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Released
2003 · FILM

Basic

A maverick DEA agent uncovers a web of lies and murder after a deadly jungle training exercise leaves an elite group of Army Ranger recruits dead or missing.

“Deception is their most dangerous weapon.”

Directed by
John Mctiernan, Mischa Hausserman
Written by
James Vanderbilt, Patricia Story
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
98 min
CrimeDramaMystery

Synopsis

When a hurricane strikes a U.S. Army base near the Panama Canal, an elite covert operations team of U.S. Army Ranger recruits is conducting a routine jungle training exercise that quickly turns disastrous. Only two recruits are rescued, one of whom is seriously injured, and their conflicting accounts raise questions about the fate of their leader, the legendary and ruthless Army Ranger Drill Sergeant Nathan West, and the rest of the platoon. Tom Hardy, a former Army Ranger turned independent DEA agent, is brought in to investigate and uncover the truth behind the incident.

Credits

Actors
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Director of Photography
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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 335+ credited

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by George Folsey JrShot by Steve MasonScored by Klaus BadeltDesigned by Dennis BradfordSound by David E Campbell Nm0132372Costumes by Kate HarringtonStunts by Gary DavisVFX by George Macri

Box Office

2003 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.9× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$42.8M

Budget$50.0M
Worldwide gross$42.8M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $26.8M — 63% of worldwide · International: $16.0M (37%)

Opening weekend: $11.5M — 43% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $14.6M — 55% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 2,876 theaters

Also known as

  • Basic - Hinter jeder Lüge eine Wahrheitde

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