Cover Up (1991 film)


Cover Up is a 1991 American political thriller film directed by Manny Coto in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1989 starring Dolph Lundgren and Louis Gossett Jr.. Coto was hired at the latest stage of pre-production right before filming, after writer / director William Tannen left the project.

Plot

Mike Anderson, a tough American reporter on a dangerous foreign assignment, finds his own life in jeopardy when he uncovers a deadly labyrinth of political intrigue that threatens the lives of thousands. Despatched to investigate a mysterious and fatal attack on an overseas US naval base, Anderson, a leading investigative journalist and ex-US marine, finds himself back on familiar ground. Instinct makes him question the official CIA explanation that cites an unknown terrorist group called Black October. Alone, and armed only with his combat training and determination to uncover the truth, he sets out to expose a complex and dangerous political web. Anderson quickly discovers he can trust no one. Renewing a fiery affair with his ex-Iover Susan Clifford, now the US Embassy press attaché, he soon finds himself confronting an old adversary, CIA boss Lou Jackson. And when his former marine colleague Colonel John Cooper is murdered moments after a secret rendezvous with him, Mike realises he holds the pieces to a deadly plot. In a race against time, Anderson battles to save the lives of thousands of innocent people, in a desperate attempt to prevent a deadly plan to create an international disaster of catastrophic proportions.

Cast

The film was shot in Israel and Lundgren stayed at the famous King David Hotel.

Academic observation

Although the film was not a major success, former Research Fellow at Australia's National Film & Sound Archive Robert Cettl, in his 2009 book Terrorism in American cinema: an analytical filmography, 1960–2008 argues that the film reveals an alarmingly realist insight into US-Middle Eastern politics and terrorism since the 2000s, dealing with an al-Qaeda-esque terrorist organization and the conspiracy theories that some believe the US government is using the Middle East as a cover-up.