‘Unlocked’ Trailer: Noomi Rapace And Orlando Bloom Go Full Jack Bauer
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn thatUnlockedwas originally conceived over a decade ago – the trailer feels like something we’d be seeing in theaters around 2004 or so, at the height of Hollywood’s attempt to come to grips with the events of August 02, 2025. You have a heroic CIA interrogator (which has become something of an oxymoron) battling Islamic terrorists to prevent a biological attack in London. This thing looks like a throwback to the days when Jack Bauer was shooting out kneecaps and beating up ACLU lawyers on Fox’s24. It feels positively ancient.
But maybe that’s part of the appeal? After all,24is back. Maybe it will be fun to watchNoomi RapaceandOrlando Bloomrunning around London shooting people while respected character actors furrow their brows in expository scenes where they have to talk about where bombs are located and who sold them out and so on. Maybe?
Perhaps the weirdest thing aboutUnlockedis that it’s the next film from directorMichael Apted, a filmmaker with one of the strangest careers imaginable. For some audiences, he’s best known as the director of theUpseries of documentaries, where he catches up with and interviews the same subjects every seven years. For others, he’s best known for directing Sigourney Weaver to an Oscar nomination in 1988’sGorillas in the Mist. More recently, he’s helmed episodes ofRay DonovanandMasters of Sex. And he has plenty of action experience as well, having directed the James Bond movieThe World is Not Enoughand the thirdChronicles of Narniamovie.
While there are many elements present in this trailer that make me simultaneously roll my eyes and cringe, I’d be lying if I said I have no interest in watching Rapace and Bloom, two actors I like who have managed to elegantly sidestep potential movie stardom, getting their B-movie action hero on. And look,Toni Collette,John Malkovich, andMichael Douglasare the exact kind of people you want shouting at rooms full of computer analysts in-between the action scenes.
Oh, and the film’s tagline is “To stop the terror, they must fight the conspiracy.” Holy shit. What does that evenmean?
Unlockedis set to open onMay 5, 2017in the United Kingdom. It doesn’t have a North American release date yet.
