4. Collateral Damage Is The First Post-9/11 Revenge Film
The Movie: Los Angeles firefighter Gordy Brewer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) loses his wife and son in a terrorist attack, and after it transpires that Colombian insurgents were behind the attack, he heads there to exact sweet, bloody revenge. The Release: Collateral Damage is a pretty terrible film by most standards, but its timing was perfect in the most creepy way. Originally due for release just 3 weeks after 9/11, the film was pushed back to February 2002 to allow it to be edited slightly and to provide some emotional distance between the event and the movie. Still, 5 months is probably "too soon" if the movie was trying to be respectful, but then, it's a revenge flick about Arnold hunting down people who slaughtered Americans on their home turf, so was it ever really going to be anything more than cathartic vengeance porn? Warner clearly attempted to tap into a bloodthirsty post-9/11 market, and though the film is notable for being the first major Hollywood production to engage with terrorism after 9/11, audiences clearly weren't ready, as the film didn't even make its budget back.