'71 (2014)

(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHETHER A RAW ARMY RECRUIT SURVIVES HIS FIRST DAY OF ACTIVE DEPLOYMENT)

[Another of the number of past-their-sell-by-date busts languishing in this blog's drafts folder, this time of a movie plot that proves you don't need big budgets or trick Hollywood endings to write compelling thrillers.]

'71 (2014) is a British recent history action drama starring Jack O'Connell, Sean Harris, David Wilmot, Richard Dormer and Paul Anderson, directed by Yann Demange.

In the end, rookie private, Jack O'Connell is rescued from the hands of murderous republican gunmen by the British Army unit that accidentally left him behind during a riot on the streets of Belfast.

Fresh out of boot camp, on his first day of deployment on the streets of Belfast, at the height of Northern Ireland's "Troubles", O'Connell finds himself abandoned by his unit, along with another soldier, as they try to recover rifles snatched by a mob of republican sympathisers during a street riot following an arrest operation that quickly escalated out of control.

O'Connell takes flight when the soldier with him is shot in the face at point blank range by a pair of gunmen who appear out of the crowd.

Chased through the back streets and alleys, O'Connell eventually gives his pursuers the slip by sheltering in a little used outhouse.

Returning to the body of the dead soldier, the gunmen are rebuked by republican king-pin, David Wilmot, for carrying out the shooting. Despite this, and against Wilmot's specific instructions, their dissident gang leader (Killian Scott), decides they should continue to hunt O'Connell.

Under cover of darkness, O'Connell ventures out, covering his uniform with a knitted pullover, stolen from a washing line.

Lost in the unfamiliar streets, O'Connell runs into a young masked loyalist petrol bomber, but is initially reluctant to accept the boy's offer to lead him back to his barracks.

On the way, though, the boy and O'Connell call at a loyalist bar, interrupting a British Military Intelligence officer, Paul Anderson, as he briefs a pair of would-be loyalist bombers.

Telling O'Connell to wait for him at the bar, Anderson leaves to consult with his senior colleague, Sean Harris, waiting in a nearby car.

But, before Anderson has a chance to return for O'Connell, the bar is blown to bits by the hapless bombers, O'Connell only surviving after momentarily stepping outside to see where Anderson had disappeared to.

Dazed and confused, the injured O'Connell staggers through the streets, before collapsing against a wall, in which state he is found by a young woman and her father, Richard Dormer.

Mistaking him for an injured republican, Dormer carries O'Connell to the flat he shares with his daughter in a republican stronghold, where, realising their perilous error, the pair patch up O'Connell's wound, before Dormer seeks help from Wilmot in smuggling him to safety.

The bombing of the loyalist bar, however, has only intensified the factional struggle between Wilmot and the dissident leader, each of whom blames the other for the attack, leading both to decide that the other must die. And when Wilmot visits Dormer's home to see O'Connell for himself, he unwittingly leads the dissidents to the location of their quary.

Spooked, after Wilmot leaves, by an overheard argument between Dormer and his daughter, O'Connell slips out, unseen, only just before the dissident republicans force their way into the flat and demand to know what business Wilmot has there.

With a gun pointed at the head of her father, Dormer's daughter breaks down, revealing that Wilmot was there to help return O'Connell to his unit. But finding O'Connell gone, the dissidents decide to search the vicinity, leaving a single gunman behind to watch Dormer and his daughter while waiting for Wilmot's return.

Having struck a deal to help Harris and Anderson recover O'Connell in exchange for their murdering the dissident who has been challenging his authority, Wimlot leads the Intelligence officers and a contingent of soldiers from O'Connell's unit, to Dormer's flat, where they shoot their way past the waiting gunman, only to find O'Connell gone. But Wilmot claims that if the dissidents have O'Connell, he knows where they will have taken him.

The dissidents have indeed captured O'Connell, despite him killing one of his pursuers, the murderer of the soldier earlier that day, and take him to a nearby derelict bar, where the leader urges a teenager who had failed to shoot the cornered O'Connell during the original pursuit, to execute their unarmed captive.

Again the boy hesitates, giving Wilmot enough time to lead the British soldiers to the bar, which they storm, allowing Anderson to shoot the teen while Harris goes after the fleeing dissident leader.

Harris then betrays Wilmot by revealing the deal he made for the dissident leader's murder, before allowing him to escape in return for the dissidents dispatching Wilmot on behalf of the British.

And in a second betrayal, having saved O'Connell from execution, Anderson then attempts to strangle him, before he himself is shot by the teenager, who Anderson failed to finish off, only for the teenager to be then shot by O'Connell's squad leader, who happened upon Anderson as he attempted to finish off O'Connell.

An invalided O'Connell is discharged from the army under a cloud, after his senior commanding officer dismisses his and his squad leader's accusations against Anderson.

Disillusioned, O'Connell returns to the mainland to collect a young boy he refers to as "our Darren" from a secure children's home, he himself had spent time in.

The pair are seen riding off into the sunset on a coach.


Despite a plot that includes a few too many improbable coincidences, with his first big-screen feature outing, Demange manages a white-knuckle ride of tension and emotion, that grabs its audience from the get-go (right up until the somewhat laboured and slightly corny ending) and puts recent American offerings, in the same genre, with ten times the budget, to shame. (Indeed, since this bust was first penned, O'Connell has gone on to star as the lead in one such production, to much less effect.) Look and learn, Hollywood. Look and learn.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'71_(film)

A Lonely Place to Die (2011)

(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO ENDS UP DYING IN A LONELY PLACE AND WHO SURVIVES.)

[No, I haven't just been released from prison, or escaped a soul crushingly loveless marriage... but I have found a number of long forgotten draft busts that deserve a better home than my freemail inbox. I'm pretty sure this bust was written at the time of the movie's cinema release, though it's bound to be available on other media, by now.]

A Lonely Place to Die (2011) is a British action-thriller film directed by Julian Gilbey, starring Sean Harris, Melissa George, Karel Roden, Eamonn Walker and Ed Speleers.

In the end self-confessed child murderer Sean Harris meets a sticky end at the hands of an infamous Balkan war criminal, turned businessman, father of a girl Harris has kidnapped for ransom, but who is accidentally discovered and freed from a secret underground chamber dug into a remote Scottish hillside and lead to safety by ambitious young climber Melissa George.

While trekking through woods on a Highland mountaineering trip, George and her latest climbing partner Ed Speleers, together with their mountaineering guide and a pair of thirty-something parents taking a break from family life, are horrified to discover a young girl imprisoned in a hidden underground chamber.

Only the thirty-something mother is able to coax the terrified girl, who is hungry, dehydrated and unable to speak english, from her prison.

Realising that they must get the girl to the authorities as soon as possible, their guide decides that the best course of action is for the group to split up. While the couple and Speleers lead the young girl down the mountain, the guide and George, the best climber of the group, will take the shortest route, involving an abseil down a notoriously dangerous cliff face, to the nearest town where they can arrange for a mountain rescue team to meet the others.

Without a sufficiently long rope, the pair are forced to make the decent in two stages. However, perched precariously on a ledge halfway down the cliff face, George is horrified to see their guide plummet past her to his death on the rocks below, taking their only rope with him.

Forced to attempt to free-climb her way down, George is knocked off the treacherous rock face by one of several rocks that have started falling from above. Very luckily, not only is her potentially lethal fall broken by several tree branches, but she lands in the water of a river running at the foot of the cliff.

Hauling herself out of the water, beside where the guide's body has landed, George passes out momentarily and experiences a frightening vision of waking up trapped inside the young girls underground prison. When she does eventually regains consciousness she discovers that their rope had been cut deliberately. Looking up she catches a fleeting glimpse of someone at the top of the cliffs.

Realising the danger that they are all now in, she heads off downriver at speed, managing to catch up with Speleers and the others who have stopped on the far riverbank to take on water.

George's vain shouted attempts over the noise of the river's rapids to warn the other of the situation are suddenly interrupted when the 30-something mother topples into the fast running water, dragging the young girl in behind her, having been shot in the head by Harris and his accomplice using high-power hunting rifles, only just stolen from a pair of illegal deer hunters they have jumped and murdered.

Trying to keep up, as the body of his wife and the young girl are swept downstream, the husband, George and Speleers all have to dodge bullets, until one near miss unbalances George, sending her into the water from which she eventually manages to drag herself and the girl.

Now all on the same side of the river, the group somehow manage to keep one step ahead of their pursuers, but not without Speleers seriously injuring his leg in a fall, which prompts him to start questioning the wisdom of their decision to rescue the girl in the first place, a suggestion that appals George.

Realising that Speleers injury threatens their escape, and reasoning that their pursuers are only interested in the money that the girl represents, the bereaved husband decides to act as a decoy, making off in the opposite direction carrying a bundle dressed in the girl's clothes.

The ploy works because in the time it takes Harris and his accomplice to chase down and callously murder the decoy, George, Speleers and the girl manage to abseil down a second rock face and reach the main road that will take them into the nearest town.

Despite the loss of their hostage, Harris decides to try to bluff his way though the ransom exchange that is scheduled to take place in a local bar that evening while the town is full of tourist visitors to a fire and fireworks festival.

Unfortunately for Harris, the man posing as the child's father, Karel Roden, her father's right-hand man, has been strictly briefed by Eamonn Walker, one of two armed private security specialists escorting him to the drop, not to, under any circumstances, hand over the ransom without first seeing the girl.

The street festival celebrations are in full swing by the time George, Speleers and the girl show up at the local police station to report the discovery of the girl and the murders of their companions. But when the lone officer at the station seems unable to summon help from a neighbouring force nor contact his assistant who is out in their patrol car, and has, in fact, already had is throat slit, paranoia overtakes Speleers who persuades George that waiting for help to arrive is a mistake.

Unsurprisingly, the police officer will not allow George and Speleers to leave with the girl. But, before he can stop them, he is gunned down by Harris's accomplice shooting from a rooftop across the street, who then proceeds to go on a shooting spree pursuing them through the streets.

Managing to down Speleers, the accomplice draws the attention of the second security specialist there to cover the exchange, who recognising the girl and despite being mortally wounded himself, still manages to alert Eamonn and Roden to the bluff that Harris is trying to pull off.

Realising that he has been rumbled, Harris makes a grab for the money, and although being injured in the ensuing struggle manages to make off with it. He doesn't get far, though, as a tracking device attached to the money leads Eamonn directly to him.

Meanwhile Harris's shotgun wielding accomplice, now sporting a boar's head mask snatched from one of the fire festival street performers, follows George and the girl into the home of a villager who has offered them shelter and who the accomplice shot-blasts in the stomach before setting fire to the place.

Pursuing the pair upstairs into a bedroom, he struggles with George, but is stunned by a bash over the head from the girl, and pushed through a window, falling to his death.

Trapped by the flames rising from below, George manages to throw the girl to safety, but has herself to be rescued by the fire-brigade after almost succumbing to the smoke.

Seeing George and his employer's daughter both being safely driven away in an ambulance, Roden and Eamonn drive deeply into the forest where they deliver the severely beaten Harris into the hands of the girl's father, who demands his henchmen strip and bind Harris, before asking for his "tools" to be made ready.


Without question the stars of Gilbey's action movie are the villains; callously psychotic kidnapper, Harris, and his menacingly sadistic accomplice, Stephen McCole, who manage to raise the threat level to fever pitch whenever they are on screen. That the movie fails to maintain this level of tension is chiefly the result of a script that contains far too much spoken exposition which sounds rather more like the screenwriter trying to explain the plot to himself, than the characters figuring out what's going on for themselves.

Having said that there is much good use of misdirection aimed at wrong footing the audience, who are repeatedly required to reassess the situation. Unfortunately, the film-makers also pull a couple of unforgivably corny "gotcha!" tricks that only devalue the unease that the uncertainty generates. All in all, not a bad movie that includes all the elements required of a good survival thriller. They just weren't executed well enough to make it a really great one. My advice, employ a better script editor.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Lonely_Place_to_Die

28 Days Later (2002)

(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHETHER OR NOT ANYONE SURVIVES)

[Now for the movie that started the whole virus infected speed zombie controversy.]

28 Days Later (2002) Directed by Danny Boyle. Staring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson and Christopher Eccleston.

In the end Cillian Murphy and his two female companions survive to make contact with the outside world.

Following the animal rights activist release of an alarmingly violent chimpanzee from a medical research facility, cycle courier Murphy comes round from a road traffic accident induced coma to find himself completely alone in an abandoned major London hospital.

Dressing himself in green medical scrubs, Murphy sets off through a deserted city rife with signs of some chaotic catastrophe looking for help and answers.

Unfortunately for Murphy, the first person he encounters is a maniacal, blood splattered priest obviously intent on extracting more than just a confession from him.

Murphy's flight attracts an increasing number of similarly rabid individuals until he is rescued by a young pair who lead him to their refuge in a London Underground station snack kiosk.

Although unaware of the exact source of infection, Naomie Harris and her companion explain the rapid contagion that has spread uncontrollably through the population turning everyone affected into blood-crazed monsters.

The full horror of the situation is revealed to Murphy, first, when the pair help him to reach his parents' home, where he finds that they have committed suicide, and then, when Harris slaughters her companion without hesitation, as soon as she sees that he has accidentally come into contact with one of the infected.

Murphy and Haris's prospects seem bleak until they discover another pair of survivors, Brendan Gleeson and his teenage daughter, who plan to abandon their fortified tower block apartment in order to track down the origin of a prerecorded radio transmission promising a solution to infection.

Travelling north in Gleeson's black taxi cab, the group eventually reach a corpse strewn blockade that turns out to be the source of the broadcast.

When Gleeson is accidentally infected by one of the corpses, the group is only saved by the sudden appearance of a squad of soldiers, who subsequently take Murphy and the women to a nearby mansion that they have made into a base.

There they meet the soldiers' commanding officer, Christopher Eccleston, who explains that the promised solution is to wait for the infected to starve to death, while his men get busy repopulating society with the willing, or otherwise, help of the women that have been lured to their camp.

Realising their mistake, Murphy has to escape the now murderous squaddies and somehow free the trapped women, which he does with the help of an infected soldier who he lets loose in the mansion.

As the crazed soldier works his way through his former comrades, Murphy and the women take flight in Gleeson's cab, but not before Murphy is shot in the chest by a soon to be consumed Eccleston.

Harris is obviously no stranger to the emergency room, though, as she succeeds in saving Murphy's life.

The movie closes with the trio signalling their survival with a huge homemade banner spread out on the ground for a low flying jet fighter that buzzes the isolated cottage that they have made their home to see.


George A. Romero purists may have balked at Boyle's reinvention of the zombie horror movie. But there's no denying that his creation sustained a genre that became hard to take seriously after its superb spoofing by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead (2004) which actually made an oblique reference to Boyle's contested premise that zombies could result from a virus infection and would die unless sustained by consuming others.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead