Michael Ledo This is the story on how France in 1994 was able to avoid their "9-11" tragedy. Unfortunately the lessons learned from this incident didn't prevent our 9-11 as some critics have claimed it should have done. This story is told from 3 points of view. One is from the action on the plane itself in the runway in Algeria. The second is told from the story of Thierry (Vincent Elbaz) the French GIG (SWAT team) leader. The third and most important is the story of Carole (Mélanie Bernier) an assistant in the foreign minister's office. She was the one who realized this was really a suicide mission and there was no negotiating with the GIA terrorist group. She oversteps her authority and steps on a few toes in order to prevent a take off. I believe her role was a bit of a dramatization, but it made the film watchable as we end up with a woman, who is given no credit, saving Paris from burning.The story was good paced drama-thriller. The voice overs were no better than 1960 Italian film voice overs and has been an on going problem for every French film I have seen in the past few year. I know there are people who can do better voice overs.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

TdSmth5 The Assault is a fairly faithful recounting of the hijacking of Air France flight 8969 by Algerian Muslim terrorists in 1994. The story is told from three perspectives--the events on the plane, the leader of the French SWAT team, and some French politicians.Four terrorists board the plane disguised as Algerian authorities out the check passports of the passengers. Once someone notices their weapons and grenades, they have to take over at that point. They aim to fly to Paris and hope to have two detained terrorists released. However because a stair truck is still attached the plane, the plane can't depart. The Algerian authorities pretty much refuse to deal with the terrorists at all. Once they kill a French citizen, the French government demands the plane be allowed to depart, which it does, but to Marseilles and not to Paris due to lack of fuel.We meet also the SWAT leader who's married and has a young daughter that hasn't really bonded with him yet. The woman seems to have a bad feeling about things. While he realizes that the situation with the plane isn't favorable and that there will be casualties yet he demands to be the first to enter the plane. We're not sure if he's depressed or what.Meanwhile the French government is on full alert and some little girl working at some ministry meets the main bad Algerian terrorist who's in Paris. She offers him money to call off the hijacking, but refuses and takes the money anyway. She concludes that the terrorists will use the plane as a weapon and crash it into a French landmark. At some point in front of major authorities for some reason she just grabs the microphone and starts dictating when SWAT is to act.Once the plane is in Marseilles the order is given to assault the plane. This is around 1:15 into the movie. Our leader is indeed the first one in and the only one tasked with going after the terrorists who are all in the cockpit with the 3 pilots. All the other dozen of SWAT are busy helping the passengers escape.For no good reason the entire movie is filmed in a notch before black and white. There isn't a whole lot of dialogue and things are fairly slow for the most part. But given the events portrayed you do connect with the movie. You just can't help wishing it had been more thrilling and exciting.

patrick-705-559996 I'm not going to add the reviews others here have posted as they cover all the bases much better than I could.I watched this film because my son is/was mad about the GIGN. I went to the trouble of kitting him out for Halloween only for 95% of the people who saw him ask if he was SWAT. I've done a considerable amount of research into GIGN and was fortunate to get a GIGN poster signed to my son by a ex member.The costumes and equipment used for the film was very well done, especially the use of revolvers over semi auto pistols.What I will say is that I thought it was a brilliant movie ruined by being dubbed in English. If the dubbed version was done by French voice actors in English it would have been fine but the American accents got on my nerves after about 5 minutes. I would much rather have had subtitles and try to follow along with my rusty French.

shoobe01-1 As much as I hate to discuss technical or format details, do not watch this with dubbing. The dubbing is so bad that it's a different movie in many ways. For anyone who thinks something is unlikely, this happened. And this is about as historically accurate as a theatrically-released movie is going to get. I am not sure about the political parts, but it seems to be based on the reports of the terrorist actions and the assault. Footage shown on TVs during the movie is real. I thought all in all it was very well done (no evidence of low-budget, so no idea what those reviewer's complaints are) combination of action and drama. It's got a rather good pace, with something happening every few minutes. Sometimes it's just political drama, sometimes it's spycraft like stuff, sometimes its preparing for or executing the assault. 8 of 10 for a slightly too-weepy wife. Realistic support system, going to hang out with the other GIGN members, and wives, but I'd like more explanation why she is so incapable of handling what her husband does for a living.