12 Strong | Rotten Tomatoes

12 Strong

R

Released Jan 19, 2018

2h 10m

War

Drama

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50%

Tomatometer

173 Reviews

62%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

In the wake of Sept. 11, Capt. Mitch Nelson leads a U.S. Special Forces team into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. Once there, the soldiers develop an uneasy partnership with the Northern Alliance to take down the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies. Outgunned and outnumbered, Nelson and his forces face overwhelming odds in a fight against a ruthless enemy that takes no prisoners.

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Critics Consensus

12 Strong has a solid cast, honorable intentions, and a thrilling, fact-based story - all of which are occasionally enough to balance a disappointing lack of depth or nuance.

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Unfortunately the movie's central philosophical conflict, between the captain and an Afghan warlord, features dialogue like "Your mission will fail because you fear death."

Mar 10, 2020

Full Review

Stephen Romei

The Australian

This is an intense, serious war film.

Rated: 3.5/5

Mar 9, 2018

Full Review

Paul Byrnes

Sydney Morning Herald

The action is frequent and gripping, the heroism present but understated, and the sense of tactical complexity has survived the script-writing process, so there is more geo-political subtlety than one expects from a post-9/11 American war movie.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 8, 2018

Full Review

Kip Mooney

College Movie Review

Has a memorable story to tell but does it in an unmemorable way.

Rated: C+

Aug 24, 2021

Full Review

Richard Crouse

Richard Crouse

For every war cliché there is another scene that offers insight into the difficult and confounding task the men have ahead of them.

Rated: 3.5/5

Feb 28, 2021

Full Review

Matt Cipolla

Film Monthly

It's more of a series of set pieces tenuously strung together . . . the political blinders it has on regarding its events' consequences speak to the movie's lack of intention.

Rated: 2/5

Jul 23, 2020

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Adam T

The only reason to watch this is that there is a true story the film is attempting to depict. But it's so cliched and unrealistic I hardly got excited. Except for the horseback charges - its always exciting to watch people on fast galloping horses, despite the stupidity of them all being bullet-proof under close automatic weapon fire, the most obvious silliness of the film. This is one of those movies with inane shoot-em-up scenes where six of our heroes run into open scenes under fire from hundreds of bad guys shooting, and bizarrely, the bad guys all die and the heroes never get hit. After ducking for cover, any one of our heroes is able to step out from behind cover and stand up and bang bang bang kill a whole lot of baddies who are firing at him. But we're so familiar with bullet-proof American gunslinger good-guy from 1950s Westerns, so you kind-of can ignore this as dramatic licence. But then our guys call in B52s to drop bombs from 32,000 feet that fall directly on the Afghan enemy, and watching from nearby (!), a few minutes later our guys walk in vicctoriously to peruse all the dead bad guys. In reality, the real ODA 595 special forces group "in one 18-hour battle, ... destroyed over 20 armored and 20 support vehicles". "They guided hundreds of GPS-guided 2,000-pound JDAM precision-guided munitions dropped by... heavy bombers onto Taliban and Al-Qaeda positions near Mazar-i-Sharif". Never did the film convey the gritty dramatic reality of what actually happened. The film's premise is that the evil Taliban need to be defeated so that Al Qaeda can't commit even worse acts than 9/11. This just wasn't true.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

05/24/24

Full Review

Holly G

Fine movie. Could have been more engaging but I like that it’s a true story and I enjoyed the strategy.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/29/24

Full Review

Dachtor S

This movie is outstanding! It doesn't drag and needs no "nuance".

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/25/23

Full Review

Brian D

Outstanding movie telling a story of the heroism of American Special Forces against overwhelming odds, trying to unite a rag-tag collection of battling tribes and warlords to form a "Northern Alliance" to combat the Taliban and take out AQ terrorists in the Afghan mountains in the days immediately following 9/11. It portrayed the commitment, dedication and sacrifice of those soldiers and the incredible odds a handful of men accepted to strike back at those that slaughtered so many Americans. The relationship between the American and Afghan leader was powerful and moving, as was the suffering of Afghan civilians under Taliban rule. What was perhaps underplayed was the hopeless situation for our people due to Afghani culture. The fractured, tribal nature and divisiveness of that culture was touched on but understated. One of the most powerful lines was when the Afghan leader pledged to fight his rival tribal leader rather than the Taliban and the American leader told him "If you do that, you're no general, your just a warlord". That "tribalism" is what enabled the Taliban in the first place. Also underplayed was the primitiveness and brutality of Taliban rule. It was touched on briefly when their leader executed a woman for the crime of educating her children (or perhaps she was a teacher and not the mother-wasn't clear in the film). But this was just one of so many cases of the barbarism that took place under the brutality of Islamic fundamentalists. What was never touched on (and couldn't be since it was after the timeline of the movie) was the tremendous sacrifice of American lives and tax dollars to fight the Taliban and give the Afghan people an opportunity to advance into the 21st century....only to have them fail and again empower the Taliban to lead their nation. Such a sad situation.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

09/26/23

Full Review

Son N

First thing first let give this movie some praises: movie have great pictures shot, awesome colours, dusty and smoke make it feel more real. Beside it, the moive can't give an impressive last battle, the challenges that our soldiers have to face aren't so difficult and the most important is they cannot show how powerful is Dostum and his army

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/02/23

Full Review

Andres Fabian J

Una de esas películas entretenidas, no es la mejor pero cumple su objetivo qué es mantenernos pegados a la pantalla.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/21/23

Full Review

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Nicolai Fuglsig

Director

Chris Hemsworth

Captain Mitch Nelson

Michael Shannon

Hal Spencer

Michael Peña

Sam Diller

Navid Negahban

General Dostum

Trevante Rhodes

Ben Milo

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12 Strong: Trailer 2

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12 Strong: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

In the wake of Sept. 11, Capt. Mitch Nelson leads a U.S. Special Forces team into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. Once there, the soldiers develop an uneasy partnership with the Northern Alliance to take down the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies. Outgunned and outnumbered, Nelson and his forces face overwhelming odds in a fight against a ruthless enemy that takes no prisoners.

Director: Nicolai Fuglsig
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer, Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Thad Luckinbill
Screenwriter: Ted Tally, Peter Craig
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co: Alcon Entertainment, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Black Label Media
Rating: R (War Violence|Language Throughout)
Genre: War, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 19, 2018, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 3, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $44.3M
Runtime: 2h 10m
Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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