Toy Soldiers (1991 film)

Plot

In Barranquilla, Colombia, terrorist Luis Cali (Andrew Divoff) has taken over the Palace of Justice with a ruthless team of mercenaries. He demands the release of his drug kingpin father, Enrique Cali, only to be told that his father has already been delivered to the United States for trial. They escape by helicopter and with the weapons and logistics assistance of Luis' second-in-command, an American named Jack Thorpe, they enter the U.S. through Mexico.

In the United States, the Regis High School is a prep school for teenage boys with wealthy and influential parents, half of whom have been expelled from other schools. A group of pranksters led by Billy Tepper (Sean Astin) that includes Joey Trotta (Wil Wheaton), Hank Giles (T.E. Russell), Ricardo Montoya (George Perez), Jonathan Bradberry (Keith Coogan), and Phil Donoghue (Knowl Johnson) is carefully watched over by their teachers and the stern but well-meaning Dean Parker (Louis Gossett Jr.).

Phil's father is the Federal Judge presiding over Enrique Cali's trial, so the entire family is taken to a safe location as a precaution. Unaware of this, Luis Cali invades the school to capture Donoghue, killing the Campus Police, and a faculty member who interferes. Furthermore, they rig the campus with heavy firearms and remote-detonated explosives. With Phil nowhere to be found and the sons of numerous influential individuals in his grasp, Luis takes the entire school hostage.

Underestimating the threat, the local Sheriff attempts to intervene but is repelled by fire from a .50 caliber M2 machine gun, although he and his deputies are able to fall back to safety. The State Police, FBI and US Army are called in, keeping their distance to avoid provoking the terrorists. Luis releases the school faculty (except for the cooks and headmaster, Robert Gould) but institutes hourly headcounts to keep track of the boys.

The students, under Billy's leadership, use their expertise in skirting authority to collect tactical information about the occupying forces, which Billy covertly brings to the authorities on the outside. They won't allow Billy to return, but with Parker's encouragement, he escapes and narrowly rejoins the students in time to be counted, preventing the killing of Gould and four students in response.

Joey's father, New York mafia boss Albert Trotta arranges through Luis' father for the boy to be released. Joey, contemptuous of his father, refuses to go. He steals a weapon and opens fire on another terrorist, but is killed. Luis tries to impress upon Parker, who comes to retrieve the body, that it was an accident, but Albert takes revenge by having Enrique Cali killed in prison.

Knowing they must act before Luis can learn of his father's death, the authorities undertake a rescue mission. FBI Hostage Rescue Team personnel (trailed by Parker), supported by the Army, covertly infiltrate the school and begin taking out terrorists. Meanwhile, Billy and his friends sabotage the detonator for the explosives, incapacitate several more terrorists with surprise attacks and lead the students and Gould to a secret basement chamber. Overwhelmed by the assault, in which most of the terrorists are killed, Luis takes Billy at gunpoint and holds him in Gould's office. Parker and commandos converge and kill Luis, then Dean being wounded in the process. The few remaining terrorists are subdued and the students are liberated.

Characters

Production

The film was based on a novel by William P. Kennedy.

The first screenplay was written by David Koepp who wrote it for director John Schlesinger. The school was a European boarding school and the villains were Palestinian terrorists. Schlesigner dropped out of the project and the script was rewritten to be set in the USA with different villains.

The main antagonist of the film was portrayed by Andrew Divoff, who has mentioned that his role as Luis Cali was his favourite role as a bad guy. The film was distributed by TriStar Pictures in the US and Warner Bros. Pictures overseas.

There is a real private school named Regis High School, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, although this school is a Jesuit school unlike the fictional school in the film which is not. The location of the fictional Regis School in the film is not geographically defined. The school's exterior scenes were filmed at The Miller School of Albemarle in Charlottesville, Virginia. Other exterior scenes were filmed in San Antonio, Texas, Richmond, Virginia and Waynesboro, Virginia.

Awards

For their performance in Toy Soldiers, Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, Keith Coogan, T.E. Russell and George Perez were all nominated for an Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture by the Thirteenth Annual Youth in Film Awards 1990-1991. They lost narrowly to Donovan McCrary, Desi Arnez Hines II and Baha Jackson for their performance in Boyz n the Hood

Reception

Reviews were mixed. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of a possible four, stating that "Since the plot of the movie is utterly predictable, we hope at least for some cleverness in the gimmicks. Here the movie is so disappointing that I wonder if the screenwriters were really trying." Critic Clint Morris was more favorable stating "The performances are rock solid". Toy Soldiers currently maintains a 36% "rotten" score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Box office

The movie debuted at No. 3 on its opening weekend in the United States and grossed $15,073,942 nationwide during its run.