A Ticking Time-Bomb Of A Tortured Terrorist Thriller

2010’s Unthinkable is a suspense-filled film about modern-day terrorism.

Samuel L. Jackson stars as H, a black-ops consultant hired by the FBI to interrogate former American soldier Steven Arthur Younger (Michael Sheen), an expatriate convert to radical Islam who now calls himself Yusuf Atta Mohammed.

Younger has sent video to news syndicates threatening nuclear bomb-attacks in three unspecified U.S. cities unless the U.S. military withdraws from all Muslim countries.

Carrie-Anne Moss (Matrix) plays FBI agent Helen Brody and is tasked with finding the bombs which are set to blow up in three days.

Younger allows himself to be caught and has prepared for the interrogation process only to negotiate his demands—cessation of support for what he calls “Puppet Governments”.

As H advances his techniques on Younger, Brody disagrees with the gruesome means of interrogation and tries to plead with Younger for the sake of his two children and wife. As H stands over him with sharp tools at his total disposal, the ever-resilient Younger says “I cannot lose” as blood drips from his face.

Most of the film takes place in a sealed-off militarized area and may inadvertently promote the benefits of torturing criminals for information. It also reflects the disparities of working in secret for the sake of National security while maintaining its suspense even as emotions shift.  At the end of the film you can only imagine the character H’s back-story, and exactly how many times these kinds of things happen without the public ever knowing.

Unthinkable—2010—directed by Gregor Jordan—Starring  Samuel L. Jackson, Carrie-Anne Moss and Michael Sheen—97 minutes