On a day like no other, the US government discovers a ballistic missile is heading towards the United States. As many different parties scramble to work out where it came from, what its destination is… and what the next course of action is.
Direction
Kathryn Bigelow gives sound direction. Most of the sequences are either in one room (White House Situation Room etc), or even with characters appearing over zoom type meetings. As the film is set in ‘three segments’ at times we would see the character on zoom screen in one segment, but then in another (when the story is told from their point of view).
Cast/Characters & Breakdown
The film follows three “segments” with three different characters. Each segment starts ‘at the beginning’ of the conflict, when they missile is discovered. On first viewing, this takes you back when ‘segment’ 2 starts, and the whole story effectively repeats.
The first segment follows Capt Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), who works within the White House Situation Room.
This is the most frantic of the three segments, and really sets a tone for the film that… sadly the second two segments do not follow or live up to.
The second segment follows the cliche about to be a dad character of Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso). He is the Deputy National Security Advisor. While there is nothing inherently wrong with his segment, we start his segment ‘at the start’ of Segment 1 – but just from his POV
Segment 3 follows the same story again, but from POTUS’ (Idris Elba) point of view.
The main issue I had was there wasn’t really anything new in segment 2 or 3. We saw all we really need to see in the first segment (albeit, without finding out what happens). The final segment, also ends with POTUS’ indecision on to retaliate on the impending attack. We are left with the unanswered question of does the missile hit, who sent it, and if POTUS sends a return strike. While I didn’t exactly hate the open ending to the film, I appreciate why other viewers might have found this quite frustrating.
There is also way too many cliche ‘backstory’ that they try to add; Gonzales (Anthony Ramos) is having relationship issues, Davis (Malachi Beasley) is about to get engaged, FEMA agent Rogers (Moses Ingram) is in a process of a potential divorce. The ‘human’ element to the catastrophe is a little heavy handled here.
The only one that worked, and you had genuine interest in was Secretary of Defense’ (Jared Harris) who’s daughter lives in Chicago, where the missile is likely going to hit within 10-20 mins. His arc is quite heartbreaking, given he lost his wife a couple of years earlier, and as a fellow parent, I understand why he does what he does.
I quite enjoyed how they put the acronyms of items/rooms etc on the screen as they are either entered or discussed, as for non Americans, (or non military) these would have gone over my head had they not been added.
I loved the score, and thought it complemented the dramatic moments in the film.
Overall
An absolute brilliant opening segment, becomes stagnant in the second and third act.
Too much cliche’ personal issues for the characters we see on screen don’t really add anything (considering none of the characters we meet are in the line of fire).
Good, but could have been SOO much better.
3.5/5
Please check out my Podcast where we discuss this film.
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