Unthinkable (2010)
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An FBI team must decide the morality of using torture to extract information from a man who claims to have planted nuclear bombs in several U.S. cities.
The story
After a former Delta Force operator, Steven Younger, releases a videotape claiming he has planted three nuclear bombs in major U.S. cities, the FBI and military seize a high school as a black site. Special Agent Helen Brody and her team are tasked with interrogating the man, who identifies himself as Yusuf Mohamed. To force him to reveal the locations of the explosives, the government brings in a specialist interrogator known as 'H'. As the interrogation begins, the team faces a harrowing moral dilemma: whether to use extreme measures to prevent a catastrophe or uphold the law and ethics of their profession while facing a ticking clock.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Following a videotape from a man named Yusuf Mohamed (formerly Steven Younger) claiming he has planted three nuclear bombs in U.S. cities, the FBI and military detain him at a high school. A specialist interrogator, 'H', is brought in to use torture to find the bombs. While Agent Helen Brody tries to stop the violence, her superiors insist on the necessity of the tactics. Yusuf demands the U.S. end support for certain regimes. When he claims the bomb threat is a ruse to highlight American hypocrisy, a nearby explosion occurs, killing 53 people. The interrogation escalates; H mutilates Yusuf's wife and threatens his children. Yusuf eventually provides three locations, but H reveals a fourth bomb is likely present. The government demands H torture the children to find the final bomb. Brody refuses, and a standoff ensues. Yusuf grabs a gun from an official, asks Brody to care for his children, and kills himself. An alternate ending shows the Los Angeles bomb disarmed just before a fourth bomb hidden nearby explodes.
- First release year
- 2010
- Runtime (minutes)
- 97
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Gregor Jordan
- Writers
- Peter Woodward · writer
- Cast and characters
- Samuel L. Jackson · Yusuf Mohamed; Michael Sheen · H; Carrie-Anne Moss · Helen Brody; Brandon Routh; Gil Bellows; Martin Donovan; Stephen Root
- Genres
- thriller; political thriller
- Themes
- The morality of torture; National security vs. human rights; Terrorism
- Tone and mood
- tense; serious
- Setting
- A high school commandeered by the military as a black site in the United States.
- Premise and plot tags
- terrorism; nuclear threat; interrogation
- Reception
- The film is noted for its serious tone and its exploration of the morality of torture, though some critics found the dialogue to be overly academic. It gained notable attention on streaming platforms years after its release.
- Production trivia
- A DVD copy was leaked online and became one of the most-torrented films of its week in May 2010.; The film was ranked 4th on IMDb's MovieMeter shortly before its release.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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