Fire is a motif that runs through Taylor Sheridan’s taut and tense thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead, which is available in India on BookMyShow Stream. Angelina Jolie is Hannah, a smokejumper traumatised by a previous fire in which she was unable to save the lives of three children.
Redemption and arrives in the form of Connor (Finn Little), whose accountant father is being pursued by the ruthless killers Jack (Aidan Quinn) and Patrick (Nicholas Hoult). Connor’s father knows far too much about an undescribed conspiracy, and needs to be eliminated at all costs.
Connor’s uncle Ethan (Joe Bernthal), who is also the county’s sheriff, gets embroiled in the deadly game, as does Ethan’s pregnant wife Allison (Medina Senghore).
The performances are in perfect tune with the 100-minute movie’s crisp and unsentimental approach to its subject matter. Despite a schematic script – based on Michael Koryta’s novel of the same name – the movie brings home the goods by over-delivering on the basics.
Constructed as a series of tense encounters between the assassins and anyone who has the misfortune to cross their paths, the survival drama builds up to a grand and literally fiery climax. As the forest fire spreads, it consumes vegetation and humans as well as Hannah’s fears.
