The Captain returns from a stroll, in which he has found a working rifle. I guess guns are so commonplace in the region that rifles just sprout up out of the desert. Of course, the person the Captain selects to give the rifle to is Morton. Yeah, give it to the easily irritated bipolar jerk who is most likely to do something dumb with it.
The next day, the third day of their mission, begins as our heroes comically run across a big mining operation, featuring dozens of local workers, practically in the backyard of the 'secret city'. Rather than watch the Captain ask Youssef an obvious question, we see the grieving boy from earlier wander around the mining camp. Some junk dealer angrily yells at the boy to scoot. Later, when he notices the boy stole one of his trinkets, the dealer grins?!?
The boy winds up wandering into the bad guys 'secret' base, underneath which I suppose is where Ivan was watching TV during the exciting teaser. Some gunmen grab the boy but let him go when some big guy clad in blue walks by. I guess he silently reminded them that while western soldiers are a no-no, strange children can wander in and out of their secret terrorist base.
We enter the cave now, which is sort of a low-budget version of all those secret lairs made famous in spy films. There is a big rocket standing upright, ostensibly in launch position, though the cave opening above it is much too small for it to fit through. Lots of crates and dusty junk fill out the rest of the cave, with dozens of locals hard at work banging on metal junk or blabbering to each other. Blue-clad guy enters the cave to report to Ivan that our heroes are still alive. Ivan seems disturbed by this, though if he had seen their combat and survival skills thus far, I don't think the news would bother him.
Back to our intrepid heroes, still driving down desert paths in their jeep for the third day. Didn't the newsman in the beginning of the movie mention that Ayazad was a tiny place? They come upon maybe fifty local men, some on ledges but most blocking the path. Morton rears his stupid head long enough to blurt, "another welcome wagon courtesy of Jabbar!". Hmm, I don't remember anyone ever identifying the bad guy's name to our heroes, maybe that scene will appear in the special director's cut edition. Anyway, the dudes on the ledges just stand there looking around. The dozens in the road, after a pause, start chanting something and break into a forward jog. Most of them appear to be holding crude items, such as clubs or sticks and such. Luckily, our heroes, as well as Youssef, are now each armed with assault rifles (don't ask, because I don't know). Strangely, the mysterious Arabs do not stop jogging toward the jeep and do not make any eye contact with the soldiers. Possibly the director instructed them not to look at the camera, and the extras made sure to comply by not looking at anything.
Unsurprisingly, Sergeant Morton loses his cool and shoots one of the mysterious Arabs dead, which causes all the others to suddenly run away. Laughably, about one nanosecond after her husband gets shot, the dead man's shrieking and crying wife comes running out from fifty feet away, through the entire crowd, from a place where she couldn't possibly have even known if someone got shot.
It is now made clear that all these mysterious dudes meant no harm to our heroes, so we must absorb the gravitas of the tragic accidental shooting. Morton, looking as if a bird just crapped on his new pickup truck, is stricken with regret; everyone else looks at least as sorrowful as if they had just eaten something gross. The inconsolable Arab wife, thankfully, doesn't speak English, and is thus unable to blurt out cliches like, "He had just won the lottery!", or "He was looking forward to retirement tomorrow!". Oh, the humanity. Of course, no mention is made of what this legion of Arab joggers with clubs was actually doing out there, for it seemed pretty dim of them to jog straight toward armed soldiers with no explanation given.
Elsewhere in some town that evening, the grieving boy is tries to trade his stolen trinket for a pistol. The merchant disparages the trinket's value and refuses to make a deal though he admires the boy's determination. Kids trying to get their hands on deadly weapons, you gotta love 'em. Unfortunately, in some cultures that scene is plausible.
The next day, the money-grubbing Ayazad government official is at a crummy shipping pier trying to secure entry for the nuclear device, thus fulfilling his part of the deal with Ivan. He argues with some scruffy looking dockhand. You know, if you're a well-known politician secretly doing the bidding of terrorists maybe you shouldn't do your dealing in your normal business suit, particularly when you're the only person in town that's wears a suit.
At a nearby marketplace we see some old Arabs sitting at a table. They start arguing and shoving while exaggeratedly waving their arms . Ha ha… Arabs, they're so ethnic! Next to them we see the official receive the suitcase full of money from Jabbar's flunky Saaid. Grieving boy is there to observe this, which confirms the fact that Ayazad must indeed be a very small place. The boy is obviously disturbed by seeing Saaid, as he was one of the men who killed his tracker father. Rather than follow Saaid, though, the boy follows the official, who he has never seen before. If you have to ask, this website is not for you.
The official, now with his ill-gotten gains, heads into some heavily-guarded building. Inside, he winds up being interrogated by the Defense Minister of Bandar, who is aware of the nuke plot. The Minister threateningly forces the official to agree to divert the nuke to Bandar in exchange for even more cash.
The double-dealing official now sneaks into some big room full of junk and sits at a desk. The boy is still around and is watching him. The boy also sees Saaid return and kill the official. Of course, Saaid doesn't see the boy through the pallet he hides behind, despite its foot-wide gaps. The boy pickpockets some paper from Saaid's pocket and makes his escape. The blue-clad guy also shows up and opens up a crate. In it I guess is supposed to be the nuclear device though it looks more like an outdated weed-whacker that's full of dirt and dust. Now I can easily expect that the nuclear device may be old, but I'd have thought it would have always been kept clean and locked up, where it wouldn't have been exposed to the elements. Maybe the terrorists bought it from a college student.
Historic site of the Original 7-Eleven.
Look at the cash Golan/Globus gave me! "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was a long time ago, so shut up about pride!
...and he never learned to read!
This is the last time I buy a beachfront vacation on Ebay, that's for damned sure!
Also with Ivan is a high-ranking official in the Ayazad government. We know he's an important official because he's wearing a suit. He and Ivan are trying to conduct some business, no doubt of the nefarious variety (is there any other kind?). It turns out the baddies want to smuggle a nuclear device into Ayazad; Then they could arm the big rocket and use it to strike arrogant neighbor Bandar, I gather. Jabbar now shows up, maybe to refresh himself after spending a few days standing on cliffs and intently staring at crap. The suit guy is not pleased to learn of Jabbar's involvement, calling him a renegade and brigand, as opposed to all those warm and kindly nuclear terrorists I guess he was expecting to work with. Anyways, what the baddies need is for the government bigwig to use his authority to get them some documentation that will allow the device to pass through Ayazad's borders.
