To me, this movie is perfection.

Load of rubbish!!

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Inspired by real-life counter-terrorism activities (and complete with a few statistics at the end, just before the ending credits), "Who Dares Wins" a.k.a. "The Final Option" tells of the move to infiltrate a radical organization known as "The Peoples' Lobby". Some people who march and protest in the name of peace on Earth are generally decent folks whose intentions are pure, but organizations like The Peoples' Lobby are willing to use any means necessary in the pursuit of their goals. Frankie Leith (Judy Davis) is a high ranking member who brings ousted former S.A.S. officer Peter Skellen (Lewis Collins) into the fold. The groups' current mission will be to take hostages in order to force the government into firing a nuclear missile.The film is overlong, and may not have quite enough tension for some people watching. But the story is generally engaging, and the action scenes ARE very well done. Key to keeping all of this engrossing is seeing how both sides operate as well as various training methods. The music score by Roy Budd ("Get Carter" '71, "The Stone Killer") is first-rate and also helps to drive the story forward. The second half is when it really kicks into gear, and the operation is well under way. At the same time, the wife (Rosalind Lloyd) and daughter of Skellen are watched over by TPL goons in order to force him to play along.Overall, the cast is entertaining to watch. Collins has an amusing detached, always slightly annoyed air about him as the jut-jawed hero. Although suffering from a bad hair day, the usually wonderful Davis does an okay job here. The very fine supporting actors include Tony Doyle, Kenneth Griffith, Ingrid Pitt, Norman Rodway, Maurice Roeves, Patrick Allen, Aharon Ipale, Paul Freeman, Don Fellows, and Nick Brimble. American stars Richard Widmark (as the U.S. Secretary of State) and Robert Webber (as a general) don't really get brought into the story until the second half, but they're both excellent as unflappable types who refuse to be intimidated by their captors.It's a solidly entertaining film, although bad timing (the 1980 Iranian Embassy incident, the Falklands War of 1982) may have played a part in why it was excoriated by critics so much back then.Seven out of 10.

Despite being made over 20 years ago, it remains a tense drama/action film which hasn't dated at all. It was inspired by the infamous Iranian embassy siege, where the SAS were filmed on the news breaking in and very effectively ended the siege and dispatched the terrorists. It's a very well made film. It stars the late, much missed Lewis Collins as the SAS captain who goes undercover by forming a relationship with the terrorist cell leader. A topical issue today given the police have recently been criticised for similar tactics. The film did receive some media criticism for being perceived to be right wing by supposedly depicting peace protesters as terrorists. But this was a blatant misstatement of the plot: the terrorists are hiding themselves within that movement and Edward Woodward's police commander makes the point that the vast majority of peace protesters are just that. Collins gives an excellent, hard and understated performance. Due to in real life being adept at various sporting activities and even applying to join the TA wing of the SAS, he readily convinces with the action. But he's also very convincing in the film's quieter moments too. If the film was made today, it'd be stuffed with OTT action and explosions. Instead this film builds the tension slowly to a standout set piece finale which is incredibly well done: the SAS rescue of his wife and the assault on the mansion. I believe the real SAS were involved in structuring these scenes and in acting them out. It shows.

Other people will and have commented on weaknesses in the plot line and logic. This is by no means a great movie. But on the other hand if you're channel surfing and come upon this action movie, I've seen far worse action flicks. If you can't find a decent flick you can get a few hours of mindless action flick entertainment out of this one.In some ways, in tone and pacing it kind of reminds me of the Chuck Norris/Lee Marvin flick "Delta Force". That one also dealt with a special forces group (in this case, an American unit) having to take action to rescue hostages from terrorists. But in this case, it's the British SAS troops to the rescue.

This is actually a pretty bad film. The ideology is not as perverse as in those films Collins made later. However, my main misgivings about the film are that it is implausible and quite frankly boring for a long time. The whole concept of an ex-SAS man joining terrorists for no particular reason isn't very convincing and you can't help wondering why a group of highly organized terrorists (who later become pretty clueless) fall for it. The film starts with a pretty powerful scene but then meanders for quite a long time building up towards the great finale. Overall, I think Who dares wins could have been an interesting 45 minutes episode of The Professionals but the story doesn't carry a feature film. Although reasonably successful at the time this film initiated the demise of Collins' career who in the eighties mainly made cheap and dubious soldier-of-fortune or army films. Pity, because he actually is quite a versatile actor but at the end of the day Martin Shaw chose his roles more carefully and has a career that's still successful.