Film critics are often lambasted for giving too much away too of the plot in reviews yet that'd be rather difficult with Basic, a complex military thriller with more twists than an alpine road. Don't get me wrong, I like a punchy, red herring infested script as much as the next man, but too few of the plot developments make any sense whatsoever in Basic.
Things start out promisingly enough: Tom Hardy (Travolta) is an ex-army ranger turned DEA agent, under suspicion for taking bribes. His expertise is requested by an old army buddy who needs to find out what happened to legendary army drill instructor, Sgt Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson). The notorious instructor went missing with a few of his men on a routine exercise in the Panama jungle. Two cadets have been found but are deeply unresponsive and it's up to Hardy and his army contact Osborne (Nielsen) to interrogate the men to get to the truth.
Most of the central narrative thrust of Basic takes place in flashback, and since it is seen through the eyes of a couple of unreliable narrators, the film frequently gets bogged down. About midway through, McTiernan seems to get bored of the constraints of the established plot and begins inventing outlandish twists for the sake of it, neglecting to flesh out the characters in the process.
