I know this is a useless non-answer, but at least I can confirm that you're probably remembering correctly. Because that sounds very familiar, and I'm sure I've seen that movie.
this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Three kings?
No, not this one either.
One of my favorite Clooney movies, though.
I don't think this is it, but Battle: LA? One dude uses a radio to get the baddies attention then detonates himself or something.
Again, too new. About 15 years before that, at least.
(Good movie, though)
I am not sure I have seen it, but 1990s war movie, with soldier pinned down, might it be Black Hawk Down?
That's not it. Black Hawk Down was released in 2001, the movie I'm trying to find was on cable in the 1990s.
The Beast 1988? Haven't seen it but that's what Google seems to think.
Fail safe 1964?
The Beast (of War) is a good guess, but that's not it either. Another movie I'm going to have to check out later.
Definitely not the original Fail Safe.
I can only think of two serious war movies that would have been around in the 90's that weren't set in WW2 or Vietnam:
Sahara and NAVY Seals. (And I suppose Navy seals isn't a "war" movie exactly...)
The 3rd I know of is In The Army Now, and I know the scene you describe isn't in that one unless you're misremembering the airstrike scene at the end (it does sound pretty similar except for the guy being shot). 🤷🏻♂️
Sahara (1943) starring Humphrey Bogart, Sahara (1983) starring Brooke Shields, Sahara (1995) starring Jim Belushi, Sahara (2005) starring Matthew McConoughey, and Sahara (2017) starring Omar Sy are all not it. :P
Doesn't seem like Navy Seals is it, either. Also, when I say "war," I mean there's military action, I don't know if the movie was about a proper war or if they were just fighting an aggressor.
I had to find a copy of In the Army Now to confirm that movie wasn't it. Like Courage Under Fire, it has the same story beats but it is (thankfully) not the right movie. Would have been upset if I had to sit through another Pauly Shore film.
Pretty sure the movie I saw all those years ago was a drama, not a comedy.
OP did you ever figure it out?
Not yet, unfortunately. Any ideas?
Chat GPT:
It sounds like you're describing a scene from the 1994 film "Clear and Present Danger." In the movie, there's a scene where soldiers are pinned down and use explosives rigged to a radio detonator. When the detonator malfunctions, one soldier sacrifices himself by walking towards the explosives with a walkie-talkie to manually trigger them. The film is set during the modern era with then-current military technology, and it features rocky/deserted terrain. The actor you're referring to might be Raymond Cruz, who played Domingo "Ding" Chavez in the film.
Can't find that scene...
2nd try, same prompt:
The movie you're describing sounds like "Courage Under Fire," a 1996 war film directed by Edward Zwick. In the movie, Denzel Washington plays Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling, investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Captain Karen Walden, played by Meg Ryan. One of the soldiers involved in the incident you described is portrayed by Matt Damon, who fits the description of a short, young soldier. The scene you mentioned occurs during a flashback sequence in the movie.
Can't find that scene either...
Clear and Present Danger is a hilarious guess, definitely not that one.
Courage Under Fire was a movie I had originally dismissed, but had to check again. The final fight scene in that movie looks almost EXACTLY like I remember the movie on TV... but it still isn't the right movie.
It is entirely possible the movie I'm thinking of filmed in that exact same location. The place looks exactly right, but I know my movie didn't kill Meg Ryan.
"SHEEEEE'S DEEEEEAAAAADDD!!" :P
The final fight scene in that movie looks almost EXACTLY like I remember the movie on TV… but it still isn’t the right movie.
It is entirely possible the movie I’m thinking of filmed in that exact same location. The place looks exactly right, but I know my movie didn’t kill Meg Ryan.
It is also entirely possible, after 30 years, that your memory of a movie you just watched a few minutes of is wrong about the details. Or that you're mixing memories from different movies.
Oh, I know it's going to look different from what I remember and that I've forgotten key details.
But the memory of what was happening is burned into my brain because it was so visceral when I saw it:
A young, short soldier (played by someone who I've seen play lots of soldiers - think a male Michelle Rodriguez) volunteers to climb out of an entrenched position while people are shooting at the whole group, and walk casually, without any cover, away from the enemy and towards a place where explosives have been clustered. He is holding a giant CB radio and has it set to the frequency of the explosives' trigger and just needs to get close enough for them to go off. Just speaking into the radio at that frequency will do it, so he's yelling and cursing at the explosives to go off. He keeps getting hit on his extremities, but he doesn't duck or cover, he just keeps slowly walking away from the firing. At the climax of the scene, he's bleeding and limping and just yelling "Blow!" Into the radio. A bullet goes right through his chest and he falls to his knees. He screams "Blow!" one last time and the explosives go off.
Every few months I remember this scene all over again and I'm tired of not knowing what it was from. I caught it while flipping channels on a TV with basic cable in a house I moved out of in the summer of 2000. So it had to be a movie made in the late 1990s at the latest.
I can't remember anything beyond that.
See, that's the thing about our memory: Our brains don't just forget stuff, they make stuff up as well.
I have vivid, detailed memories burned into my brain from my childhood and teen years which are definitely and provably false. And that's completely normal.
I asked ChatGPT for movies similar to those, released in the early 90s:
A Few Good Men (1992) - Directed by Rob Reiner, this legal drama stars Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson and revolves around a court-martial case.
The Hunt for Red October (1990) - Based on Tom Clancy's novel, this thriller follows a CIA analyst as he tries to determine the intentions of a Soviet submarine captain.
Crimson Tide (1995) - Starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, this film is about a power struggle aboard a nuclear submarine.
Patriot Games (1992) - Another Tom Clancy adaptation, this film stars Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan dealing with IRA terrorists.
Executive Decision (1996) - This action thriller stars Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal and involves a team trying to stop terrorists on board a hijacked plane.
Obviously none of these.
I came here to ask real people who watch lots of movies if they knew which movie I was trying to find, not a chat bot that just spits out a list of famous movies.
The chatbot can be very helpful in finding obscure movies
Like I said, none of those movies are obscure.
That is not the point, I just did a quick prompt to try to help a stranger on the internet. You can try to tweak the prompt (or ask several times) so the results are more helpful.
I decided to come HERE and ask real people.
Thank you for trying, though.
I see, good luck finding it!
The "guy sacrifices himself to detonate the explosives" is such a common trope it could be damn near any action movie from the 80's or 90's lol
ChatGPT says it's "Courage Under Fire" from 1996, set in the gulf war, starring Matt Damon.