Water(1985)

SHORT VERSION:
Through the efforts of Baxter, Pamela, and a musical performance by the Cascara Liberation Front (C.L.F.) at the United Nations that gets backed by several famous British musicians and singers, Cascara gains its independence from England. Also, Baxter’s wife, Dolores, leaves him for the British government representative Sir Malcolm, which pleases him much. However, while the musical performance is in progress, a group of mercenaries hired by the French government – who want to ensure that their country remains the top provider of the world’s finest mineral water – come to the oil field in Cascara where the mineral water was found and blow holes in the underground well with explosives, causing all the water to drain out of it. They also try to destroy the oil drill, but Baxter and Pamela prevent them from doing so.

Baxter spends the next week trying to get the drill to tap into another underground well, believing that more of the mineral water could still be down in the earth, but Pamela and his friends and associates eventually help him understand that what he is doing is an exercise in futility. As they all walk away from the drill worrying about Cascara’s financial future, the drill suddenly strikes oil, solving that problem instantly.

The movie ends with Baxter, Pamela, and the Cascarans partying together after raising their country’s new flag.

LONG VERSION:
Tired of all the intrusion from various foreign powers that are trying to gain control of Cascara’s mineral water resource, Baxter (Michael Caine) – along with Pamela (Valerie Perrine) – decides to join forces with Delgado (Billy Connolly) and Garfield (Chris Tummings) of the Cascara Liberation Front, telling them that he has a plan to make Cascara an independent nation so that they will have control over both the water and their own future.

They first find the American news reporter Ken Warden (Charles Thomas Murphy), and at gunpoint, they force him and his crew to sneak them all into the Spenco drilling ground, which lies directly above the underground well of mineral water. Once inside, they quickly reveal themselves to the workers, and they make the workers leave by threatening to destroy the underground well with explosives that they brought. Pamela then calls up her father and the owner of Spenco, Richard (Fred Gwynne), and tells him that she has control of his oil field, and she will blow it up if he doesn’t call up some of his friends in important places.

The American and British governments quickly get wind of what is happening in Cascara, so they each send in their army to try to put a stop to it. However, both armies find out that the native Cascarans have now stationed themselves outside the fences surrounding the oil field in support of Baxter and company, leaving them both unable to take any action without risking harming someone. Meanwhile, the French government – wanting to ensure that their country remains the top provider of the world’s finest mineral water – commissions a crew of mercenaries under the command of Kessler (Paul Heiney) to go to Cascara and destroy the underground well.

Sir Malcolm (Leonard Rossiter) later stops by the oil field – along with Baxter’s wife, Dolores (Brenda Vaccaro) – to talk to Baxter, and Baxter tells him in private that the American and British governments must agree to let the C.L.F. appear before the United Nations General Assembly so they can put forth a motion for Cascara’s independence. Thinking that they are talking about her and Malcolm and their recent sexual tryst, Dolores yells to Baxter from afar that she has slept with Malcolm and now wants a divorce so that she can marry him, which Baxter is more than happy to give her. Malcolm relays Baxter’s demands to the U.N., and they agree to them.

Delgado and Garfield are later picked up in a helicopter and brought to the U.N.’s headquarters, and they appear before the General Assembly and start performing a song called “Freedom” as their plea for autonomy for Cascara. Initially, it doesn’t go well, but that all changes when they are suddenly joined by several famous British musicians and singers (such as George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton), thanks to Pamela making some calls to friends that she has in the music industry. Their performance ends up receiving a standing ovation.

However, during the performance, Kessler and his mercenaries sneak onto the oil field, and some of them place bombs along the side of the cliff that one part of the oil field is situated on while Kessler and another mercenary go onto the drill to set two more bombs to blow it up with. Baxter and Pamela head out to disarm their own explosives on the drill, feeling that no one is going to fight them now, but Baxter gets alerted to the presence of the mercenaries and confronts them. They get the better of him and run to escape the impending explosions, but after Baxter warns Pamela about the mercenaries’ bombs on the drill, they grab them and throw them a safe distance away before they blow, saving the drill from destruction. However, the other bombs on the cliffside detonate successfully, blowing holes in it and causing the underground well to drain completely dry. Considering their mission accomplished, the mercenaries leave.

The U.N. grants Cascara its independence, but they grant it to them largely because, with all their mineral water now gone, they now have nothing of value. Baxter spends a week trying to get the drill to tap into another underground well, thinking that more of the water could still be down in the earth, but Pamela and his friends and associates eventually help him understand that what he is doing is an exercise in futility. As they all walk away from the drill worrying about Cascara’s financial future, the drill suddenly strikes oil, solving that problem instantly.

Sometime later, a ceremony is held for the raising of Cascara’s new flag, and Baxter hands the old British flag over to Sir Malcolm before he heads back to England with Dolores. Baxter, Pamela, and their friends then party with the Cascarans to close out the film.