Review of Unthinkable (2007) by Parsa K — 04 Aug 2016

Unthinkable is an awful excuse for a movie which attempts to be thrilling and thought provoking. The script is poorly written, containing a plethora of characters that are extremely dynamic to the point of being unrealistic.

It starts off with a seemingly interesting idea: a terrorist has planted nuclear bombs across the country, is arrested, and the authorities attempt to dig the location of the bombs from him before they explode.

The authorities hire a professional interrogator, H (played by Samuel L. Jackson), to torture the evidence out of the suspect. H is an unrelenting individual unfazed by violence of any severity, and as such he tortures the suspect in brutal ways.

On the other hand of the spectrum is female government official Agent Helen Brody. Somehow she is a high ranking government official who is completely against the torture of this terrorist even if it means she is putting the life of thousands of Americans at risk.

Throughout the entire plot of the film, Brodie hinders the interrogation process by trying to make the rest of her crew empathize with the criminal and stop the torture. This is an extreme plot hole that makes no sense.

This government official is wasting precious time, bringing the world closer to the set detonation time, while risking the lives of thousands of her own people in order to empathize with a mentally deranged criminal? SPOILER: As if this mentality isn't absurd enough, Agent Brodie manages to persuade the most heartless man in the operation, H, to stop his torturing as if the entire character development of H as this heartless interrogator meant nothing.

END OF SPOILERS: Furthermore, the film is actually quite infuriating to watch. We are presented with a fantastic character brought to life by Samuel L. Jackson who is sadly destroyed by a completely awful protagonist (Agent Brodie).

The fact that a high ranking official would be completely content with endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians due to multiple nuclear bomb threats because she thinks its "wrong" to torture the terrorist is anger inducing.

Not only is it such an unrealistic decision to make - one persons life vs the lives of thousands - but the fact that the agent chooses to spare the life of the terrorist is mind boggling. To end, this movie is "thought provoking" for the simple minded.

If you ever want to feel intelligent, watch it for yourself. The writing is honestly laughable and just plain unbelievable. Really just a terrible, awful movie that I would never recommend.