s no surprise that this movie turned into a franchise for Berenger that has lasted more than 20 years. Snipers are a very mysterious bunch and I would encourage fans of this movie to check out some of the recent additions to the franchise starring Chad Michael Collins.