Trailer
Plot summary
In Barranquilla, Colombia, Luis Cali and a team of mercenaries seize the Palace of Justice and demand the release of his father, the drug kingpin Enrique Cali. Enrique has already been sent to the United States to face trial, so Luis escapes by helicopter, crosses into America through Mexico and reaches Regis High School in Virginia. The school takes in the sons of wealthy families, and Billy Tepper leads a circle of pranksters there with Joey Trotta, Hank Giles, Ricardo Montoya, Snuffy Bradberry and Phil Donoghue. Dean Edward Parker keeps watch over them. Phil's father is the judge hearing Enrique Cali's case, so the family is moved to a safe location. Luis and his men storm the campus looking for Phil, rig the grounds with explosives and hold the school hostage.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Toy Soldiers (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton and Keith Coogan all auditioned for the lead role of Billy Tepper. Director Dan Petrie had his mind set on Wheaton, but Astin followed him to New York and took him to a screening of Memphis Belle; Petrie changed his mind, switching Wheaton to a sidekick role.
- In David Koepp's first screenplay, as in the book, the boarding school was located in Italy and the antagonists were analogues for the Palestine Liberation Front; the project was intended for director John Schlesinger, who ended up dropping out.
- The U.S. Army assisted with the climax for a symbolic fee, as a promotional venture, lending four Black Hawk helicopters and one Apache; the FBI commando in the scene was portrayed by members of the Army Reserve.
- The film was pitched to studios as "Die Hard Meets the Dead Poets Society", its plot revolving around an all-male boarding school overtaken by terrorists.
- The administrative building's exterior was stretched on two sides at a cost of $250,000, the fake brick walls, respectively 250 ft and 90 ft long, made of wood and fiberglass.
- The film's world premiere took place at the Charlottesville Performance Arts Center, with proceeds going to a scholarship fund honoring the son of the Miller School's president, a first lieutenant who had recently been killed in the Gulf War.
