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When the Cold War melted, the Pentagon wasn’t the only one scrambling to find a credible threat. Hollywood, which had long gorged itself on Red-fear films, also needed a new cash cow. The terrorist peril may have been hatched by our military brass, but — as this survey of ’90s blockbusters attests — DreamWorks, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox were only too eager to handle the propaganda. —Tim Dickinson

True Lies
James Cameron. 144 minutes. 20th Century Fox, 1994.
The threat: Arab terrorists of the “Crimson Jihad” nab four Kazakhstani warheads and promise to nuke Miami unless the U.S. withdraws from the Persian Gulf.
The foil: Secret agent Schwarzenegger
The good stuff: “We’re going to catch some terrorists. We’re going to beat the crap out of them. You’re going to feel a lot better.”
Box office: $146 million

The Rock
Michael Bay. 135 minutes. Buena Vista, 1996.
The threat: Traitorous Marines capture Alcatraz and threaten to shower San Francisco with implausibly deadly VX gas.
The hype: “One teaspoon of this shit … will kill every living organism within an eight-block radius!”
The foil: FBI agent Nicholas Cage teams with former jailbird Sean Connery to break into the Rock, neutralize the rockets, and force-feed VX to the last of the mercenary turncoats.
Box office: $134 million

Face/Off
John Woo. 138 minutes. Paramount, 1997.
The threat: Terrorist Nicholas Cage hides a nerve-gas bomb somewhere in Los Angeles and rasps: “I’m about to unleash the biblical plague that ‘HELL’-A deserves!”
The twist: Cage gets offed during an FBI sting, and special agent John Travolta must steal his face — literally — to go undercover and locate the bomb. But Cage miraculously recovers and dons Travolta’s mug. The two-faced terrorist then disarms his own bomb and infiltrates the highest ranks of the FBI.
The foil: Cage-faced Travolta returns from the underworld to unleash his own brand of terror on Travolta-faced Cage.
Box office: $112 million

Die Hard With a Vengeance
John McTiernan. 131 minutes. 20th Century Fox, 1995.
The threat: Riddling mastermind Jeremy Irons plants a bomb in a Manhattan elementary school.
The twist: The bomb is only a ruse. Irons — not unlike the Pentagon — exploits the terrorist canard to steal the nation’s gold reserves.
The foil: Detective Bruce Willis and Good Samaritan Samuel L. Jackson blow up Irons and save the world economy.
Box office: $100 million

The Peacemaker
Mimi Leder. 123 minutes. DreamWorks, 1998.
The threat: A “Muslim-Croat-Serb,” toting a stolen Russian warhead in his backpack, wants to blow up the United Nations.
The foil: Acting chair of the Nuclear Smuggling Group, Nicole Kidman, teams with Lt. Colonel George Clooney to hunt down the psychopathic Yugoslav on the streets of New York.
The good stuff:“God, I miss the Cold War.”
Box office: $41 million

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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