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 clichés. There are no extended fight scenes or one-liners, and the main villains are killed as easily as the unnamed terrorists. The title is the motto of the British Special Air Service (SAS), and the story was inspired by the real-life operation that ended the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London. Known as The Final Option in the US, presumably because the elite unit is not as familiar to American audiences.

The villains are anti-nuclear extremists with no qualms about resorting to violence. When they discover a secret agent among them, they use a peace demonstration as cover to kill him with a crossbow sniper. That forces the British authorities to implement Plan B (or Plan A again) and send a second man undercover. The chosen hero is Peter Skellen (Lewis Collins), a charming SAS captain who deliberately gets kicked out of his unit by roughing up two foreign officers. That leaves him free to infiltrate and “advise” the terrorists while working against them from within.

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 success for SAS inside information. Her introduction is a bizarre nightclub scene where she plays a rocket on stage while people dance around her in weird costumes. Skellen goes for a direct seduction approach, which is surprisingly effective, but Frankie is the crazy, thrill-seeking type.

The first hour is devoted to training exercises and talk, with little action. There’s an especially long part with a rock concert in a church, where a sympathetic bishop preaches to the audience. Frankie and her crew 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 during the buildup. The tension rises when Skellen gives himself away by visiting his wife. Evidently he’s better at SAS antics than spy craft, and his foolish actions put his family in danger.

Skellen is not exactly discreet about meeting his SAS contact either. While he eludes a male motorcyclist at Westminster Pier, Helga observes the two men together. Frankie is now more suspicious, but wants Skellen around. Helga isn’t one to give up, though. 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. With no way to pass on information, it’s up to the lone hero to foil the villains’ scheme.

Who Dares Wins isn’t a Die Hard scenario plot since Skellen infiltrates the terrorist group deliberately. But Frankie and Helga achieve legendary status as the main villainess (relatively rare in this genre) and a nasty henchwoman who poses a threat throughout.

Villainesses

Frankie Leith (Judy Davis), Helga (Ingrid Pitt)

Seventy minutes into the two-hour movie, Frankie and her gang execute their plan. The terrorists pose as a military band after they stage a road accident and abduct the real performers. The US ambassador’s remote countryside residence is the setting for an overnight siege. Frankie kills a hostage during the attack – this is a woman willing to get her hands dirty. Skellen is still embedded with the group, but Frankie orders Helga to hold his family at gunpoint to ensure his loyalty.

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 that the British government launch a nuclear missile at a Scottish submarine base. In the name of peace, apparently. When questioned by the US Secretary of State, Frankie rants about a nuclear holocaust while blaming politicians. The Secretary sums it up nicely when he says Frankie is a lunatic.

Powell doesn’t even engage in discussion and gives no pretence that the government will comply. A US general present at the dinner grabs a gun from a terrorist and gets shot and killed. This convinces Powell to call in the SAS. Fortunately, Skellen provides a mix of truth and misinformation to Frankie and signals the authorities from a bathroom window. The oft-used toilet excuse and a mirror to reflect the moonlight do the trick.

The authorities put Skellen’s house under watch after the contact was eliminated, so have already set up a staging post in the building next door. The SAS joins the police and makes a mess of the neighbour’s wall. If drilling a hole for a camera wasn’t enough, special forces blow their way into the Skellen household. Just in time, since Helga had turned nasty. In a matter of seconds, the SAS breach the wall and eliminate Helga and her accomplice with headshots. These guys don’t mess around.

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 and frees the dining room hostages in a dramatic shootout. Frankie panics as her plan falls apart, and the SAS executes a perfect raid with no special forces casualties or collateral damage.

Efficient and ruthless, they use 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 unit wipes out the opposition. Some villains still think Skellen is on their side until he guns them down, links up with his SAS squad, and leads the final charge.

Frankie is the last one standing (what else did you expect?), but Skellen hesitates to shoot her. Perhaps he genuinely feels something, and the undercover work dulled his killer instinct. To the SAS soldiers, Frankie’s just another terrorist, so they kill her without a second thought.

Honourable Mention: Special Forces

SAS: Red Notice (2021) – Grace Lewis (Ruby Rose), Zada (Jing Lusi)

A more traditional action film, closer to the Die Hard mould. While there’s more fighting and shooting in this one, the SAS tactics are far less realistic. Trained soldiers stand in the open, waiting to get shot by the villains, in this case a militant group led by Grace Lewis, aka The Black Swan. Her mercenaries – who’ve run covert black ops for the British government, only to become expendable – hijack a train in the Channel Tunnel and ransom the hostages.

By pure coincidence, one passenger is 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 took over the train. The rest of the movie is routine, with Tom doing the solo hero thing and taking out the villains one by one. The SAS has a traitor in its ranks, and it’s no great surprise the mole ends up being Tom’s best mate Declan Smith (Tom Hopper).

Grace employs female mercenaries, including the henchwoman Zada. She’s not that memorable in truth, with action limited to shooting innocent civilians when the villains torch a village. And she threatens Sophie, who predictably becomes a bargaining chip. Zada goes out tamely, falling to a sniper shot when the terrorists pose as hostages as part of their escape strategy.

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 the SAS commander’s head 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 a deadly foe with a blade. After that, there’s a conversation where the wounded woman claims she and Tom are not so different. He agrees and slices her throat.