Mercury Rising (HD DVD)

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I could swear that Miko Hughes was Haley Joel Osment. I don´t know why, but the young actor has many similarities to the more familiar former child actor. Since 2002´s "Clockstoppers," the young actor has disappeared, but I was very impressed with his performance as the autistic boy in this film. "The Sixth Sense" came out a year later and made a star out its child actor, but Miko Hughes really deserves some credit for the job he did in this film. Bruce Willis is Bruce Willis. He has the ´tough guy with a heart´ persona down pat. It wouldn´t be too hard to confuse the two films, as he has an overly similar role between the two movies. "Mercury Rising" is the action thriller, where "The Sixth Sense" is an action chiller. This movie has been mostly forgotten, as has its young star, but it is a film worth taking a look at.

Bruce Willis is Art Jeffries. He is an undercover FBI agent who punches out a superior offer and lands himself on the agency naughty list when a bank heist goes wrong and two teenagers are shot dead by the FBI against Jeffries commands. His punishment is that he is put on wire detail and removed from being an active undercover agent. One day, Jeffries is ordered to check out a missing child case with the Chicago police department. This mundane task is just another insult to the former undercover cop, and he is ridiculed by those that remember him as being a very good undercover agent. The simple task of helping find a missing child turns to be a little complicated when it turns out that Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes) has two dead parents on the downstairs floor and Jeffries instantly suspects foul play. Simon is also autistic.

Jeffries is correct in his assumptions and Simon´s family was murdered. However, it was not his parents who were the target, but the boy himself. As an autistic child, Simon is incredibly adept at solving puzzles and manages to crack a code that belongs to the NSA. Not wanting a billion dollar code solvable by a child, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) ordered the assassination from inside the NSA. When Jeffries places the child under protective care at a Chicago hospital, the boy is moved to the pediatric ward under the supposed orders of his parents. Jeffries knows the truth about the boy´s parents and instantly realizes that somebody of greater power has ordered the hit on the boy. It soon becomes a race to safety and to uncovering answers for Jefferies as he is followed by the hitman ordered by Kudrow to kill the boy.

The programmers of the code are against these orders. Both Dean Crandell (Robert Stanton) and his partner Leo Pedranski (Bodhi Elfma) attempt to communicate with Jeffries to save the boy, but they find themselves at the other end of the government hitman´s pistol. With the NSA placing Jeffries in the eye of the FBI and local enforcement, Art can only count on his former partner and good friend Thomas Jordan (Chi McBride) for help. Jordon lends Jeffries his car and some advice. This lets him find some separation from the killer and Jeffries eventually finds an ally in a young saleswoman, Stacey Siebring (Kim Dickens). Jeffries does not know who to trust, but Stacey is a caring young woman who shows an interest for both Art and Simon.

The government hit squad is not the only problems Jeffries has. Simon is autistic and has been taught to only talk to friends and to not communicate with strangers. Of course, Art Jeffries is a stranger to Simon and the FBI agent has great difficulty in communicating with Simon and keeping him out of danger. The boy wanders off and often times finds himself in great peril. He repeats obnoxious behavior and Jeffries is unable to touch him or extol any sense of leadership towards the boy. He has to battle both the bad guys and the little boy´s distrust of strangers to keep Simon alive.

Like I´ve previously stated, "Mercury Rising" is an almost forgotten film. When the picture was produced, Bruce Willis was not the box office draw he had previously been. A movie about him protecting an autistic boy wasn´t exactly what the public wanted. Bruce Willis has made a lot of films about protecting people and this one came across as disinteresting to many. Throw in the fact that the far more successful "The Sixth Sense" was released a year later and also featured a talented child actor and you have a film that wasn´t nearly as successful and not nearly as memorable.

While not a great film, "Mercury Rising" is a movie that is enjoyable enough to sit down and watch. Miko Hughes is incredible as a young autistic boy. It can´t be easy to work with a child actor and this had to be demanding for everybody involved. Young Miko had to channel and autistic boy in his performance. That could not have been easy. Director Harold Becker had to direct the child and help the veteran actors around him. That had to be difficult. I cannot imagine it was overly easy for Bruce Willis either. However, the muscular action star showed heart in his role and laid the groundwork for "The Sixth Sense."

The story of "Mercury Rising" is fairly predictable. It doesn´t try to be complex and while the film talks of codes and tries to wrangle with some political themes, it is a fairly simple film. The action sequences are not terribly exciting and almost mundane. The tension that builds is nothing excitable. The chemistry between Willis and Dickens isn´t magical. There is nothing in "Mercury Rising" that necessarily jumps out and surprises anybody, but the sum of all the elements equates to a little film with a captivating enough story and the awesome performance by Miko Hughes that makes for a worthwhile one hundred and twelve minutes. This isn´t a movie you´ll sit down and enjoy countless times, but it´s worth at least one good look.