Academy Awards winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) is no stranger to political thrillers set within the US government apparatus. And in her latest she places the audience smack in the center of a terrifying national emergency. A nuclear bomb has been launched at America from an unknown country and the response to it unfolds in a quasi-Rashomon fashion. We see the same 18-minute countdown to impact from three different and overlapping perspectives – from the army unit that first alerts the higher-ups of the incoming bomb, to the situation room scrambling to make sense of it, to the President’s frantic inner circle having to make the decision whether to launch retaliatory strikes and perhaps start a nuclear war. And it’s an edge of your seat ride.
It begins at an army intelligence post somewhere in the Pacific as soldiers are just going about their evening, doing what they usually do until one of them flags an anomaly, kicking the story into gear when they realize what they are looking at. They alert Washington where they are just getting started with their day. The functionaries do their best to find out who is behind it before contacting the President who is out doing an event with a girls’ basketball club.
While we are seeing the same 18 minutes three times, it’s the characters’ reactions and personal moments that differentiate each chapter. Lines that are off camera in one section take on a new meaning when we are in the room. Little details are added to the story. Characters’ reactions define them. Some are stoic. Others, not. No one can believe what is happening before their eyes.
The movie is under two hours and moves along at a brisk pace. It has a great cast (Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Jason Clarke, Idris Elba, Tracy Letts, Greta Lee, and Gabriel Basso) and a script by Noah Oppenheim (writer of Jackie and president of NBC News) that plumbs the inner workings of the government well. I found the film terrifying, but I am sure there are some who might find the thrice told tale less affecting. For me, it’s because we are now living in a very destabilized world, with a military and administration that I cannot possibly see acting with such professionalism and integrity. Politics aside, I totally recommend the film to those without heart problems looking for a good thriller.
On Netflix now.