What Happened to Broken Arrow? The Making of John Woo’s 1996 Action Classic

Mike

Do you ever watch a practical-effects-laden action movie from the nineties and wonder just how they pulled all that off without copious amounts of CGI? How does an infinitely rewatchable John Woo explosion fest featuring 108 minutes of chase sequences, fistfights, and over 60,000 rounds of ammunition actually get accomplished? Today’s deep dive involves helicopter blades coming within three feet of actors’ heads, stunt performers taking 200-foot dives off moving trains, and ex-NFL players being forced to take… cookie breaks.

But is Broken Arrow appropriately appreciated among 90s action movies? Or were hardcore John Woo fans disappointed that there weren’t more Woo-isms in a film from a studio desperate to recreate the magic of Keanu Reeves’ Speed?

Take a ride with us back to a time when you could practically feel the heat of explosions coming off the screen as John Travolta ripped darts to a Hans Zimmer score while dropping insanely weird one-liners. All that and so much more in today’s video. What happened to Broken Arrow?

The Conception of Broken Arrow

The road to Broken Arrow wasn’t an easy one for all-time legendary action director John Woo. Despite his insanely impressive resume before coming to Hollywood, his previous effort, Hard Target, hadn’t gone particularly well. This isn’t us saying that, mind you. In this house, Hard Target is a motorcycle-surfing, snake-punching Van Damme action classic. But Woo’s experience was another story. Hollywood was far more restrictive in the freedoms it offered Woo than his previous home in Hong Kong had been. Universal had been nervous about hiring him because of his limited English and violent style, and there were frequent clashes over budget, schedule, and bloodshed. Woo was accustomed to simply shooting what worked for the story. Suddenly, he was trying to please studio executives, test-screening audiences, and the MPAA.

Ultimately, he lost control of the final cut of Hard Target in the editing room. But a guy like that doesn’t give up. Woo was prepared for a different experience on his next film, Tears of the Sun. The plan was for Woo to work with Brad Pitt on the project, which eventually became an Antoine Fuqua and Bruce Willis team-up. Pitt couldn’t do the movie because of scheduling conflicts, however, and Woo eventually started looking for something else.

Around this time, he was shown a script by Graham Yost, the writer of another all-time action classic, Speed. The screenplay also received uncredited contributions from Terminator 2 co-writer William Wisher. The story followed a jaded fighter pilot who steals nuclear warheads to extort the government. Or maybe he simply gets off on the thought of controlling them. Meanwhile, his former friend, a man who has always been bested by him, tries to stop him before he eviscerates an entire city.

Though the story didn’t particularly fit Woo’s usual genre work, he was enamored with it. It wasn’t just the over-the-top action, but also the theme of tragic friendship between main characters Deakins and Hale. The director set out to convince Fox that he could make the material work on the big screen and prove to everyone else that he could handle a traditional Hollywood blockbuster that wasn’t necessarily suited to his usual style.

Casting John Travolta, Christian Slater, and Samantha Mathis

The studio gave Woo the freedom to choose his own actors, although it did suggest a few names. One of those was John Travolta. Travolta had never seen a John Woo film before (somehow), but it was Quentin Tarantino who showed him The Killer while he was considering the role. The only problem was that the copy Tarantino screened for him didn’t have subtitles. Luckily, Travolta was sitting next to film geek Quentin Tarantino (and I mean that as a compliment, of course), who knew the movie so well that he translated its biggest moments and lines for him.

The studio thought Travolta would be perfect for the hero, but both the actor and Woo had other plans. Travolta had never played a classic bad guy villain and wanted to try something new. Woo agreed. He felt Travolta’s eyes and smile would provide something deeper visually than your typical crazed villain. He later said Travolta’s eyes were fascinating because they could be so charming while also making you feel as though you were staring into the eyes of Satan. His elegance and intelligence would provide that same effect through his personality. Woo wanted someone who looked like an everyday, normal guy but had extreme darkness within him. He felt Travolta turned Deakins into a very likable bad guy, which is incredibly hard to pull off. Travolta later noted that, had he played the good guy, the studio likely would have cast a villain who was more grizzled and possibly around ten years older.

For the hero, Woo suggested Christian Slater. In the same way he cast Travolta against type, he wanted Slater to play a clean-cut, wholesome leading man. In particular, Woo wanted Hale to be a young character who cared about his country and did the right thing. He hoped to provide younger viewers with someone who had good morals to look up to at a time when he felt that young people seemed lost and without responsibility. Slater accepted the role, even over a chance to work alongside Sylvester Stallone in Assassins.

When testing chemistry between potential cast members, Woo would often simply take two photographs of actors and put them together to see if anything jumped off the page. As he tells it, when he put Christian Slater and Super Mario Bros. actress Samantha Mathis together, they looked like “a golden boy and a golden girl.” Woo admired Mathis’s distinctive look and felt she was perfect for the character of Park Ranger Terry Carmichael. She was a female character who wasn’t scared and didn’t need protection. And he’s right. The dynamic between Hale and Terry was always fascinating, even when I was a kid. It’s another comparison to Speed and the relationship between Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Except they don’t even make out and talk about banging later at the end of this one. Either way, Terry has always stood out to me as one of the most memorable female characters in 90s action movies. But what was going on in that scene at the end where Deakins holds her at gunpoint and forces her to enter the nuclear codes? That was… wild.

The rest of the cast is littered with great character actors. There’s Delroy Lindo and his unforgettably cool line delivery as Colonel Max Wilkins, and Bob Gunton as the whiny, annoying rich guy villain who gets made fun of and ultimately “Finish-Him-ed” by Deakins with an effortlessly violent strike to the… throat? Collarbone? Whatever it was, it worked.

Alongside Travolta in the villain department is ex-NFL player Howie Long as Kelly. There’s also Shaun Toub, who takes a mean hammer to the head while trying to explain all the things he can do with his thumb.

You know you’ve got a great cast when you have a Pentagon room full of characters who look like they’re hunting for Jason Bourne, featuring actors like Raymond Cruz and Kurtwood Smith, followed by a field of soldiers led by Vondie Curtis-Hall.

Behind the Scenes: Practical Effects, Dangerous Stunts, and Cookies

Broken Arrow began filming in April 1995 and was shot mostly on location in Utah, with the lake scenes taking place at Lake Powell, as well as in the Mojave Desert and Arizona. The train sequence was filmed on a privately owned railroad in Montana.

None of it came easily. Though the experience was presumably less frustrating than his previous efforts on Hard Target, Woo continued adjusting to Hollywood’s filmmaking style, including studio interference and demanding schedules. Consider the difference between his earlier work and this production. On a film like Hard Boiled, Woo had been afforded $4.5 million and 123 days of shooting. For Broken Arrow, the budget was $50 million, and he was given 90 days to film a movie packed with special effects and stunt sequences.

Although Woo wasn’t typically someone who storyboarded his action sequences, storyboards became necessary for high-budget productions like Broken Arrow. They helped keep the film within budget and maintain communication with the crew.

Fox was no doubt hoping to have another runaway action hit like Speed on its hands. Not only did it use a script by the same writer, but it also employed the same stunt coordinator, producer, and editor from the Keanu Reeves classic. The studio also provided Woo with some of the best talent and technicians money could buy.

For the film’s opening boxing sequence, former professional boxer Carlos Palomino was brought in as a boxing consultant. This moment perfectly captures the relationship between Deakins and Hale that would become the heartbeat of the film. Deakins is the older, more seasoned of the two men, and he lets Hale know it at every opportunity. He beats the hell out of him in the ring, talks all the while, and even offers little tidbits about his personality that foreshadow later events. Of course, this gets bookended at the end of the film with what is, for my twenty-dollar bill, one of the most satisfying movie fights of the 90s.

The two face off aboard a moving train with the literal city of Denver at stake because of a nuclear warhead. Hale gets beat up one last time before dropping the crowbar and returning years of condescension from his counterpart through his fists. In the end, Hale wins the fight and dives out of the moving train in high-class John Woo style, disarming the nuke midair as it crashes into Deakins. Deakins, meanwhile, has an all-time maniacal villain moment as he stands up, accepting his fate with a grin while the train crashes and the deactivated nuke impales him and his way-too-obvious dummy. Seriously, it’s one of the greatest unintentional dummy shots of all time.

Between these two awesome moments is a film that never stops moving, featuring one awe-inspiring explosion and stunt sequence after another. For the sequences involving what is probably the coolest piece of flying machinery out there, the B-3 bomber, a model with an 18-foot wingspan was created. The production then crashed it into a set using a truck traveling at 40 to 50 miles per hour. Those shots of the B-3 were created using the model, some green screen, and CGI. This was an extreme rarity among Woo films, but it’s not like the government was going to let them borrow an actual bomber.

There were plenty of practical effects to follow. The train sequence featuring Hale holding on for dear life underneath a moving train was particularly impressive because Slater was willing to perform the stunt himself. They only had about an hour to shoot the scene, which he says he performed five or six times, with the train moving faster each time.

Samantha Mathis and Howie Long also performed many of their own stunts. Long sometimes ended up with pieces of wood debris in his face and head.

For the helicopter chase scene, they didn’t use doubles for Slater or Mathis. Mathis later said she hadn’t looked up at the time, but when she watched the dailies, she realized the helicopter propeller had been a measly three feet from her actual head.

Even Woo acknowledged that shooting in the desert with high winds and helicopters could have put the actors in serious danger had everything not been done correctly. That being said, the entire cast has praised the stunt crew and the environment on set, noting that although it was a difficult shoot, they always felt safe.

During one particularly long day of shooting a chase scene in Utah, Woo looked at Howie Long and asked how he was holding up. Long is the last person who’s going to admit that he’s tired, so he responded that he was fine. Still, Woo must have noticed something. “You know what we need? We need some cookies.”

They were in the middle of nowhere, so Woo sent the helicopter back to civilization to retrieve a tray of Pepperidge Farm cookies. It’s kind of the perfect John Woo-ism if you think about it. He’s a strange guy, but everything he does is over the top and kind of badass.

Long also said he was originally supposed to be on location for a limited amount of time, but Woo kept coming into his trailer and telling him they needed to make him bigger. He was going to be huge. They needed to make him John Wayne.

For Long’s death sequence, in which Slater kicks him out of a moving train, stunt performer Dan Wynands stepped in and took a 200-foot free-fall dive from an actual moving train. They tested the sequence multiple times with dummies, which were measured as likely falling at 32 feet per second. Wynands ultimately performed the stunt twice to capture better motion as he fell.

And here’s another bit of trivia: Broken Arrow is also the first movie to feature two Humvees taking part in a high-speed desert chase.

Hans Zimmer’s Unforgettable Broken Arrow Score

The most memorable thing about Broken Arrow isn’t necessarily the big-brother/little-brother dynamic between Travolta and Slater or the impressive, seemingly lost art of constant practical special-effects sequences, explosions, and fight scenes. It’s that face-melting score.

In particular, there’s the unforgettable track “Brothers,” also known as “Deakins’ Theme,” which plays as Travolta walks into the frame in slow motion, smoking a cigarette. The track, which features legendary guitarist Duane Eddy, took nearly two weeks alone to compose. It’s so badass that it was later used again as “Dewey’s Theme” in the Scream franchise.

The song, along with the score in its entirety, can be credited to the great Hans Zimmer, who approached Broken Arrow almost as he would a modern spaghetti western. As a whole, the soundtrack invites comparisons to other great 90s action scores like the aforementioned Speed. These soundtracks helped define the sound of one of the greatest eras in action movies. If not the greatest era in action movies.

To put it plainly, it’s just one of those movies you walk out of with the score in your head for days. You feel like Deakins, walking around the desert, dragging cigarettes and dropping cool lines after chugging the Slurpee your mom bought you from 7-Eleven.

Why Broken Arrow Is One of the Most Rewatchable 90s Action Movies

The final product has to land in my top five most-rewatched movies of my lifetime. There are very few movies that come and go so seamlessly. From the start, you’re transfixed by the relationship between Hale and Deakins. The two have a buddy-cop-type relationship, with a perfect counterpart dynamic and great senses of dark humor, despite being completely different people.

Even despite how completely messed up their relationship is, the irony is that it’s hard to argue Deakins didn’t help Hale become the best version of himself by forcing him to rise to the occasion. There’s the fight in the ring, followed by a great mix of witty banter, the fight in the cockpit (which is kind of funny to watch because it’s like two dudes fistfighting in seatbelts), and the satisfying final fight at the end. All of this is layered over a fascinating story about a group of terrorists trying to steal nuclear warheads. The plot feels very much like Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer were involved at the top of their game. It’s kind of like if John Woo directed The Rock.

Apart from a few moments when the plot slows down slightly to work through a deeply intricate action sequence involving a nuclear warhead being set off inside a cave (which was a practical set built by the production, by the way), this movie never stops moving. It’s 108 minutes of back-and-forth between two insanely charismatic actors during a seemingly never-ending chase sequence, backed by nonstop special-effects sequences. And one more time for the cheap seats: a face-melting score.

Travolta and Nicolas Cage understandably get most of the appreciation for their back-and-forth action festival in Face/Off, but I’d argue that Broken Arrow holds its own right next to that film. Sure, it’s a more Hollywood-esque production, but Travolta’s performance is just as good here, for my money. He chews the scenery like no other, going from the cool and calm Travolta we know to a sadistic freak at the turn of a hat.

And on Slater’s side, Woo was completely correct in choosing to cast him against type as a straight-edge, all-American hero. The best part of it all is that you have a hero who starts out inferior to his villain in practically every way, morals aside. It’s an underdog story about a good guy facing off against an intimidating bad guy with whom he has a history. It’s a history in which he usually gets his ass kicked, too. That’s an underrated part of this movie and one of the reasons it’s an all-time favorite of mine.

So how did the rest of the world react to it? Why is it so rarely mentioned alongside movies like Speed, The Rock, and Point Break? Let’s find out.

Broken Arrow’s Box Office, Reviews, and John Woo Fan Reception

Broken Arrow was released on February 9, 1996, and immediately proved that its dangerous stunt sequences and clever casting choices could pay off. The movie opened at number one at the box office, grossing over $15 million during its opening weekend. It was the highest opening of 1996 up to that point. Broken Arrow then stayed at number one for a second weekend, eventually earning more than $150 million worldwide. Part of this was no doubt due to the resurrection of John Travolta’s box-office appeal, fresh off successful turns in Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty. Hell, he even brought his Golden Globe award for the latter to multiple interviews.

Meanwhile, Christian Slater attracted younger viewers, John Woo’s name attracted hardcore action fans, and the trailers made Broken Arrow look exactly like what it was: pretty badass.

Fox’s marketing director praised the film’s ability to appeal to a wide range of audiences, including men, women, younger viewers, and older viewers.

Critically, however, it was more of a mixed bag. Audiences, myself included, adored it. Critics and hardcore John Woo fans were, for the most part, harder to please. In particular, the movie marks the first time in the famed history of critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert that Siskel actually allowed Ebert to change his mind. After initially calling the film flawed but entertaining, Ebert said he liked it overall and gave it his patented thumbs-up. Siskel argued that he didn’t like it because it went on too long, relied too heavily on special effects, and featured an unconvincing John Travolta performance. Afterwards, Ebert changed his mind to a thumbs-down. Siskel, of course, got a huge kick out of this.

The Washington Post called Broken Arrow a “deafening, brain-deadening action thriller,” while audiences gave the film a CinemaScore of B+. That’s slightly better than Woo’s previous effort, Hard Target, which earned a B, and even with his next effort, Face/Off, which also received a B+. Currently, Broken Arrow sits on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with a 53% “Rotten” score and a surprisingly low 44% audience score.

Part of this may be due to hardcore John Woo fans who were disappointed by the distinct lack of Woo-isms, such as copious amounts of gunplay and symbolism. That’s understandable. However, I’d argue that while Broken Arrow might not have given John Woo fans everything they expected, it did introduce a whole new audience to smaller doses of his singular greatness. It may even have led some of them to check out movies like The Killer and Hard Boiled.

It might not have been as much Woo as they wanted, but there was still plenty of great fight choreography, slow motion, and man-versus-man action.

Sure, Broken Arrow features Travolta hamming it up and a slightly insane storyline that some would argue is thin on plot. But I’d argue that it’s Travolta having a ton of fun playing an unforgettable villain in a movie that never stops entertaining, as if it were strapped to a bomb that would explode if it ever became boring.

Maybe it’s time for a revisit in today’s world of modern action movies, which in 99% of cases couldn’t hold a candle to the practical effects and sheer fun of this one.

And that, my friends, is what happened to Broken Arrow.