Unthinkable

2014

Unthinkable

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TOMATOMETER

Total Count: N/A

66%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 13,957

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Movie Info

An edge-of-the-seat thriller set against an urgent contemporary backdrop, "Unthinkable" begins as a Muslim extremist places three separate nuclear bombs in mystery locations around America. With our country's entire counter-terrorism force rushing to action, the culprit is soon apprehended, but the whereabouts of his bombs remain unknown. Heading up the investigation-or so she thinks-is FBI agent Helen Brody, an expert in her field, who has only two days to find the bombs but who, unfortunately, is not making much progress. Then, Brody is forced to work alongside a freelance interrogator, known only as "H" (Jackson), whose brutal methods are diametrically opposed to hers. "H" crosses lines that no one else will, but since he gets results, he has the full support of the government. With the clock ticking, and the moral compass constantly shifting, Brody-and the audience-must question their most basic assumptions about fear and paranoia, about strength and cruelty, and about right and wrong. Under the expert guidance of director Gregor Jordan, "Unthinkable," stands.
  • Rating:
    R (for strong bloody violence, torture and language)
  • Genre:
    Drama, Mystery & Suspense
  • Directed By:
    Gregor Jordan
  • Written By:
    Peter Woodward
  • In Theaters:
     limited
  • On Disc/Streaming:
  • Runtime:
  • Studio:
    Senator Entertainment

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Cast

Samuel L. Jackson
as 'H'
Michael Sheen
as Younger
Brandon Routh
as DJ Jackson
Carrie-Anne Moss
as Helen Brody
Stephen Root
Gil Bellows
as Vincent
Martin Donovan
as Jack Saunders
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Critic Reviews for Unthinkable

All Critics (2)

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Audience Reviews for Unthinkable

  • Feb 29, 2016
    A routine thriller about finding the usual obligatory hidden bomb (ok! ok! so it's an atom bomb!) in time is given some serious teeth with the question of how far we might be willing to go in order to fight extremism. Me likey, even though the characters are often little more than simply cut-outs. The arguing over whether or not to torture or not gets to feel stagey at times, but the overall production makes its point and we have a darntootin' good time along the way. Michael Sheen is the glue that holds it all together.
    Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
  • Dec 31, 2015
    An intense thriller that is thought provoking. But it's sloppy handle leaves more to be desired!
    Film C Super Reviewer
  • Sep 07, 2013
    This suspense thriller directed by Gregor Jordan and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Sheen and Carrie-Anne Moss was just another direct-to-video release. Some critics thought that this film is noteworthy for the controversy it generated around its subject matter, the torture of a man who threatens to detonate three nuclear bombs in separate U.S. cities. Actually, it is something which is a simple brainwashing technique to make people think that everything is acceptable when you are fighting "terrorists" (which can be anyone declared as such by the U.S. authorities). The film begins with an American Muslim man and former Delta Force operator named Yusuf (Sheen), formerly named Younger, making a videotape. When FBI Special Agent Helen Brody (Moss) and her team see news bulletins looking for Yusuf, they launch an investigation, which is curtailed when they are summoned to a high school, which has been converted into a black site under military command. A special interrogator, "H" (Samuel L. Jackson), is brought in to force Yusuf to reveal the locations of the nuclear bombs. There are two versions of this movie, the first one is the direct-to-video release which has the ending where Yusuf kills himself, and the one I watched is extended version - here an FBI bomb disposal team arrives at one of the disclosed locations and resets the timer to prevent the bomb from going off and as the FBI are celebrating however, behind a nearby crate, the originally unconfirmed fourth bomb's timer counts down to zero. The screen immediately cuts to black and the credits roll. I think that the extended version is much better but it seems that the reviews are rarely written for it. There is an aesthetic realism in this movie but that is just a mask for the absurdity of the point it tries to make... for me was nothing more than a clumsy attempt to convert people to accept torture but to remain "human".
    Panta O Super Reviewer
  • Jan 06, 2012
    Stupid and cliche'd. Other than the fact that Samuel L. Jackson does a really good job here, there's literally nothing noteworthy about this film, except the ending.
    Stephen S Super Reviewer
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