Aftermath

My take away from this film wasn't so much the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger, (whom I simply admire as one of Hollywood's best) but how does one deal with and guilt and grief. From the viewpoint of the Air traffic controller, I totally understood his guilt, blaming himself for the mid-air collision and carrying such a heavy load of lost life on his conscious. I don't know about anyone else but whenever I turn on the news and hear of hit and run drivers, who may have taken a life and didn't stop at the scene of the incident to see who they hit I always ask God to give them a burden of guilt and shame that they turn their-selves in. This ATC bore his guilt but tried to restart his life, although I didn't think it was his entirely his fault, but the burden of guilt took its tool on him and his family. The grief of a lost loved one can also be heavy on ones heart, that you can never know how a person will handle such pain. Did I condone what Arnold did to the ATC? Hell no, but I understood his pain, because all he wanted was an a apology from the airline. Overall a thought provoking conversation film, you know the kind you have after you leave the theater. Not a film for everyone, but a definitely a conversation piece.

Aftermath was not what I expected at all. It's strongest moments were early as the story of the crash unfolded. It was terrifyingly mundane, just another work day for Jake in which a very understandably human mistake was made. Only, this mistake resulted in the collision of two passenger planes and unspeakable tragic loss of life. Arnold Schwarzenegger does a fantastic job portraying the strong, older man who loses his family and lacks the emotional equipment to process it. Scoot McNairy is perfectly cast and conveys the guilt and depression of Jake with heart wrenching power.

Unfortunately this story becomes less and less interesting as it progresses. perhaps that's a credit to the filmmakers for not adding dramatic power by adapting it too much. But, ultimately at the end I felt a sort of, "That's it...?" If you're a Schwarzenegger or McNairy fan, you might enjoy it. Otherwise, Aftermath fails to deliver.

One of the best movie ever for me, especially this kind of underrated film, the main reason why I love it. Best Schwarzy performance ever too. I don't understand why such idiots don't love this movie ONLY because it is definitely not an action movie. I guess they knew it in advance. My opinion about this film will never prevent me to love PREDATOR, TERMINATOR or CONAN too. But in those films, Arnold was terrific ONLY for his presence, and not his actor play. Here he is awesome ONLY on his actor play, and not his physical presence. And, in this film, you have no good guy against bad guy scheme. I love it too. And everything here is a surprise. A very moving movie for sure. So shame that was not released in French theatres. I highly prefer this instead of the last TERMINATOR movie with Arnold absolutely ridiculous About the revenge after one's family death topic, I prefer this one to COLLATERAL DAMAGE, more action oriented.

The tragic story of the film makes you think that it has the wrong actors in it, but Arnie himself proves you wrong. His stoic demeanour really makes you feel for his character.

The double story and how it comes together is a bit messy at times but overall it is compelling until the end.

Decent, not amazing, but worth a watch

Not a bad movie. Arnold fans like myself will be chomping at the bit waiting for him to do his usual thing, but this is Arnold showing that he can actually act. Good drama, well written and acted. But lacks that certain something to make it great. Still worth a watch though.