Heroes on the Horizon

WHILE there’s been no shortage of recent disaster movies, this fire-at-sea thriller trumps them all with its blend of humanity and ultra-realism.

This is no 2012, San Andreas or World War Z but a raw, visceral and immediate experience grounded in fact far more powerful than fiction. behind-schedule drilling, despite

After 2013’s Lone Survivor, safety fears. director Peter Berg and leading man And when work begins, all hell Mark Wahlberg have delivered what breaks loose, leaving the survivors promises to be the most thrilling to fight for their lives and rescue movie of the autumn. others as the platform burns

And if its stance on heroes around them. vs money-grubbing execs In the hands of, say, looks simplistic, a quick Michael Bay, you’d check of the facts expect an emphasis reveals the account to on spectacle laced be largely true. with corny dialogue

Based on the 2010 but Berg has turned Deepwater Horizon current disaster oil rig inferno that movie tropes on their saw 11 people die head, never losing and almost five million sight of the survivors’ barrels of oil spill into heroism. the Gulf of Mexico, With Mike Williams the film begins with Kurt Russell as acting as our eyes and engineer Mike Williams Capt Jimmy Harrell ears, we even get a lesson (Wahlberg) saying goodbye to his in the world of gaskets, pumps and wife (Kate Hudson) and daughter underwater pipes before things go before a three-week stint on the awfully wrong about an hour in. platform. You also have to admire the

Life on the seas is entering choppy bravery of the makers for taking on waters with the captain (Kurt the oil giant and laying the blame so Russell) banging heads with its BP squarely at their door. owners (including a wonderfully It’s a terrific spectacle but, more slimy John Malkovich) who are than that, a fitting tribute to those insisting on pressing ahead with who lost their lives.