British-born director David Mackenzie has alternated between films in his native country and the United States. He is little known in Argentina, as only two of the dozen feature films he has directed have been released there. Besides the mediocre Spread, the other locally known film is Hell or Highwater (2016). This film gained some notoriety thanks to a remarkable screenplay by Taylor Sheridan, also the director of Wind River, and a trio of actors delivering outstanding performances (Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, and Ben Foster).
Mackenzie prioritizes action in films like Relay (2024) and Fuze, his most recent work, which can only be seen on the big screen. In the case of the latter, one could almost say it is two films in one, with simultaneous events, set in the present day.
Both set in London, the first story revolves around the discovery, in the heart of the English capital, of an unexploded 500-pound World War II bomb. Found by chance by construction workers, the story follows, with mounting tension, the attempt to defuse the fuze to prevent its explosion. This also involves the evacuation of residents and other temporary inhabitants (office workers, for example) from the streets surrounding the discovery site.
But almost simultaneously, a parallel narrative begins, showing a group of opportunistic thieves who, taking advantage of the concentration of law enforcement efforts on the unexpected event, carry out a robbery at a bank, specifically targeting its safety deposit boxes.
Ben Hopkins’ (Limonov) script initially seems interested in presenting a situation with some common ground with Kathryn Bigelow’s award-winning film (The Hurt Locker), by focusing on the disarming of explosive products that can explode.
But it soon becomes clear that the film’s true core lies elsewhere, as much of it focuses on the embezzlement, making Fuze a typical heist film—a term that certainly fits the bill.
Thus, the group of interesting actors is divided between the two storylines. Aaron Taylor-Johnson leads the cast as Major Will Tranter, a character with similar functions to Jeremy Renner’s in Bigelow’s aforementioned film, albeit with a greater degree of alienation.
In the other “film,” harmony is the last thing to be found, especially among the thieves, and the characters played by Sam Worthington and Theo James are particularly noteworthy. Incidentally, both James and Taylor-Johnson have been mentioned as possible candidates for the next James Bond film. The only relevant female character is Zusana, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, a high-ranking police officer who, from a control room with multiple screens, does her best to defend the citizens of London.
(United Kingdom, 2025)
Director: David Mackenzie. Screenplay: Ben Hopkins. Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Sam Worthington. Producers: Gillian Berrie, Callum Christopher Grant, David Mackenzie, Sébastien Raybaud. Running time: 98 minutes.
