The movie Unthinkable uses the current problem of Muslim extremists attacking the US as a backdrop for a psychological thriller that wants you to question how far you would go to protect your country. The big issues in the film are justice versus torture and whether the good of the many should be sacrificed for moral uprightness. I think the use of Muslim extremists in the film was meant to keep the story contemporary and give it a modern backdrop that people could understand and relate to. It could have been any terrorist of any ethnicity or religion in that chair. It could have been any country, well, any democratic country that respects human rights anyway.
I had no idea what the movie was about when I started watching it. I just saw that it was popular and got a copy. As the story unfolded I became completely engrossed in it. The acting was done well, the sets are believable and the storyline is well written. I was kind of shocked at how graphic the movie is. There’s a lot of violence and a lot of bloody visuals. It doesn’t pull punches. It wants you to know just how extreme the measures being employed are. It wants you to connect with the characters and become emotional about the outcome. For me, it succeeded. I was hooked.
The weird twist in the movie are the demands that the terrorist has. They’re not demands in the usual idea of demands because what he wants isn’t something that’s going to be detrimental to the US. In fact, they’re demands that most Americans have of the government that are being unmet by the administration, regardless of the promises Obama made during his campaign, or they’re just demands that make sense anyway. I won’t give it away because I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone, but I think his demands were completely reasonable. Even so, his methods for trying to reach his goals are insane, and there’s no way to justify them.
As for the torture, I’m sure that somewhere, right now, someone is being tortured, backed up by US funding. It’s been done before, and I’m sure it’ll continue to happen. It just won’t be done publically. Does that bother me? Sure, but only because the US government is, by and large, ineffective and I’m sure that innocent people get caught up in the meat grinder. But, if the person that’s being tortured is definitely in possession of information that could save lives, I don’t see why every means necessary shouldn’t be employed to extract information. Can you really say that it’s not worth it to torture one man, when it could save 10s of millions of people? But how far would you take it? Would you take it past him? Would you use his wife and children against him? Would you put them in the torture chamber right along with him? Those are tough questions.
At the end, I was left thinking over the issues that the movie presented. It’s really quite good. I think the biggest question I had for myself at the end of the movie was, ‘What would I do if I were in their position? Could I justify it to myself?’ Would I take the moral high ground or would I be practical and save millions of lives? The answer is yes. Yes, I could and would. Being ethical and morally upright is great, but how would you tell millions of relatives of victims that they can rest easy, because you took the moral high ground and stood up for the terrorist that killed their children, brothers, parents, or spouses? Personally, I’d rather have blood on my hands and know that I saved millions of lives. That would be my sacrifice, but it would be one that I could easily live with.
The caveat to this is that this is just a movie, and this type of ideal situation, with all of the concrete evidence and things falling so smoothly into place probably doesn’t happen very often. I’m not advocating the widespread use of torture, but in particular instances, like the one in the movie, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
Bradley Farless 
of course, as h states, his demands were reasonable, and the killing of millions of americans may have saved the life of millions of muslims, so it could be argued that terrorism can be justified as well as torture.
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of course, as h states, his demands were reasonable, and the killing of millions of americans may have saved the life of millions of muslims, so it could be argued that terrorism can be justified as well as torture.
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I know everyone would be saying do whatever it takes, kill his kids wife or whatever but at the end of it all the one bomb goes off anyway. that says to me they might as well have never tortured him, On the other hand I do feel He the terrorist is a hypocrite because killing everyone to prove a point has no point! You are what you accuse others of being, And its that evil inside him that would make me feel no remorse and use his family against him.
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I know everyone would be saying do whatever it takes, kill his kids wife or whatever but at the end of it all the one bomb goes off anyway. that says to me they might as well have never tortured him, On the other hand I do feel He the terrorist is a hypocrite because killing everyone to prove a point has no point! You are what you accuse others of being, And its that evil inside him that would make me feel no remorse and use his family against him.
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Thank you for adding your opinion!
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This film was an authoritarian fascist state using the medium of Hollywood to justify the use of torture…nothing more, nothing less. Expect plenty more films like this in the forthcoming years, as it helps to soften peoples attitudes when the truth about the activities of our military and intelligence services come to the fore.And the frightening thing is, they even justified the torture of an American citizen!?It's sad and pathetic how governments use our own irrational fear to oppress us.
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This film was an authoritarian fascist state using the medium of Hollywood to justify the use of torture…nothing more, nothing less. Expect plenty more films like this in the forthcoming years, as it helps to soften peoples attitudes when the truth about the activities of our military and intelligence services come to the fore.And the frightening thing is, they even justified the torture of an American citizen!?It's sad and pathetic how governments use our own irrational fear to oppress us.
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Well, it seems to me that what you're talking about is the use of torture being used irresponsibly. That's another reason why this is only worthwhile in an ideal situation, one that doesn't exist. There are just too many stupid people that make stupid decisions in government positions with authority, including the military.I wonder why none of the former administration has been brought up on war crimes charges? Most of them are war criminals, starting a war against a country without any justifiable reason and horrendous consequences.
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Well, it seems to me that what you're talking about is the use of torture being used irresponsibly. That's another reason why this is only worthwhile in an ideal situation, one that doesn't exist. There are just too many stupid people that make stupid decisions in government positions with authority, including the military.I wonder why none of the former administration has been brought up on war crimes charges? Most of them are war criminals, starting a war against a country without any justifiable reason and horrendous consequences.
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The actors did do a good job in the movie. That's for sure.
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The actors did do a good job in the movie. That's for sure.
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the hazard is not with “torture” but with the torturers. It's similar to when lawyers cross examine the accused on the stand. Except here the lawyers are also judge and jury. Even if the interrogators knew that the detainee under question was innocent they “prefer” a guilty plea. There was this one detainee who simply wouldn't admit “falsely” that he was a terrorist under torture, and Gitmo had to release him after some years because other evidence proved him innocent. His last day at Gitmo, his interrogators were still trying verbally to get him to confess even though in all likelihood they themselves were convinced that he had never ever been a terrorist. It's suspected that Cheney's real motive was to get evidence that linked Saddam to al Qaeda, since no WMD materialized in Iraq, the casus belli of a needless war.
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your review is brilliant! and no im not biased. the movie is really good. actors were amazing that i ended up wanting to kick trinity.
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