003. Almost Starting a War for the Sake of Newspapers - Tomorrow Never Dies
The Plan: Newspaper magnate Elliot Carver uses his special stealth boat, armed with a drill weapon (because newspaper magnates can obtain these things) to sink a British warship, then pins the blame on the Chinese. He wants to foment a conflict between the two nations, except it's all really to place a sympathetic general in the Chinese leadership. Why? So that Carver can have exclusive press rights in China. The Idiocy: Look, I get that having sole command of a billion-strong audience can be quite attractive, but I'm pretty sure that even Rupert Murdoch would look at this scheme and say "maybe risking my home country getting destroyed wouldn't be worth it." Wouldn't it have been hilarious if, after all that effort, Carver's ally's coup had failed, and he was left watching helplessly as a war he started raged on? Actually, in that case, there probably would have been a ton of publicity to handle. Maybe he was smarter than I'm giving him credit for. ...Nah. I mean, come on. How do you even get a stealth boat without some major military noticing?
Dan Schindel
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Dan Schindel loves movies more than you do. He considers it an accomplishment to have survived a year and counting in Los Angeles. Someday, he'll be the greatest critic in the world. He spent a year watching a documentary every day, so now he knows everything.
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