Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Renegade FBI agent Art Jeffries protects a nine-year-old autistic boy who has cracked the government's new "unbreakable" code.
Mercury Rising is a serviceable late-90s action thriller that follows a fairly formulaic lone-hero-protects-vulnerable-child template. Bruce Willis delivers his reliable everyman performance and Alec Baldwin makes for a menacing antagonist, but the material doesn't stretch either actor. The premise involving an autistic child cracking an NSA cipher is intriguing on paper but is underdeveloped and handled somewhat exploitatively. Cinematography is workmanlike and unremarkable, typical of mid-budget Hollywood thrillers of the era. The conspiracy plot hits predictable beats without meaningful surprises, and the resolution feels rushed and conventional. The film neither distinguishes itself in its genre nor offers much that wasn't done better elsewhere.