The movie Plane starring Gerald Butler is very much in the mold of Die Hard with one good guy versus a whole bunch of bad guys. There are some differences of course.
The premise is rather simple: after being struck by lightning a plane crash lands and the crew and passengers must survive. The twist is that the plane lands on the island of Jolo which, according to the movie, is run by separatists and outlaws. Now, we know that means Abu Sayyaf but the group is never named. We do learn that this group kidnapped missionaries for ransom and then killed them when the ransom was not paid.
That is the modus operandi of Abu Sayyaf except they behead hostages rather than shoot them.
When the corporate bigwigs at Trailblazer, the airline who owns the plane, find out that the plane was able to crash land safely the CEO says they should contact the Philippine government and they will send in local authorities with search and rescue. But the man he has brought into handle the situation says it's not so simple because there is no authority on Jolo Island and the military won't even go there because they've "got their asses kicked so many times." Instead he sends in his own paramilitary squad.
It's amazing this movie has not been called out as a complete insult to the Philippines and the Armed Forces of the Philippines and banned by the government as happened with Uncharted for showing a one second clip of China's 9-dash line on a map. One reviewer did have this to say:
Aside from showing a turbulent peace and order situation in the southern Philippines to the international audience, the film practically accused the Philippine government of not only poor emergency responsiveness, but outright cowardice for allegedly refusing to engage with the rebels at all because they kept losing. To further prove the mistrust, the airline actually had to hire American mercenaries to conduct the rescue operation!
https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/01/15/23/review-gerard-butler-battles-jolo-rebels-in-plane
Is this reviewer completely unaware that the Philippine government actually does have "poor emergency responsiveness." Stereotypes exist for a reason.
Imagine if the Department of Tourism created this movie. After the plane crash landed it would be immediately surrounded by smiling and happy Filipinos waiting to help out. The authorities would show up not with guns blazing but with hugs and smiles and everything would turn out just fine. Of course that would be fiction but so is the movie which has NO ONE noticing this plane crash except one opportunistic guy and Jolo rebels speaking Tagolog instead of Tasuig!
You just stated the obvious there!
ReplyDeletethe Philippine government of not only poor emergency responsiveness, but outright cowardice for allegedly refusing to engage with the rebels at all because they kept losing. To further prove the mistrust, the airline actually had to hire American mercenaries to conduct the rescue operation!