I’m having trouble finding a movie I caught the ending of on cable TV once upon a time, and never saw again. Does anyone here recognize it?

Modern (~1990s) soldiers (the heroes) are pinned down. They rig explosives for some reason and use the radio to remote detonate them. Something goes wrong, and one of the soldiers takes a walkie talkie and walks towards the explosives, without any cover, to use it to force them to go off. He has to get very close to them. He gets shot repeatedly, and just before being fatally wounded, he yells “Blow!” And the explosives go off.

Additional information:

  • On US cable in the mid to late 1990s
  • Modern war film, with then-current tech (Desert Storm-era)
  • Soldiers are outside in rocky/deserted terrain during the daytime in above the described scene
  • walkie-talkie is a military-grade CB brick
  • Soldier is a short, young guy who I’ve seen in a few other movies typecast as a low-ranking soldier or officer of some kind
  • @[email protected]English
    0•1 month ago

    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…

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      4•1 month ago

      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

      • @[email protected]English
        3•1 month ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]OPEnglish
          3•1 month ago

          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.

          • @[email protected]English
            2•1 month ago

            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.

      • @[email protected]English
        -1•1 month ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]OPEnglish
          2•1 month ago

          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.