The Peacekeeper (1997) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by HKFanatic ★★★ 7

  "Who loves you, baby?"-Dolph Lundgren

  Late 90's Direct to Video 'Die Hard in a ______' movie starring Dolph Lundgren and daytime TV talk show host Montel Williams, produced by Nu Image, the company that would ultimately become Millennium Films, purveyors of the "Expendables" series. Focusing on a group of terrorists who attempt to steal the nuclear football, the script has a strong anti-nuke stance and oddly seems to share the same thesis as Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer": that in the 20th century man crated the means for his own annihilation and it is only a matter of when, not if, those means are used against him. (When news reporters ask Montel Williams who caused the film's nuclear incident, he replies, "Einstein"…

• Review by SubToretto ★★½ 4

  What starts as a fun Dolph action-vehicle, with him trying to recover the infamous "Black Bag" case that has access to the President's nuclear arsenal, switches gears to basically Die Hard in a missile-silo for the majority of the runtime.

  Its still entertaining and the action is frequent accompanied by terrible but fun Dolph one-liners; but the most memorable bits were in the setup.

  A rooftop car chase follows a really silly bit of voice-modulation hijinks, and the whole "Dolph's first day" schtick was an engaging hook, along with the fact he had a family waiting at home. A lot of this just sits in the background once we get to the silo though, and while the inclusion of a…

• Review by Rich Trash🗑️ ★★★½

  The Peacekeeper follows the same concept as Die Hard but I feel the stakes are a bit higher. There are nuclear weapons and a plot to assassinate the president all rolled into one crazy action movie.

  Dolph does what he does and that kicks plenty of ass, gets shot at, gets thrown out of a window, and even has Montel Williams as a sidekick. It is a shame that not once there was a paternity test in the middle of this thing. I can't complain too much because Mount Rushmore was destroyed and a police car was driven off the top of a skyscraper. Nothing was off limits. Including having the president hold a gun to his head and pull the trigger to only hear a click on live TV. Take that Black Mirror!

  This is big dumb action at its finest. Some things were awkward and didn't totally fit but I am way too forgiving with action movies.

• Review by kjdson ★★★

  A serviceable Die Hard knockoff with Dolph trapped in a nuclear missile silo. Terrorists, whose leader has a beef with President Roy Sheider, chase after him and Montel William's provides some back up to Dolph.

  It's a simple story and the acting is fine. It's late 90s Dolph, he's in great shape, smirking and kicking ass. Sheider delivers even when he's in lower tier stuff like this. Montel is fine delivering corny lines and getting in on the action scenes.

  Once it becomes clear that this is a Die Hard movie (well, more The Rock as the villains motives and use of rockets seems directly lifted from that movie) the action gets pretty rote. Which is a bummer because there…

• Review by PenguinBoss ★★½ 3

  The other day I watched Direct Action in which Dolph played a police officer named Frank. In this film he plays an army officer… named Frank. Why does Dolph love that name so much? I love how nobody in these films ever questions how a man named Frank looks like a giant Swedish Viking.

  From the poster I thought this would be an espionage thriller. If I had known this was a die hard ripoff I wouldn’t have watched it, at least not until my completionist mindset forced me to. Die Hard is a formula that relies on a good script and acting more than other action sub genres, neither of which Dtv films can generally provide. Not only that,…

• Review by Nachtwaechter ★★½

  "Dauerwerbereview"

  Während ein John McClane ohne eigenes Zutun einfach so und vollkommen unvorbereitet im Nakatomi-Plaza mit mehreren deutschen Terroristen eingesperrt war, ist Dolph Lundgren eher ein Mann der Tat. Nach dem Terroristen erschrecken einfach in das Hotel, in dem er mit seinem Koffer voller Atomcodes nächtigt, eindringen, in eben diesen entreißen und sich anschließend von unserem humanistischen Fliegerhelden (unser Held "Frank" wurde auf den Posten des Kofferträgers zwangsversetzt, nach dem entgegen seiner Befehle über einem armen Dritte-Welt-Land Reis abgeworfen hat) in einer spektakulären, um nicht zu sagen der besten Actionszene mit Autos über die Dächer der Stadt hetzten zu lassen. PM-Spezi Spiro Razatos fand nach deren Niedergang schnell wieder Arbeit bei Videotheken-Emporkömmling Nu Image, was eine Szene zur Folge hatte,…

• Review by Sofa Sinema ★★ 2

  Such a phenomenal first act with a crafty rooftop car chase that must have exhausted either the budget or the creative energy of the filmmakers. Sadly, there's not much more worthwhile action that follows. Should have stuck closer to its early playbook, with Dolph Lundgren protecting the nuclear "black box" from baddies. Instead, Dolph is made to partner with Montel Williams in one of the less inspired casting stunts of the DTV era, and their banter is pretty forced.

• Review by mattstechel ★★★

  Surprisingly decent DTV entry that starts out like Olympus Has Fallen and somehow ends up turning into The Rock Part 2 (with a great car chase over rooftops scene that reminded me of something out of a Transporter movie) Its not great don't get me wrong, i think maybe its more of a two and a half star movie that ended up being slightly better than i thought it would be when it started. It starts out kinda plain with Dolph Lundgren being reassigned to protect the nuclear launch codes in order to escape a court martial for bucking orders (he was a pilot who rather than destroy the tons of rice he had in his cargo bay, he gave…

• Review by johnholmes ★★★

  aka RED ZONE

  Der Beginn von Lundgrens Dt-DVD Ära und trotzdem noch weit davon entfernt, mit zu wenig Budget auskommen zu müssen.
  Allein die Autoverfolgungsjagd auf den Dächern war ne dufte Sache.

  Dazu dann immer mal nen flotter Spruch und Lundgren darf sogar noch richtig rennen. Die blöden Zeiten samt Knieproblemen liegen noch in weiter Ferne. Bei Nahkämpfen sieht er trotzdem wie immer recht lasch aus.

  Der Sidekick passt, der Bösewicht ist ne Luftpumpe, aber alles in allem hat das, hier noch frische, NU Image-Studio gut abgeliefert.

  6,0-6,5

  Unser Podcast zum Film:
  anchor.fm/bullet-fist/episodes/Episode-20-The-PeacekeeperMrderischer-Tausch-e10nugr

• Review by Darren ★★½

  "What is going on?!?!? YOU KNOW THE PRESIDENT?!?"

  Imagine if that guy that carries President Trump's Nuclear Football got an action film about him.

  Well The Peacekeeper is that film, if anybody wanted one.

  The Peacekeeper is just another over-the-top straight-to-VHS sleezefest with some awesome action scenes involving rooftop car chases, nuclear testing facility shootouts and the bombings of U.S. landmarks (Mount Rushmore gets blown to bits; "It's just a rock").

  It's a pretty awesome for a straight-to-video action, which is a difficult title to attain in my books. This film is actually so good that the last scene is completely spliced into the Steven Seagal film Ticker. Dolph feels like Michael Dudikoff in any of his late '90's films,…

• Review by Marty McKee ★★★ 2

  A gem from the height of the direct-to-video action movie era, THE PEACEKEEPER could certainly hold its own against many bigger-budgeted theatrical releases of the late 1990s. Basically DIE HARD In A Missile Silo, this Canadian thriller spices its No Nukes messaging with exciting action scenes, including a terrific car chase (choreographed by stunt ace Spiro Razatos) between two vehicles jumping from the roofs of one building after another until none are left.

  Dolph Lundgren (ROCKY IV) is an Air Force major and national hero facing court martial after he airdrops rice to hungry refugees against orders. He’s reprieved when the President of the United States (the great Roy Scheider) selects him to carry the “black bag:” the top-secret briefcase…

• Review by Jesse Balzer ★★½

  Starts hot with a super fun rooftop car chase and some nice fights, really charming DTV stuff, but once it moves to the Die Hard-lite portion of the film in the missile silo it all just falls apart, and fast. It gets noticeably slower and sloppier with some of the worst ADR I've ever heard. I wanted to love it! Dammit.