• Home
  • News
  • Top Picks
    • Movies & Films: Top 25
    • Documentaries: Top 25
    • Films For Students: Top 10
    • Music Videos: Top 10
  • Categories
    • Film
    • Documentary
    • Shorts
    • Blog
    • Calendar
    • Links
    • About

Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World

Libertarian Movies, Films & Documentaries

Mercury Rising (1998)

Tagged: Individualism

When an autistic child inadvertently cracks the U.S. government’s ultra-secret communications code, the National Security Agency (NSA) tries to protect the viability of the code—by killing the child. [ Mercury Rising credits: Dir: Harold Becker/ Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Simon Lynch/ 108min/ Action-Adventure, Drama/ Individualism]

“Libertarians especially will appreciate the film’s explicit pro-individualist tone.”

Should the one be sacrificed for the benefit of the many? That’s the underlying question in this feel-good action/drama about a fight over a nine-year old autistic savant.

It seems that the U.S. government has just spent two billion dollars to produce an “unbreakable” communications code. The code is a key part of the country’s spy apparatus. As part of the testing of the code, a secret message written in it was distributed in puzzle magazines with the promise of a prize to anyone who could decrypt the message. It wasn’t actually expected that anyone would be able to do so, as the code had already been tested under the most rigorous conditions. Enter a nine-year-old autistic savant. He breaks the code and calls in for the prize.

This high-tech code is considered so important to U.S. security that the NSA sends an assassin to kill the boy, but a renegade FBI agent takes exception to that idea and defies all authority to protect this peculiarly-gifted child.

Just before the final climactic gun battle that determines the boy’s fate, the NSA chief explains his collectivist reasoning for ordering the assassination, trying to persuade the heroic FBI agent (Mr. Jeffries) to allow the assassination to happen: “Let’s talk the real world for a moment, shall we, where you’re not some wonderful lone wolf hero, but you’re part of a team, and you’re playing your position. Because that’s what America is, Mr. Jeffries. It’s one big team. Now this might be difficult for you to grasp, but I am a patriot, and a patriot is one who makes the right moral choice. Sometimes it takes a strong man to make that choice. One boy, who cannot survive on his own, one of nature’s mistakes, weighed against the lives of thousands of our people. Think about it.” As it happens, the FBI agent is Bruce Willis, so you can guess how it ends.

The only downside to Mercury Rising is that it requires suspended judgment at times, as certain elements of the story stretch credulity. But it’s still a fair watch, and libertarians especially will appreciate its explicit pro-individualist tone.

External Reviews

“Mercury Rising is the quintessential 1998 movie. We have the classic American hero — deadly, self- reliant, stoic — armed with nothing but grit and a gun, going up against a force that has everything else on its side: technology, trained assassins and the American flag.”
–SF Gate

How to See It

Netflix
Amazon (DVD)
Amazon (Instant Video)
Online Video Search

Links

IMDB
Wikipedia

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Related

Featured Post

covid response

Covid Response Pitch Meeting: Harrison Hill Smith

This hilarious skit by Comedian Harrison Hill Smith reimagines the government's initial Covid response pitch meeting among experts. If you're wondering how authorities could have made their response so haphazard and contradictory, this is one scenario. h/t Instapundit … Continue Reading

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace (2006)

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS Inspired by Christian teachings against slavery, William Wilberforce leads an arduous but ultimately victorious life-long battle to abolish the slave trade. [ Amazing Grace credits: Dir: Michael Apted/ Ioan Gruffudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney/ 111 min/ Drama, … Continue Reading

victimless crime spree

Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree (2012)

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN DOCUMENTARIES Libertarian activist Derrick J. Freeman chronicles his arrest and incarceration for five "crimes" -- videoing police, dancing in a public place, smoking cannabis, wearing a hat in court, and riding a bike -- in a civil disobedience spree that demonstrates just how … Continue Reading

Themes

Abuse of power American revolution Anti-draft Anti-regulation Anti-slavery Anti-socialism Anti-taxation Anti-war Ayn Rand Corrupt government Creator as hero Democide Econ 101 Eminent domain Equality & law Escape from socialism Freedom of speech Free press as hero Government as bigot Government as torturer Government enforced morality Government healthcare Government schools Incompetent government Individualism John Stossel Law & liberty Legalize Drugs Libertarian heroes Libertarianism 101 Power corrupts Power worship Pro-capitalism Pro-immigration Propaganda Psychiatric coercion Resistance to tyranny Right to secede Search & seizure Second amendment Sexual liberty Social tolerance Unions & monopolies Voluntarism Working for government

Genres/Categories

Action-Adventure Animated Biography Blog Comedy Documentary Drama Family Featured Film Foreign History Horror Music-Dance Netflix News Romance SciFi-Fantasy Shorts Thriller Upcoming Western

About Miss Liberty

This site is a collection of films and documentaries of particular interest to libertarians (and those interested in libertarianism). It began as a book, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, where many of the recommended films were first reviewed. The current collection has grown to now more than double the number in that original list, and it’s growing still.

  • RSS

© 2025 Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World. All Rights Reserved