Movie
Who Dares Wins (1982)
This British action / spy movie is best known for its action packed finale which could be summed up as brutally short and effective. Don’t expect typical Hollywood cliches. There are no extended fight scenes or one liners to be found in the film, and main villains are killed just as easily as the unnamed terrorist mooks. The title is the motto of the British Special Air Service (SAS), and the story was inspired by the real life special forces operation that ended the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London. The movie is known as The Final Option in the US, presumably as the elite unit is not as familiar to American audiences.
The villains are anti-nuclear extremists who have no qualms resorting to violence to achieve their goals. When they discover a secret agent among their ranks, they use a peace demonstration as cover to kill him off with a crossbow sniper. That forces the British authorities to come up with plan B (really just plan A all over again) and send a second man undercover. The chosen hero is Peter Skellen (Lewis Collins), a charming SAS captain who deliberately gets himself kicked out of his unit by roughing up two foreign officers during a training exercise. That leaves Skellen free to infilitrate and later “advise” the terrorists while working against the group from within.
All the cloak and dagger stuff is rather amateurish, and it’s no surprise the villains soon become suspicious of Skellen. The main villainess Frankie is more trusting, because she’s willing to risk the operation’s success for SAS inside information. Frankie’s introduction is a bizarre nightclub scene where she plays a rocket on stage while people dance around her in strange costumes. Skellen comes on strongly and wastes no time with the seduction approach. This is surprisingly effective, but Frankie is the crazy, thrill seeking type.
Action scenes are few and far between, with the first hour devoted to training exercises and talk. There’s an especially long part with a rock concert in a church, where a bishop sympathetic to the cause preaches to the audience. This allows Frankie and her crew to incite violence and paint the campaigners in a bad light. That’s about as exciting as it gets, and the henchwoman Helga is far more threatening than Frankie during the build up. The tension does ramp up when Skellen gives himself away by needlessly visting his wife. Evidently he’s much better at SAS antics than spycraft, and now his foolish actions have put his family in danger.
Skellen is not exactly discreet about meeting his SAS contact either. While he manages to elude a male motorcylist tail at Westminster Pier, Helga observes the two men together. Frankie is now more suspicious of Skellen, but still wants him around. Helga isn’t one to give up, however. The villains pull off the obvious tail / discreet tail trick again, and Helga uses poison disguised as perfume to eliminate the contact on a bus after he’s finished talking with Skellen. With no way to pass along information, it’s up to the lone hero to foil the villains’ scheme.
Who Dares Wins is not quite a Die Hard scenario plot given Skellen inflitrates the terrorist group deliberately, but Frankie and Helga qualify for legendary tier status by being the main villainess (relatively rare in this genre) and a nasty henchwoman who poses a genuine threat throughout.
Villainesses
Frankie Leith (Judy Davis), Helga (Ingrid Pitt)
About 70 minutes into the two hour movie, Frankie and her terrorist gang finally execute their plan and storm the residence of the US ambassador. This is a remote countryside residence and not the embassy itself, and becomes the setting for an overnight siege. The terrorists pose as a military band after they stage a road accident and intercept the real performers. Frankie kills one of the hostages during the attack – this is a woman quite willing to get her hands dirty. Skellen is still embedded with the group, but Frankie orders Helga to hold his wife and child at gunpoint to ensure he remains loyal.
Not long after the takeover, Frankie issues demands to Commander Powell (Edward Woodward) who’s taken up position outside the estate. The terrorist leader demands the British government launch a nuclear missile at a Scottish submarine base. All in the name of peace, apparently. When questioned by the US Secretary of State, Frankie rants insanely and talks casually about the effect of a nuclear holocaust while blaming politicians. The Secretary sums it all up nicely when he says Frankie really is crazy.
Powell doesn’t even engage in discussion about the demands and never gives any pretence the government will comply. A US General present for the dinner attempts to grab a gun from one of the terrorists and gets himself shot – and killed – in the process. This convinces Powell to call in the SAS. Fortunately, Skellen’s able to provide a mix of truth and misinformation to Frankie, and signals the authorities from a bathroom window. Yes, the hero uses the oft-used toilet excuse to get himself alone and uses a mirror to reflect the moonlight.
The authorities had placed a watch on Skellen’s house after the contact was eliminated, so have already set up a staging post in the building next door. The SAS arrive soon after the police, and make rather a mess of the poor resident’s wall. If drilling a hole to use a camera wasn’t enough, special forces prepare to blow their way through into the Skellen household. Just in time, since Helga had turned nasty and assaulted the wife. The scuffle leaves her vulnerable, and it’s a matter of seconds before the SAS breach the wall, and eliminate Helga and accomplice with headshots. These guys don’t mess around.
Then it’s back to the main siege, with the SAS given the go ahead by the Prime Minister. Skellen reveals his true allegiance after a power cut (really a pre-arranged signal), and frees the dining room hostages in a dramatic shootout. Frankie really starts to panic now as her plan falls apart. The SAS execute a perfect raid with no casualties on their side or collateral damage. Tactics used are efficient and fast, often using the element of surprise to take down the terrorists before they can react. We get a very effective POV through one soldier’s gas mask as the special forces wipe out the opposition. Some villains still think Skellen’s on their side, until he guns them down, links up with his SAS unit, and leads the final charge.
Frankie is the last one standing (what else did you expect?), but Skellen hesitates to shoot her. Presumably he geuinely feels something for her, and all the “undercover” work dulled his killer instinct. To the SAS soldiers, Frankie’s just another terrorist, so they kill her without a second thought.
Video Review
Honourable Mention (Unranked)
SAS: Red Notice (2021) – Grace Lewis (Ruby Rose), Zada (Jing Lusi)
This is a more traditional action film and closer to the Die Hard mould. While there’s a lot more fighting and shooting in this one, the tactics employed by the SAS are far less realistic. Trained soldiers often stand in the open waiting to get shot by the villains, in this case a militant group led Grace Lewis aka The Black Swan. These mercenaries – who’ve performed covert black ops for the British government, only to become expendable – take over a train in the Channel Tunnel and demand a ransom for the hostages.
By pure coincidence, one of the passengers happens to be Tom Buckingham (Sam Heughan), an SAS officer as upper class as he sounds. He was taking his girlfriend Sophie Hart (Hannah John-Kamen) to Paris when the terrorists hijacked the train. The rest of the movie is fairly routine with Tom doing the solo hero thing and taking out the villains one by one. The SAS have a traitor in their ranks and while initial suspicion falls on Major Bisset (Noel Clarke), it’s no great surprise the mole ends up being Tom’s best mate Declan Smith (Tom Hopper).
Grace employs females in her mercenary ranks including the henchwoman Zada. She’s not that memorable in truth, with action limited to shooting innocent civilians when the villains torch a village (something the British are now determined to keep quiet) and threatening Sophie who predicatably becomes a bargaining chip. Zada goes out rather tamely, falling to one of four simulatenous sniper shots when the terrorists pose as hostages as part of their escape strategy, only to be identified by SAS sharpshooters.
Grace gets more satisfying bad girl moments and comes across as a dangerous psychopath. She doesn’t hesitate to kill, which includes putting a bullet in Bisset’s head simply to establish her authority. The finale on the French coast has Tom rescue Sophie from Grace, then engage the villainess in close quarters combat. This is a lengthy fight, with Grace proving herself a deadly foe with a blade. After that there’s a conversation between Tom and the wounded woman where she does the usual baddie thing and claim they’re not so different. Tom agrees with her, and slices her throat to make his point.
Action Woman Fan 