Unthinkable

I had the pleasure of watching "Unthinkable" last night, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Sheen, and I have to say that I was flabbergasted. As the credits started to scroll on the screen, I sat their thinking, "Huh? What was the point?" 

 

For those of you who don't know, here is a little plot summary: 

Steven Arthur Younger (Michael Sheen), a U.S. citizen, but still a convert to Islam sends the United States government a videotape of himself in three different unknown storage rooms, each of which he claims contain a nuclear bomb set to detonate in less than a week, unless his "demands" are met. Helen Brody, an FBI agent from Los Angeles is brought in to help locate the bombs, while a CIA "consultant," known as H (Samuel L. Jackson), interrogates the suspect who has allowed himself to be caught. The suspect, whose wife and children have left him and disappeared, seems to know exactly what the interrogation will entail, and plays out each scene to his own advantage. "H" intensifies the pressure, using torture over Brody's objection, but the suspect doesn't crack. After brutally slashing the suspect's wife's throat in front of his eyes, and seeing that it still doesn't effect him, "H" claims he must do the unthinkable- have the suspect watch his children suffer the same torturous pain, the suspect had to endure "for the love of his country."

If you're thinking that this is pretty intense, then we're on the same track. A movie such as this really gets you thinking because you begin to ask yourself what's right and what's wrong. Whose side are you really on? The character of Steven Younger demands that the President of the United States withdraw from the war, and remove all American soldiers from the Middle East. Only when this is done, will he agree to give away the locations of the nuclear bombs. He allows himself to get caught so that he can personally and physically witness the so-called brutality and corruption of the U.S. government. Can you really blame the government though? Here is a man who has placed three incredibly complicated, nuclear bombs, in three various locations, which can be anywhere in the entirety of America. He has essentially endangered millions of people's lives, and for what- the love of his country and his Muslim religion. 

The audience watches H ruthlessly torture Steven Younger trying to make him crack. He goes so far as to bring in the suspect's wife and use her to convince him to stop the "madness." That doesn't work, so he kills her in front of him so that Mr. Younger knows that there are no limits and there is no knowing what they will do to get what they want. H orders that the two children of Mr. Younger be brought in, so that he can see what will happen to them if he fails to cooperate. It is at this point where we finally see Steven Younger finally crack. He cannot sacrifice his children, and so volunteers the three locations to the bombs. 

 
H, however, being the amazing CIA agent that he is, continues to try and torture the children, because he knows that there may be a fourth bomb. He does not underestimate Mr. Younger, as he knows he voluntarily got caught in the first place. He had thought of everything, and so it wouldn't make sense for him to just give away all locations all at once right? The FBI intervenes to stop H, claiming that he has taking things too far, calling his vicious acts inhuman. At this point H says something striking- Mr. Younger is risking the lives of millions of people, many of which are women and children. Why is it unfair when his own children's lives are endangered? Who is the bigger monster here? The United States and its government, or a Muslim man trying to salvage what ever moral principle he can for the sake of his country?  


This one is definitely a mind-twister. You don't want to believe that America is capable of such brutality, but at the same time you can't blame them either? What if the safety of the world was in your hands? Similarly, you don't want to see a man, who may or may not be a bit disturbed for going through such life-threatening steps and measures to get what he wants, suffer by witnessing the murder of his wife and quite possibly, his children. In turn, however, you do want him to pay for threatening the life of so many others just for the sake of his own selfish wants and needs. 


It's interesting how America got attacked on 9/11, and yet in the movie, the U.S. is portrayed as being the cause of war and oppression in the Middle East. 
 

 Watch the movie. I guarantee that you're jaw will drop.
Then, tell me your thoughts...