A high-stakes spy thriller that struggled to impress critics despite its star-studded ensemble cast
In short: Unlocked, a 2017 action thriller directed by Michael Apted, features a CIA interrogation officer caught in a web of betrayal while attempting to thwart a biological attack in London. Despite an impressive cast including Noomi Rapace and Michael Douglas, the film faced significant criticism for relying on predictable genre cliches.
The film follows Alice Racine, a CIA officer working undercover in London after a failed operation in Paris. Her life is upended when she discovers a conspiracy involving a planned biological attack using the Marburg virus. As she navigates a landscape of double-crosses, she uncovers that her mentor, Eric Lasch, is orchestrating the plot to force the United States government to take biological warfare threats more seriously. The narrative culminates in a high-stakes confrontation at Wembley Stadium, where Racine must stop the release of the virus before it can be transported back to American soil.
Development for the project was lengthy, with Warner Bros. initially optioning the film in September 2010. By April 2014, Noomi Rapace was attached to the lead role, followed by the addition of Michael Douglas, Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich, and Toni Collette later that year. Production was physically demanding; during the shoot, which lasted from November 2014 to January 2015, Orlando Bloom accidentally broke Rapace's nose. This project ultimately served as the final film directed by Michael Apted, who passed away in 2021.
Upon its release in 2017, the film received a lukewarm reception. Critics largely panned the script for being derivative and overly reliant on tired spy tropes. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 26% approval rating, with an average score of 4.3 out of 10 based on 57 reviews. Metacritic reflects similar sentiment, assigning it a score of 46 out of 100. Reviewers like Simran Hans of The Guardian described the production as turgid, while others noted that even the presence of a high-profile cast could not elevate the material beyond a functional, if uninspired, contemporary spy yarn.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Unlocked (2017 film)
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