UNLOCKED
2017, UK, Czech Republic, 28 minutes, Colour.
Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Tony Collette, John Malkovich, Michael Douglas, Toles Cole, Matthew Marsh
Directed by Michael Apted.
Most audiences enjoy an espionage drama. And most audiences will probably find this particular action drama very watchable. Although, as we might expect, there are many twists and turns, the final mystery being unlocked.
The title refers to interrogations of prisoners, especially terrorists, finding ways to elicit the truth from them, their being unlocked.
The setting is the mid-2010s. The central character, Alice, played with quite some intensity as well as vigorous action by Noomi Rapace (impressing international audiences as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), working in London bureaucracy, interviewing migrants and their families. However, it emerges that she has been a CIA agent, with flashbacks to a terrorist massacre in Paris in 2012 – and her feeling responsible for not being able to stop the killings.
In the meantime, the audience sees an imam in London, testing out a volunteer who is willing to give his life for Islam, going out to make contact which could lead to a terrorist activity. On his motorbike, abducted, imprisoned by American interrogators who make contact with Alice, demanding that she come to head the interrogation. In the meantime, the information about the abduction has reached CIA officers at Langley, where John Malkovich is in charge of operations.
The interrogation turns bad, the Americans not being whom they seem, Alice making a desperate escape and making contact again with her former boss from the CIA, played by Michael Douglas. (This seems to be a minor role for Michael Douglas although his performance leads to more than we might have expected.)
The main action shows Alice pursuing her own investigations about who the rogue operators were, evading the immediate search by the US office, making contact with her MI5 contact, played by Toni Collette. She encounters a burglar in an apartment, played by Orlando Bloom, who explains his military background. There is a mystery about his character and why he was in a flat where Alice had taken refuge.
As with many espionage films, there are quite some twists, especially about the imam and his perspective on terrorism, an explanation of a citizen who had turned and become a jihadist, the preparation of a poison to be filtered into a system which would cause many deaths in the public arena.
Alice is certainly a person who uses her wits, one blogger noting that it was good to see a female equivalent of James Bond (but bypassing his suave manner).
There are some surprises for the audience in the revelations about the motivation for Alice’s recruitment, the pursuit, the power behind the decisions, the motivation that terrorism acts will serve as a warning to the American public to take further drastic measures to preserve security.
This was the final feature film directed by British director,, Michael Apted (the director of the Seven Up series, as well as the espionage drama, Gorky Park).
1. Audiences enjoying espionage thrillers? CIA? MI5? Jihadists? Terrorist threats? Mass poisoning threats?
2. The London settings, migrant offices, high-rise flats and families, local shops, streets? Government offices? The river, action on the river? The sports arena? The contrast with the United States, Langley and the offices? Technological equipment? And the postscript with scenic views of Prague? The musical score?
3. The 2010s, terrorist activities, Jihad’s, the 2012 massacre in Paris? The flashbacks for Alice?
4. The imam, the contact, pledging his loyalty, learning the protocol? On the bike, his being abducted by the van?
5. Mercer, renegade, Moscow, the contact, money, laboratories, the poison and the experiments? Observed by the agent he was to take the poison?
6. The introduction to Alice, her work at the migrant office, her contacts, working with families? Her background, living alone in London? The encounter with Sutter, his persuading her, the vehicle, the interrogation room, Alice and her techniques, the impatience of Sutter and the others, the details of her treatment of the prisoner, his opening up, getting the phone call, the revelation of the fake setup, her escape, the death of the prisoner?
7. The past relationship with Eric, the CIA, her enlisting his help, his being shot, the information about the flat? Her arriving, the encounter with Jack, burglar, her overpowering him, her rearranging the phone calls and flats, the CIA invading, freeing Jack, her escape, the police, Jack rescuing her? The going on the run, her trying to get rid of him? The assassins coming? The revelation of the truth about Jack, part of the deal, the fight, in the elevator, the dogs, the upset, the owner shooting Jack, Alice’s escape?
8. Emily, British intelligence, the contacts with Alice at her work? Alice enlisting her help? The contacts with the CIA, their suspicions about her turning rogue, the screen interview with the head?
9. Alice and Jack going to the restaurant, Alice enlisting the help of her friend, the background of the flats, his mother and child? The taxi driver? The questions at the restaurant, the friend and his following the owner, leading to the shootout? The corridor, discovering the imam?
10. Alice, the discussions with the imam, the twist in the plot, his wanting to prevent violence, his intervening in the messages and the protocols? His explaining the protocol to Alice?
11. The setup, Emily and the tent, the friend on the wharf, Alice and the underwater cable? Wilson, his being the paid assassin, the gunfire with Emily and her force, her bullet proof vest? The threat to Alice? Emily shooting Wilson, the revelation about the bullet used with the abduction of the jihadist, checking out the store, the information about Wilson? Rogue?
12. Alice hearing the information from the mediator on the wharf, her going to the venue? The discovery of Eric, not dead, masterminding? With Sutter?
13. The explanations about CIA activities, the interventions by Eric, his hyper--patriotic motivations?
14. The agent with the poison, his change of heart, his death, taking the poison, entering into the system, five minutes? Eric with the control?
15. Alice, the confrontation with Eric, the fight, the tension with the time, the struggle, her getting the app, Eric falling to his death? The split second timing?
16. Alice, mission accomplished, the pressure from the American CIA, that she eliminate Mercer, the visit to Prague, on the steps, her stabbing him, his collapse and death?
17. Alice, the female espionage hero?
