. THE INFERNAL MACHINE

US, 2022, 111 minutes, Colour.

Guy Pearce, Alice Eve, Jeremy Davies, Alex Pettyfer.

Directed by Andrew Hunt.

The Infernal Machine is an arresting title for a film. However, it is a surprise to find that it is the title of a novel which has a key role in the action of this drama.

The prologue goes back to Knoxville, 1981, the Reagan era, and the shootings in the university belltower. There are some flashbacks to the interrogation of the teenage suspect, his imprisonment, and the visit of the central character here to the prison. The key to the drama is that the young man claimed that he was motivated to the killings by reading The Infernal Machine.

28 years later, is a remote area of southern California, the author of the novel, Bruce Cogburn, lives as a recluse, aged, more than scruffy (resembling a smaller scruffy Lee Marvin). It seems he has written nothing since The Infernal Machine, despite requests from a publisher. There are some flashbacks to his days as a university lecturer, British accent, fostering the writing of a young man. This film offers a very strong role to Guy Pearce as the author.

Unsolicited letters and parcels begin to arrive at his home, from a mysterious individual from Colorado, giving a phone number – with Bruce Cogburn having to drive some distance from his seclusion to find a public phone, many phone calls, a range of exasperation, an attempt to meet the contact at restaurant but his not turning up. In the meantime, pressure from the publisher and the sending of some pages of manuscript which actually are transcripts of the phone calls.

The author is taken in by a local policewoman, Alice Eve, who tells him she had the book when she was at school.

The audience will be wondering how much of these events are taking place in the mind of the author and how much is real, especially when the tone changes, when the police woman becomes a glamorous private eye, Ari young girl to sing, upsetting the author.

And the audience will be suspecting that the author did not write The Infernal Machine but rather it is Elijah, stolen identity by Cpgburn. The culmination of the film is a confrontation with the student, highly disabled, also a recluse, but having something further written and wanting it published. As with dramatic American stories, the ending is somewhat apocalyptic – and apocalyptic with fire.

1. The title, the tone? The title of the novel? Its influence?
2. The setting, 1981, the Knoxville campus shootings, the accused, in court, his motivations? The Reagan era?
3. The contemporary setting, southern California, remote, Bruce Cogburn and his house, coming into town, the phone booth, stores, police precincts? The shift to the more fashionable sequences, restaurant…? And the final meeting with Elijah, the setup, the mechanisms? The musical score?
4. The prologue and explanation of 1981? Bruce as a lecturer, the encounters with Elijah, encouraging him, the range of the flashbacks between them?
5. 28 years later, Bruce living as a recluse, his appearance, decline, reputation? The letters, the parcels, the address, was going into town, the range of phone calls, repeating them, the possibility of a meeting, at the restaurant, the mysterious caller and not turning up? Bruce and his publisher, not having written anything since The Infernal Machine, the information from the contact, the text of the phone call sent to the publisher?
6. The effect on Bruce, becoming desperate, threats, the encounter with the police officer, her chatter, especially about the book, reading it at school, a later transformation, with little girl, the little girl and her singing, hiring the little girl, fashionably dressed, the restaurant, the threats to Bruce?
7. Bruce, going to the prison, flashbacks to the accused and the interrogation, decades later, the meeting with Bruce, suspicions, the references to the author, the violent outburst? Declaring that the situation would bring the author to the jail? The later sequence of the violence, his death?
8. Bruce, bewildered, pursuing the themes, the taunts from the private investigator?
9. Going to meet Elijah, Elijah and his physical condition, the domino effect and his set up of the mechanisms? The flashbacks? The revelation of the truth about the authorship? The flashbacks to Bruce, his decisions, exploiting his pupil, the rejection of the manuscript with Elijah’s name, Bruce ending up with his own, the publication, the consequences? Elijah with the new manuscript, taunting Bruce?
10. The flame, the explosion, the consequences?