Movie Villains

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October 09, 2003

Gen. Francis X. Hummel

While American servicemen protect the United States, a select few are called on to take care of things never heard or seen by the general public. Certain operations are top secret, highly sensitive, and may in fact be illegal, but they are carried out for the greater good. At least, this is what the US Government says. So it seems incredibly hypocritical and unfair when certain men die and are not given a proper burial nor are they honored for their bravery. And their families will never understand why. Highly-decorated Brigadier General Francis Xavier Hummel (Ed Harris) is a man who believes in honor, and after years of trying to change the way these soldiers are disrespected by their own government - including dozens who were under his command - he executes a plan to make them change.

Hummel assembles a commando unit, steals a battery of rockets armed with VX poison gas, and takes over Alcatraz Island with a group of tourists as hostages. With the rockets pointed at San Francisco, millions of lives are threatened, unless the government agrees to honor the men who have died during secret operations. The US government is taken by surprise, and tries to assemble their own group of experts. They draft Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage), a self-proclaimed lab rat who knows everything there is to know about VX; and former spy John Mason (Sean Connery), the only man ever to escape Alcatraz. Together with a strike team, they should be able to infiltrate the Rock and disarm the rockets. At least, that's the plan.

General Hummel and his team are waiting for them, and immediately attain a tactical advantage. However, his trigger-happy mercs waste the strike team before Hummel can do anything, leaving Goodspeed and Mason on their own in the tunnels beneath the prison. Hummel is angry that more American blood has been shed and blames the government. When they discover the pair of men in the tunnels, Hummel's team gets to work on finding them, and the chase is on.

As the cat-and-mouse game continues, Hummel is placed under increased pressure, finding himself - a well-respected officer - the enemy of his country. Ultimately, time runs out for the government and Hummel fires a rocket into the heart of San Francisco. As the missle bears down on its target, the government is completely powerless. However, Hummel realizes his bluff has been called; he reprograms the rocket to splash into the ocean. It's over. He won't kill millions of people to prove his point, and he prepares to leave. That's when his mercenaries take exception; they want to be paid for their work and Hummel tells them there is no money. At that particular point, Goodspeed and Mason jump in to help Hummel, but the damage is done: the commandos are preparing to launch the last of the rockets, and Hummel has been shot by his own men.

With his last breath, Hummel regrets his actions, seeing more American soldiers die for nothing. His plan was to take drastic action in order to make a point, to open the eyes of the US government. A man like this, so honored and with such a celebrated military career, has witnessed some of the ugliest things to happen in wars and conflicts across the globe, but he felt the worst of it was happening right at home. Hummel is one of those rare villains who becomes a martyr for the men he tried to honor.

Posted by Destro at October 9, 2003 10:33 AM