Chubbco Film, Senator Entertainment Company, Lleju Productions
Samuel L. Jackson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Michael Sheen, Martin Donovan, Gil Bellows, Brandon Routh, Stephen Root, Benito Martinez, Yara Shahidi, Sasha Roiz
Unthinkable makes you think about just that, the unthinkable. This is not a factual story, it’s more of a morality play where you must determine your own values and beliefs. What would you do? How far would you go? There were these types of films back in the old days. Films like Fail Safe and Collossus were making us think about war and technology and what if we go too far. Even films like Logan’s Run, Soylent Green or Omega Man are mankind out of control and going too far movies. I’m sure you can think of others like this. In this one we look terrorism right in the eye. We have to decide if we’re going to let them win, or do we put away our values and beliefs to win? What is the cost? Is it worth it?
Samuel L Jackson plays “H”, an out of the mainstream terrorism interrogation specialist. Nobody authorizes what he does, but no one tells him not to do it. We don’t get to know much about the motivation of this man, and whether he’s very good or very evil, or just plain insane. He seems to want to make each of the characters justify his barbarianism in some way or another. But why? Is it because he knows he’s right and wants confirmation and acceptance, or is it because he’s crazy and wants to put the responsibility on someone else.
You’ll never really find this out. We just know that something awful is about to happen, and it involves terrorism and the death of millions of Americans, and they guy who was caught, wanted to be caught?
There’s plenty of suspense, and plenty of action and gory torture and blood. There’s also no way not to spend the time looking into your own heart to see what’s in there.
There was an old short story about a man who ran the drawbridge at a remote section of the railroad. Normally the drawbridge is up for the boats to pass, but his job is to be there at his post when the train arrives to lower the bridge and allow the train to safely pass. This is not a very realistic story, but it’s a morality play. The man is at his post, about to lower the bridge and notices his child playing on the tracks. Try as he may, the little child could not hear and the train was about to arrive. Lower the bridge and kill the child, or save the child and kill hundreds of strangers on the train. This is the dilemma. Is your child worth more than the hundreds of strangers you don’t know?
That’s kind of where we are here? How far do you go? When do you lose your beliefs? Is anything justified to save millions of people when there is no time?
There are many things that are pretty rediculous in this film. The ending especially is really far fetched. But it’s for the purpose of making you think about it, and what would you do? Truly suspensefully, it’s a great story, and well acted. Samuel L Jackson plays the bad ass about as good as anyone on film today! It’s well worth watching and a lot to think about afterward. Do it!
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Movie Review - Unthinkable (2010) {R},
