Under Siege

"In 1992 a battleship's been sabotaged by nuclear pirates out to steal its warheads. Now, surrounded by terrorists, a lone man stands with a deadly plan of attack."

1992 1h 42m EN

😐

6.3

MID

🍅

83%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.5

IMDB

★6.3TMDB · 1,814🍅83%Rotten Tomatoes●58Metacritic★6.5IMDB · 101,264

ActionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A disgruntled ex-CIA operative, his assistant and their assembled group of terrorists seize a battleship with nuclear blackmail in mind. They've planned for every contingency but ignore the ship's cook, former Navy SEAL Casey Ryback—an error that could be fatal.

“In 1992 a battleship's been sabotaged by nuclear pirates out to steal its warheads. Now, surrounded by terrorists, a lone man stands with a deadly plan of attack.”

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Cast

Steven Seagal
Casey Ryback
Tommy Lee Jones
William Strannix
Gary Busey
Commander Krill
Erika Eleniak
Jordan Tate
Colm Meaney
Daumer
Damian Chapa
Tackman
Andy Romano
Admiral Bates
Patrick O'Neal
Captain Adams

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Andrew Davis
Writers: J.F. Lawton
Languages: English
Countries: France, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

34 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Under Siege Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Andrew Davis, shot by Frank Tidy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Gary Chang. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Dov Hoenig shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Andrew Davis directs. Frank Tidy behind the camera. Gary Chang scores. Dov Hoenig cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in France, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 4.5× over at the box office.
234 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.
4Part of the "Under Siege Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Andrew Davis, shot by Frank Tidy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Gary Chang. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Dov Hoenig shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "In 1992 a battleship's been sabotaged by nuclear pirates out to steal its warheads. Now, surrounded by terrorists, a lone man stands with a deadly plan of attack.".
10IMDB entry: tt0105690 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 15 themes, including "race against time", "martial arts", "war ship", "mercenary".

The technical file

Cinematography: Frank Tidy
Original score: Gary Chang
Editing: Dov Hoenig
Production design: Bill Kenney
Costume design: Richard Bruno
Makeup / hair: Jef Simons
Sound: Frank A. Montaño
Stunt coordinator: Conrad E. Palmisano
Runtime: 102 min · 1h 42m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $35,000,000
Box office: $156,563,139
Return: 447% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Under Siege (1992)
Rotten Tomatoes: 83% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 58/100
IMDB rating: 6.5/10 · 101,264 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 2 Oscars. 3 wins & 3 nominations total

Part of

Under Siege Collection

This collection includes the Under Siege movies with Steven Seagal as Casey Ryback.

Also by

Andrew Davis

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2018-09-06
★ 7/10
The fun kind of dumb, Under Siege is probably Segal's best work, and in my opinion the only reason people ever mention him in the same breath as the likes of Stallone, Schwarzenegger or Willis. Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time.
CinemaSerf2023-05-27
★ 6/10
"Krill" (Gary Busey) is the rather narked XO on the battleship USS Missouri who sees the captain's impending birthday party as an opportunity to team up with "Strannix" (Tommy Lee Jones), seize the ship and extort a fortune from the American government. The girl (the very annoying "Jordan" - Erika Eleniak) coming from the cake he expected, the fact that the ship's cook is a former SEAL he did not - especially when this knife-wielding sailor starts to make his presence felt and a battle royal hots up. The scenario is pretty far-fetched, but to be fair to Steven Seagal as the chef with attitude, this is a fair action adventure film with plenty of combat, kitchen devil action and pyrotechnics to compensate for the pretty woeful dialogue and acting - especially from Busey - that only really works when the enthusiastic TLJ is letting loose the dogs of war. There's no jeopardy to speak of, the ending is never really in doubt - but I still find this, periodically, an enjoyable bit of machismo escapism that passes the time ok.
JPV8522026-01-18
★ 7/10
Really solid action-thriller where it's a trip to see Steven Seagal actually giving a damn. The action scenes directed by Andrew Davis was great and the pacing on point. Tommy Lee Jones was pretty zany (kind of reminded me of his Two-Face, frankly) and of course Gary Busey was insane, albeit a more toned down version of his character from Lethal Weapon. Budget on this was only $30M (with inflation would be $70M today) which makes this even more impressive. 3.75/5