Mercury Rising

Mercury Rising is the latest movie with Bruce Willis in which Bruce plays a rogue FBI agent named Arthur "Art" Jeffries. The movie is directed by Harold Becker and has co-star Alec Baldwin as Lt. Col. Nickolas Kudro, a National Security Agency Project Director of COMSEC. COMSEC stands for Communications Security. Its current multi billion dollar project is code named MERCURY. MERCURY is a project started to provide more secure communications for the United States and its military and security agencies by use of a highly technical code encryption system that even Krey computers cannot break. However, one nine year old boy named Simon Lynch (played by Miko Hughes) who is an autistic savant, can break the code upon sight. This causes a large headache for Lt Col. Kudro, who is intent upon saving the integrity of his project without having to confess to Congress that a nine year old boy can decode secret U.S. Messages at will. The movie is a non stop action movie in which Art Jeffries, the rogue FBI officer, is dedicated to protect the life of Simon Lynch after someone has killed his parents. On the other side, Lt. Col. Kudro has directed Burrel, a security man for the agency, to make sure that Simon does not become a security risk for the United States and the MERCURY project.

The overall theme to the movie is: "What are we doing to our children?" Our children are our source of life. The term "we" refers to the nation of the United States. 

Bruce Willis' character Art Jeffries starts the movie out as an undercover agent for the FBI. Art Jeffries is in deep cover in an Idaho style "Patriot" group in which the leader of the group, one of his friends, and two of the leaders teenage boys have attempted to rob a bank. The robbery has gone bad and the bank has been surrounded with armed FBI. Art Jeffries is in the bank with the "Patriots". The "Patriots" do not know that Art Jeffries is working undercover for the FBI. He is not supposed to be there. Art Jeffries tries to talk the "Patriot" father into surrendering in order to save his boys from certain death if the FBI storms the bank. At one time the "Patriot" father, in a communication with the outside FBI officials, states that he will not come out alive and surrender to them "and their occupation forces". Holywood always allows the truth to come out of the mouth of the "bad" guy. The concept that the FBI, as an administrative agency created under the Presidential directive of a feudal, military, democratic style Greek government, and not created by an act of Congress under a Theocratic Republic that the United States of America started as slips into this movie subtly. Things go poorly at the bank and the two teenage boys are shot by the storming FBI troops, after Art Jeffries had told the FBI to give him several more minutes to control the situation before they storm the bank. This leads to the character trait in Art Jeffries of wanting to protect the "children" from further violence. It is Art Jeffries goal to save Simon from whomever is trying to kill him.
The term "Mercury" is interesting. Funk and Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary, defines "Mercury" as: "In Roman mythology, the messenger of the gods, god of commerce, eloquence, and skill, and patron of travelers, merchants, and thieves: identified with Greek Hermes." So, if Mercury is a messenger of the gods, then the encryption system MERCURY is the vehicle by which the gods are communicating at a high level of security. But the title of the movie is way above this plain. MERCURY RISING is an acronym for the message that the story is trying to get across to its viewers. It is encrypted itself within the story content. The message being encrypted is the answer to the question: "What or who is a 'Patriot' of America?"

Remember, the movie started out with a so-called "Patriot" gun toting good old boy out on the farm type crazy, who with his friend and sons are trying to rob a bank. It becomes obvious that this gun toting crazy is not a real "Patriot". But it is this type of thinking that is destroying the minds of the children that gets them killed for no good reason. Later in the movie, Alec Baldwin tries to convince Bruce Willis that a real United States "Patriot" is one who will sacrifice anyone who stands in the way of allowing the United States government of trying to carry out its mission of governing. Bruce Willis character, Art Jeffries, obviously is not buying that definition. The real "Patriot" is one who stands up for the values of law and decency that protects the innocent and condemns the unlawful. Clearly, the movie Mercury Rising, supports the concept that those who work in government and support the concept that government and its workers must be responsible to see the higher good in supporting what is right and not what is popular or what has worked for government in the past (i.e.- but I'm just doing my job) is the overwhelming theme of this movie.

Simon is the central theme. He represents the youth of America. He is seen as an autistic savant. He is brilliant. He is unable to communicate himself in the normal manner with those around him. This is representative of the fact that our society does not communicate in honesty anymore with anyone about anything. People cannot, will not, or do not take the time to discuss important ideas and concepts among themselves. This is partially representative of the fact that government does not communicate with its people. The government communications are all lies and deceptions for the purpose of control and not to edify or build a substantive relationship based upon truth, liberty, and a common good.

Simon is not disabled. He is not stupid. But Simon is constrained by the system and being attacked by the system because it is perceived that Simon is a threat to the system. Why should the system, a government, whose duty it is to protect its members and its children from outside harm, seek to destroy the very person it is established to protect? That is the crying theme of this film. 

Simon was taught by his parents that it would not be good to trust strangers. In the movie, the strangers were the members of government who did not have the protection of the boy as their chief goal. Simon had a better grasp on the danger than most of the adult characters in the movie. This concept supports the major theme of the movie. If the government officials are not acting as a friend and protector, then they are the strangers (foreign representation of foreign commercial interests). They are to be feared. Then how can they be the protectors of the children. Remember, Art Jeffries was viewed as a "rogue" agent of the FBI because he did not blindly follow orders of the higher officials when those orders interfered with the professed goal of protecting the life of Americans.

So what message was Mercury really bringing in this movie? Was it that the times are changing? That government cannot really represent foreign commercial interests anymore over the interests of the children and their right to have a secure future based upon law and not upon military rule! Simon played a direct role in decoding (understanding) what must be done to secure a safe future. Today's children must also learn to understand the process to restore law.