I had decided to watch Aftermath, a film of 2017, as if it were a challenge: I wanted to see if, even this time, Arnold Schwarzenegger would have tried his hand at the usual revenge movie: a story based on the protagonist who loses one or more of his loved ones and then goes back on criminals, making a slaughter (just like Collateral Damage).
In fact everything was announced as the usual soup; yet, the humble and modest aspect of Arnold in the film should have made me understand, from the beginning, that it was much more.
The architect Roman Melnyk (Schwarzenegger) awaits with trepidation the arrival of his wife and his daughter: the daughter is pregnant, and this makes the expectation more meaningful, as he prepares the house with festoons and welcome gifts.The man goes to the airport to hug the two women again, but the atmosphere is not what he was expecting to be: he is summoned to a secluded room and, once the doors are closed, he is told that the plane on which the two women were traveling had a terrible accident that caused the destruction of the aircraft and the inevitable death of all passengers.
The film unfolds on two parallel levels: the story of Roman, who, all at once, lost his wife, his daughter and his grandchild, and the story of Jacob Bonanos, the flight controller of the airport, who was responsible for managing all the routes on the evening of the accident.
Here we immediately highlight the two narrative sides: Roman's endless pain, mixed with anger and helplessness, and the guilt-ridden pain of Jacob's remorse, as he certainly wouldn't have wanted that tragedy to happen. And to tell the truth the film shows us how Jacob is, as a matter of fact, a scrupulous, attentive and professional operator: the accident really happens due to fatality, certainly due to a distraction by Jacob, but all because of an inescapable series of circumstances .
Roman decides to go to the place of the disaster, mingling with the volunteer staff in charge of collecting the remains and the wreckage of the plane: it is he who finds a necklace belonging to his daughter and the body of his wife and his daughter. From that moment on he spends most of his time in the cemetery, next to the graves of the women he loved and that he lost forever.
Jacob, on the other hand, falls into a depression with no way out: he is now dependent on psychiatric drugs and the anguish is devouring him from within. Moreover, as all people accuse him of that unacceptable crime, he has received many death threats. For this reason the company decides to give him a new identity and a new job, in another location.
This does not prevent Roman, after a few years, from succeeding, thanks to a detective, in tracing the new identity and the new place where Jacob lives.
One evening Jacob receives a visit from his wife and his son, from whom he lives separately.
Just that evening Roman knocks on Jacob's door: Roman wants to show the photo of his wife and his daughter to Jacob, only to have his apology for their death. Nothing else.
At that moment two errors occur: Jacob reacts, at Roman's request, in an overwrought manner, telling the man to leave, instead of trying to understand his reasons; for his part Roman lets himself be overwhelmed by the pain he feels inside and by the anger that blinds him: while he is crying he stabs the ex flight controller, killing him, under the eyes of Jacob's wife and son.
The ending, however, is not really this: there will be some long-term consequences for such a gesture; however, I will let you find them out by watching the film, although it should not be difficult to guess.
If Jacob had responded by revealing his inner torture, the torture to which he subjected himself to punish himself for what had happened, everything would have changed: if he had only taken that picture in his hand, if he had only looked at it, everything would have been different. If Roman would have let himself be guided by the heart, and not by instinct, he would have given Jacob a chance and would not have killed him: our choices, dictated by the emotions of the moment, affect our lives, for better or for worse.
The film is based on a true story, that of Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloyev, a Russian architect whose relatives perished in the flight of Bashkirian Airlines number 2937. The plane collided with flight DHL 611, on 1 July 2002. Two years later, the architect killed the Danish flight controller Peter Nielsen, whom everyone considered guilty for what had happened.
The screenplay by Javier Gullòn (Enemy, Out of the Dark, Hierro) is remarkable and humanly deep, while Elliot Lester’s film direction is absolutely wise.
This film was able to touch my soul strings and it was a surprise, given the premises: I finally saw Arnold Schwarzenegger play a truly dramatic role; I saw the Terminator become a man, with all his weaknesses, while the actor turned into an interpreter.
I believe I prefer him this way: with a body that is no longer so striking, though still noteworthy, with a long beard, with his wrinkles, even with his own particular tenderness. And I hope to see more trials of actor like this in his future film career.
AFTERMATH Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN8toxhSn9Y
