''Sniper 2'' is a 2002 American made-for-television action film directed by

Craig R. Baxley Craig Redding Baxley (born October 20, 1949) is an American director, stunt coordinator, stunt performer and occasional actor. He is best known for his work in the action and thriller genres. Beginning his career as a stunt performer, he was ...

and starring

Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing Jake ...

Bokeem Woodbine Bokeem Woodbine (born April 13, 1973) is an American actor. In 1994 he portrayed Joshua, Jason's troubled brother, in ''Jason's Lyric''. He won a Black Reel Award, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Awar ...

Dan Butler Daniel Eugene Butler (born December 2, 1954) is an American actor known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the TV series '' Frasier'' (1993–2004); Art in ''Roseanne'' (1991–1992); for the voice of Mr. Simmons on the ''Nickelodeon'' T ...

and

Linden Ashby Clarence Linden Garnett Ashby III (born May 23, 1960) is an American actor and director. On television, he portrayed Brett Cooper on the final two seasons of the Fox soap opera ''Melrose Place'' (1997–1999) and Sheriff Noah Stilinski on all ...

. The film premiered on

Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent ...

, on December 28, 2002 and was released to video and DVD on March 11, 2003, by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. This would be the final ''Sniper'' film to be released by the original film’s distributor, TriStar. The film follows a Marine sniper and a spotter who are tasked with assassinating a

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

n general responsible for ethnic cleansing attacks. It is the sequel to the 1993 film ''

Sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

'' and the second installment in the ''Sniper'' film series.

Plot

Former

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

Force Reconnaissance Force Reconnaissance (FORECON) is one of the United States Marine Corps' special operations capable forces (SOC) which supplies military intelligence to the command element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). Force Reconnaissance compa ...

Scout Sniper United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper (MOS 0317, formerly 8541) is a secondary MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) designator of U.S. Marine Corps infantrymen and reconnaissance Marines that have graduated from a U.S. Marine Corps Scout Snipe ...

Thomas Beckett (

), who was discharged after his finger was amputated in the first film, is met by

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

officer James Eckles (

) and Colonel Dan McKenna (

) at his home. Despite losing his index finger he uses to shoot, Beckett still has the capability of firing a gun. Considering this, along with his impressive career from his time in the Marine Corps, Beckett is given a mission to

assassinate Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

renegade Serbian General Mile Valstoria (Peter Linka), who is responsible for conducting

hit-and-run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

operations in the Muslim-populated areas of

. The CIA fears that Valstoria's actions are threatening to inflame a larger conflict in the region. Beckett agrees to participate, but requests that an additional man, a spotter, must come with him. Beckett is introduced to his spotter, Jake Cole (

), an experienced

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

sniper who is on death row for killing a federal officer who allegedly betrayed him. Cole is released and offered a pardon if he takes part in the mission. After being dropped off into Serbia, Beckett and Cole make their way to a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

. There, they meet an underground resistance member named Sophia (

Erika Marozsán Erika Marozsán (born 3 August 1972) is a Hungarian actress. Career Marozsán graduated from the Budapest Academy of Drama and Film in 1995 and then became a member of ''Új Színház'' ("New Theatre") in Budapest. Her first movie appearance ...

). Sophia takes them to her apartment, which is perched high above the designated area where Valstoria is due to show up, near a government building. The next morning, Beckett assassinates his target. Valstoria's killing puts the city into lockdown. After their original extraction point is compromised, Cole and Beckett are forced to find an alternative plan. When they hitch a ride on a public tram, nearby soldiers stop the vehicle and try to arrest them, but the two operatives take over the tram and ram it into some police cars. They soon exit the tram, running through the streets. Cole is captured and put into a prison where Valstoria's men keep their so-called 'special enemies', but Beckett is able to escape. Beckett meets Sophia that night, and the two make a plan to rescue Cole. With the help of Sophia's brothers, Zoran and Vojislav (Ferenc Kovács and Barna Illyés), the next day they box in military trucks carrying Cole and a fellow prisoner to a prison where Cole was to be executed. They ambush the convoy and then help Cole and Pavel (Tamás Puskás), who is a pacifist and political dissident, out of the truck and into a van that Zoran brought. Cole admits to Beckett that the assassination of Valstoria was set up to get Cole caught and then rescue Pavel from jail and brought out of Serbia. That night, at an abandoned factory that was meant to be the designated extraction zone, the group is ambushed by a tank and infantry. Both Vojislav and Zoran are killed in the attack and, after escaping from the factory through a sewer, Beckett orders Sophia to break off from the group and leave. A distance away from the factory, Pavel insists that they should head to Komra, a Muslim town where a friend of Pavel's, Nauzad (Zoltán Seress), lives. As the group meets Nauzad, he offers to help get the men to the border by getting them to a bus that would get them there. Within a couple of hours they are on their way but, as they cross a river, they come across an unexpected checkpoint and end up heading to Simand, the secondary extraction point, on foot. Meanwhile, Cpt. Marks (

Can Togay Can Togay (; born August 27, 1955), also known as János Can Togay, is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, actor, poet, producer, cultural manager and cultural diplomat. Biography Can Togay was born the son of Turkish parents. He spent ...

) inspects the bus that the three men just departed from and suspects that they are attempting to head to Simand. Marks orders a tracker, (Béla Jáki), to take his special forces unit to Simand. As the three men arrive at Simand, they are ambushed by the special forces team in a forest outside of town, and Pavel suffers a slight flesh wound in the arm. After the trio kills the entire team, they are forced to proceed into town. The tracker holes up in the town factory and snipes down the team. Beckett demands that Cole take Pavel to the extraction zone while he deals with the tracker. Cole is severely wounded by the sniper, but Beckett picks him off. Pavel and Becket carry the wounded Cole into the helicopter and leave, just as Serb reinforcements led by Cpt. Marks arrive. In the helicopter, Beckett and Pavel look at Cole as he is badly wounded. Cole says, "Freedom!" and succumbs to his wounds.

Cast

as Master Gunnery Sergeant Tom Beckett *

as Jake Cole * Tamás Puskás as Pavel *

as CIA Agent James Eckles *

as Colonel Dan McKenna *

as Sophia * Barna Illyés as Vojislav * Ferenc Kovács as Zoran * Dennis Hayden as Klete *

as Captain Marks * Peter Linka as General Mile Valstoria * Akos Horvath as Serbian Lieutenant * Béla Jáki as Serbian Scar Sniper * László Áron as Serbian Shadow Figure * Lukács Bicskey as Inmate * Zoltán Seress as Nauzad * Tas Szöllösi as Tony

Reception

Critical response

Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com gave it 2.5 out of 5 and wrote: "A low-rent shoot-'em-up that may actually be worthy of a 3-dollar rental!" The film has been criticised for technical flaws, for example: The

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of ...

depicted were speaking Hungarian rather than

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation ...

(as the actors playing the Serbs were all Hungarian and Cole spoke

gibberish Gibberish, also called jibber-jabber or gobbledygook, is speech that is (or appears to be) nonsense. It may include speech sounds that are not actual words, pseudowords, or language games and specialized jargon that seems nonsensical to outsi ...

instead of Hungarian).

References

External links

* * * {{Craig R. Baxley Sniper (film series) 2002 films 2002 television films 2002 action films American action films American television films 2000s English-language films Films shot in Budapest Hungarian-language films Films about snipers Television sequel films Direct-to-video sequel films Sony Pictures direct-to-video films Cinemax original films Films about the United States Marine Corps Films directed by Craig R. Baxley Films scored by Gary Chang Films set in Serbia TriStar Pictures films Films set in Belgrade Yugoslav Wars films 2000s American films