Mercury Rising

1998, US, directed by Harold Becker

Bruce Willis always gives the requisite 110%, no matter how silly the set-up, and it's pretty silly here, as an autistic boy solves an apparently innocuous puzzle that compromises a top-secret US code (it says something about the movie that neither the audience nor the chief code guy - Alec Baldwin in one-note baddie mode - can figure out the absurdity that led to the release of the information in the first place). No matter: Bruce is on the case, ready to save the country, at least for the blue-collar beer-drinking classes (the wine drinkers are put firmly in their place). He'll take a bullet if necessary to protect the unfortunate child, who spends most of the film screaming in terror given that he's constantly being chased, shot at, and generally abused, frightening for any child never mind one with a disorder like autism. Ironically, given the neurological subject matter, this practically defines mindless.