Mercury Rising 🎥 1998 Movie Info

Plot Summary

The film opens with a bank robbery hostage crisis in South Dakota. Undercover as one of the criminals, FBI agent Art Jeffries guards fourteen year old James while trying to convince the gang’s leader, Edgar Halstrom, to surrender. Despite pleading for more time to negotiate, an armed FBI task force storms the building, fatally shooting both James and the thieves. Art confronts his superior Hartley, punching him when the latter says they must answer to Washington. As a result of his outburst, Jeffries is demoted to desk duty. Years later, a nine-year-old autistic savant named Simon Lynch is given a sophisticated puzzle book by his teacher.

Simon quickly solves a particular puzzle and phones a number encoded in the solution. This call reaches two National Security Agency cryptographers, Dean Crandell and Leo Pedranski, who created the new cypher Simon has cracked code-named “Mercury”. Pedranski and Crandell report the situation to their boss, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Kudrow, who severely rebukes the pair for their unauthorized actions, describing Simon and his abilities as a national security threat. Two assassins, Peter Burrell and Shayes, are sent by Kudrow to terminate the boy and his parents, Martin and Jenny. Posing as a police detective, Burrell murders both Simon’s mother and father, but is unable to find Simon himself.

Upon finding that Martin dialed 911 before he died, Burrell stages a murder/suicide between him and his wife Jenny before exiting the Lynch residence with Shayes as his getaway driver. Jeffries is sent to investigate the crime scene and finds Simon in a hidden crawl space in his bedroom closet. Simon is taken to a protection ward at the hospital, where a nurse explains the nature of Simon’s autism to Art, and why he cannot be interrogated. Burrell impersonates a doctor and makes another attempt on Simon’s life.

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