---
title: "Broken Arrow"
year: 1996
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/broken-arrow"
fi1m_id: "broken-arrow"
imdb_id: "tt0115759"
tmdb_id: 9208
wikidata_id: "Q392915"
fi1m_score: 60
critics_score: 55
critics_reviews: 5
published: "2026-10-05T00:29:34.166845+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-05T00:29:34.624643+00:00"
region: "GB"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Broken Arrow (1996)

Directed by John Woo · 1h 48m · BBFC 15 · Action, Thriller

## Identity

Broken Arrow

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/broken-arrow
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** broken-arrow
- **IMDb ID:** tt0115759
- **TMDB ID:** 9208
- **Wikidata ID:** Q392915
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115759/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9208, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q392915

**Fi1m score: 60** · Critics 55 (early) from 5 reviews

*In a sentence:* Travolta steals two nuclear warheads and is chiefly annoyed that people keep shooting near them

> John Woo’s second Hollywood film is loud, daft and held together by John Travolta, who plays a nuclear thief as a man having the best week of his life. The set pieces are handsome; the script and the continuity are not. A decent Saturday night, no more.

## Synopsis

Utah, the present. Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and Riley Hale (Christian Slater) are Air Force pilots who fly together and box together, and Deakins always wins the fights. On a night training exercise over the Utah desert in a stealth bomber carrying two live nuclear warheads, Deakins turns a gun on his co-pilot, ejects him into the dark and brings the aircraft down on purpose. Hale wakes alone in the desert and is found by Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis), a park ranger with a rifle who does not believe a word he says. At the Pentagon, Colonel Max Wilkins (Delroy Lindo) and Giles Prentice (Frank Whaley) learn that two warheads are unaccounted for, a situation the military calls a Broken Arrow, and that whoever took them did not do it by accident. Hale wants the bombs back. Deakins wants to be paid.

## Review

John Woo’s second American film, after *Hard Target* (1993), is a plane, a desert and two nuclear bombs, and for 108 minutes that is nearly all it has. Graham Yost, who wrote [*Speed*](https://film.one/film/speed) (1994), supplies another story about a vehicle in trouble, and Woo shoots it with the slow motion and two-handed pistols he brought from Hong Kong. The result is loud, daft and often enjoyable, and carried almost entirely by John Travolta. We would not call it good. We would call it a decent Saturday night, if the genre is yours.

The opening is the film in small. Deakins and Hale box in a hangar; Deakins wins and tells Hale he lacks the will to finish. Then they take a stealth bomber over the Utah desert with two live warheads aboard, and before the first reel is out Deakins has shot at his co-pilot, ejected him and put the plane into the ground on purpose. Hale comes to in the sand and meets Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis), a park ranger with a rifle and no patience. Back at the Pentagon, Giles Prentice (Frank Whaley) explains that Broken Arrow is the service term for a lost nuclear weapon, and that the alarming thing is not the loss but that it happens often enough to need a term.

Travolta plays Deakins as pleased with himself, smoking, grinning, lecturing people on the virtues of a calm mind while his own plan comes apart. When somebody fires a gun near the warheads he objects as if they had put a glass down on good wood. We laughed out loud, more than once and always at him, and we are fairly sure that was the intention. Slater has been handed the earnest one, and earnestness is not what Slater does well; he spends the film running after things and looking pained. Mathis is better than her part, which is mainly asking what is going on and being told.

Peter Levy shoots the desert wide and bright, red rock against hard blue sky, and gets the camera low under the helicopters as they come over the ridge. Woo stages the action his usual way: bodies in slow motion, two guns where one would do. Holger Gross gives the Pentagon a dim room lit by its own screens and the villains’ hideouts a scrapyard look. Hans Zimmer’s score is the odd thing here, a twanging electric guitar over marching drums, as if a western had wandered into a missile silo. It tells us not to take any of this to heart, and we did not.

Three editors are credited, Joe Hutshing, Steve Mirkovich and John Wright, and in places the film looks like the work of three editors. Vehicles change position between shots. People arrive at places they could not have reached in the time. Yost’s dialogue runs to men announcing what they are about to do and then doing it, and the Pentagon scenes, with Delroy Lindo’s Colonel Wilkins and Kurtwood Smith’s Secretary of Defense Baird frowning at maps, stop the film cold every time.

Somewhere past the hour the film does something with one of the warheads that we did not expect from a studio action picture, and for ten minutes we were properly gripped, glad to be in the dark. Then it went back to chasing vehicles. That is the pattern of the whole thing: a moment of real nerve, then a long stretch of noise.

Against Woo’s own standard it is thin. [*The Killer*](https://film.one/film/the-killer) (1989) and [*Hard Boiled*](https://film.one/film/hard-boiled) (1992) put a friendship at the centre and made the gunfire mean something. Here the bond between Deakins and Hale is stated in the boxing ring and then dropped, so when they face each other later it is two men and some hardware. The gunfire is still handsome. It just does not mean anything.

It runs 108 minutes, carries a 15, and opened in UK cinemas on 11 April 1996. Watch it with company and a drink, and do not look too closely at where the trucks are. Travolta will be back on screen soon enough, and that is what it is for.

*Fi1m score 60, published 5 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Broken Arrow worth watching?**

*Broken Arrow* is worth watching if you want a loud, daft Saturday night action film and nothing more, and we scored it 60. John Travolta carries it, playing a nuclear thief who is mostly annoyed that people keep shooting near his bombs. The script is thin, the continuity is worse, and the Pentagon scenes stop it cold.

**How long is Broken Arrow, and what is it rated?**

*Broken Arrow* runs 1h 48m and is rated 15 by the BBFC in the UK. It is an action and thriller film.

**Where can I watch Broken Arrow in the UK?**

*Broken Arrow* is streaming on Disney+ in the UK, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from £3.49. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Broken Arrow, and is it suitable for children?**

*Broken Arrow* carries a UK 15 and a US R, and it is not suitable for children. It is a John Woo action film: sustained gunfire, bodies falling in slow motion, helicopters and vehicle chases, and a plot built on two stolen nuclear warheads. Nothing in it is designed to frighten so much as to make noise, and it suits teenagers of fifteen and up and adults who do not mind the body count.

**How does Broken Arrow compare to Hard Boiled?**

*Broken Arrow* is the thinner film beside [*Hard Boiled*](https://film.one/film/hard-boiled), and anyone choosing between them should take the Hong Kong one. Both are John Woo, with the same slow motion and two-handed pistols, but *Hard Boiled* puts a real friendship at the centre and makes the gunfire mean something. In *Broken Arrow* the bond between the two pilots is stated once and dropped, so the action is handsome and empty.

**What should I watch after Broken Arrow?**

After *Broken Arrow*, try [*Hard Boiled*](https://film.one/film/hard-boiled) (1992, Fi1m 86): Woo at full strength in Hong Kong: a hospital, two guns, and real feeling. Then [*Face/Off*](https://film.one/film/face-off) (1997, Fi1m 84): Woo and Travolta again, this time with Cage, and the daftness is the point; and [*Speed*](https://film.one/film/speed) (1994, Fi1m 86): Yost’s tighter script: one bus, one rule, and nobody stops to explain.

### Reviews we read (5)

- **Time Out**, TCh (70/100, inferred): The review presents Woo’s second Hollywood outing as a polished improvement over his previous one. It singles out the stronger cast and script as advantages. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/broken-arrow-1)
- **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (3/5): Jones finds the film brisk but held back by a cliché-ridden story that lacks the intensity of Woo’s Hong Kong classics. He singles out John Travolta’s charismatic performance as the film’s chief strength. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-0i7qdp/broken-arrow/)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (60/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film an entertaining but incoherent action ride, with implausibility and sloppy continuity undermining its impact. He praises the imaginative, spectacular set pieces and the performances, especially John Travolta’s gleefully villainous turn. [Read](https://variety.com/1996/film/reviews/broken-arrow-2-1200445104/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (2/4): Ebert’s verdict is mixed, reflected in his two-star rating. The page was inaccessible, so its specific praise or criticism could not be verified. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/broken-arrow-1996)
- **Empire**, Ian Nathan (35/100, inferred): Nathan finds the film entertaining in a knowingly ridiculous way, but ultimately overblown and irritating. He singles out Travolta’s gleefully exaggerated performance, while faulting the thin characterization and earnest hero. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/broken-arrow-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** John Woo
- **Director:** John Woo
- **Screenplay:** Graham Yost
- **Cinematography:** Peter Levy
- **Editor:** Joe Hutshing, Steve Mirkovich, John Wright
- **Music:** Hans Zimmer
- **Production design:** Holger Gross
- **Costume design:** Mary Malin
- **Producer:** Bill Badalato, Terence Chang, Mark Gordon
- **Cast:** John Travolta as Vic Deakins; Christian Slater as Riley Hale; Samantha Mathis as Terry Carmichael; Delroy Lindo as Colonel Max Wilkins; Frank Whaley as Giles Prentice; Bob Gunton as Pritchett; Howie Long as Kelly; Jack Thompson as Chairman, Joint Chief of Staff
- **Runtime:** 1h 48m
- **Certificate (BBFC):** 15
- **Release (the UK):** 11 April 1996
- **Genres:** Action, Thriller
- **Budget:** $50 million
- **Box office:** $150 million

## Where to watch in the UK

- Disney+: streaming, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent £3.49, hd
- Apple TV: rent £3.49, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy £5.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy £5.99, hd

*Checked 2026-10-05.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Hard Boiled* (1992), Fi1m 86: Woo at full strength in Hong Kong: a hospital, two guns, and real feeling. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hard-boiled.md)
- *Face/Off* (1997), Fi1m 84: Woo and Travolta again, this time with Cage, and the daftness is the point. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/face-off.md)
- *Speed* (1994), Fi1m 86: Yost’s tighter script: one bus, one rule, and nobody stops to explain. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/speed.md)
- *The Rock* (1996), Fi1m 78: Stolen weapons, a rogue officer and Connery; louder than this and better cast. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-rock.md)
- *Point Break* (1991), Fi1m 82: Bigelow’s surfing bank robbers; the charismatic villain and earnest hero done properly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/point-break.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/broken-arrow