L-R: Nicole Kidman and George Clooney in The Peacemaker. Courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures.
Led by George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, The Peacemaker launched Mimi Leder’s theatrical directing career and became the first film released under the DreamWorks banner. The explosive action-adventure was released this past summer on 4K Ultra HD by way of Kino Lorber Studio Classics. The brand new HDR/Dolby Vision and HD masters of The Peacemaker come by way of new 4K scans of the original 35mm camera negative.
The Peacemaker opens in Bosnia, where a moderate Bosnian Serb finance minister is assassinated outside a baptism ceremony. Meanwhile, in Russia, General Aleksandr Kodoroff (Aleksandr Baluev) hijacks ten SS-18 warheads being transported for dismantling. To mask the theft, he rigs one warhead to explode in a train collision, killing thousands and delaying investigators. The blast draws the attention of Washington, where Dr. Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman), head of the NSC’s nuclear-smuggling unit, is interrupted mid-briefing by Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe (George Clooney). He argues the disaster is a cover for a heist—an idea later supported by his Russian counterpart, FSB Col. Dimitri Vertikoff (Armin Mueller-Stahl).
Kelly and Devoe trace the plot through an Austrian trucking front tied to the Russian mob, meeting Vertikoff in Vienna and confronting handler Hans Shummaker (Alexander Strobele). A violent chase leaves Vertikoff dead, but the pair escape with intel pointing toward a shipment bound for Iran. U.S. and Russian forces attempt an interception, culminating in an airborne assault from Turkey. Kodoroff is killed and most of the warheads recovered, but the team learns that one device was diverted by a U.S.-educated Pakistani scientist working with the group.
That lead takes them to Sarajevo and to Dušan Gavrić (Marcel Iureș), a grief-stricken Bosnian who has infiltrated the UN delegation after the minister’s murder. Blaming global powers for his family’s death, he smuggles the remaining warhead into New York with help from his brother Valdo (Rene Medvešek). Devoe kills Valdo during the pursuit, prompting Gavrić to trigger the device and flee into a school. Cornered, he commits suicide, leaving minutes on the clock. Kelly manages to disrupt the bomb’s core, preventing a nuclear blast as the conventional explosives detonate. Afterward, she and Devoe share a quiet, human moment—finally able to exhale.
Prior to directing The Peacemaker, Mimi Leder had been working in television, helming episodic series and made-for-TV movies. You couldn’t blame her for assuming that DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg might want someone with more feature experience, especially with the film’s extensive action and explosions and its $50 million budget. Regardless, Leder proved herself more than capable, and the studio soon handed her the reins of Deep Impact.
In addition to launching the DreamWorks era, The Peacemaker also has personal significance for me. It was the first film I saw at the then-new Cinemark Tinseltown when it opened in Louisville in October 1997. The theater’s opening weekend coincided with my birthday, making the George Clooney–led thriller my birthday movie that year.
I rewatched The Peacemaker three years ago for its 25th anniversary with plans to review it, but that never happened. A few months after the film’s 4K UHD upgrade—and with a new film starring George Clooney currently in theaters—I decided to revisit it again. The film is every bit as thrilling as it was in 1997. Hans Zimmer’s score continues to elevate the tension as Devoe and Kelly work to prevent a nuclear disaster. I’m not sure how well the score works on its own, but within the film it supports the action effectively.
By 1997, Clooney was well on his way to establishing himself as a movie star. He was no longer just the ER lead but building a solid film career. You would never guess that he and Nicole Kidman didn’t have time to rehearse during production of The Peacemaker, because their on-screen chemistry works so well. If anything stands out, it’s Kidman’s decision to go with her natural auburn hair rather than blonde.
Between Mimi Leder proving herself on a major studio production, George Clooney’s rise as a movie star, and Nicole Kidman’s strong on-screen presence, The Peacemaker still plays as an effective late-’90s action thriller. Revisiting it after the 4K UHD upgrade only reinforces how well its tension, performances, and pacing hold up. It may not be the most talked-about film from its era, but it continues to deliver exactly what it set out to do.
Bonus Features
- NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson
- NEW Audio Commentary by Film Journalist Laurence Lerman
- Stunt Footage (5:36)
- From the Cutting Room Floor: Deleted Scenes (3:01)
DIRECTOR: Mimi Leder
SCREENWRITER: Michael Schiffer
CAST: George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Marcel Iureș, Aleksandr Baluev, Rene Medvešek, Gary Werntz, Randall Batinkoff, Jim Haynie, Alexander Strobele, Holt McCallany, Michael Boatman, Joan Copeland, Carlos Gomez, and Armin Mueller-Stahl
DreamWorks Pictures released The Peacemaker in theaters on September 26, 1997. Grade: 3.5/5
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