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If only there are movies that brim with brilliant concepts. If only every movie had good concepts. Well, that’s certainly not the case. Thankfully, Neil Mcenery West and David Lemon had a reasonably good idea, and they put together a story that is enjoyable. Let’s Talk about Containment Movie Explained and Reviewed!
Since ever I started enjoying films, I’ve always had one trick that never fails me: Rottentomatoes. I search for movies with high critic scores but lower fan ratings, and voila, here we are! As of now, Containment has a fan rating of 40%, while critics have it at 100%. Now that’s a lovely score for a film! Some might say, Why Cap Fans At 40… and to that, Rottentomato’s score speaks for itself: Containment is a commercial success. Skeptics like myself, who rely on viewing fame, tend to perk their ears for unloved movies. Z for Zachariah was one of those unloved movies. So was Enemy. And guess what: I Loved Them!
And questions everywhere from viewers all over.
For most people, if you have not heard of the movie called ‘Containment’ I will try to avoid spoilers. But from that point onwards, we are going to delve into the guts of this movie like there is no tomorrow. So Mark our protagonist, (Did he even have a name? Because while watching, it really felt like he didn’t. It isn’t like it mattered all that much… That is for sure. This isn’t that sort of a movie!) gets trapped inside the confines of his apartment building. The apartment buildings are very Cabrini Green-esque and these were the projects of Chicago that were demolished some years back. When I lived in Chicago and drove by Cabrini Green, they gave off a certain vibe of illness. Tall. Imposing. Distinct. With a certain level of poison to them. And that is how the apartment buildings of Containment feel to me when you first see them. Four identical apartment buildings sitting taller than everything else around them. And they speak of dread lying just beneath the surface.
Our protagonist is clueless about his situation at the beginning because he is confused why he overslept. He had an important engagement, yet this is him slouching in his awful apartment. As he slowly wakes up, starts cooking, and tries grasping the reality of the gravity of the situation, it slowly sinks in. There is a power outage, the windows are boarded shut, and his door was epoxied shut. It is up to our protagonist to figure out what is going on, and somehow avoid getting killed long enough to get out of here.
Let’s be honest, if you haven’t seen it yet, you can find it here now or here later for purchase. Either way, I am going to discuss this film far more in-depth than people want to comprehend before watching it, so you might want to tune out now. It’s a gem of a film, and a very ambitious one at that considering the budget. And as I’ve mentioned, I absolutely love glance catchers that were created with low budgets. Eager to look for options considered to be added value? Looking for added value? Check out this Sight & Sound addendum. It caught my attention as well.“The creativity that director Mcenery-West exudes is remarkable for someone who is new to directing. It is evident that this drone-style feature film is crafted by a professional. It is impressive to think what would happen if they had more funds and space.” – Sight & Sound Our main character is soon greeted by neighbors we spoke about earlier such as Sergei, Enid, Nicu, Sally, and Hazel. All of these individuals are in need of aid for one reason or another. For better or worse, they did decide sue and visit Mark, Mark’s apartment against his will, and used force to breach the walls long before Mark came to any form of understanding about the situation. Now we have a collection of randomly chosen but equally baffled residents of the building with no idea what has taken place.
Hints begin to show that could suggest some form of lockdown is about to happen, but what does it mean? Is it some sort of military lockdown? A way of ensuring safety? Oh wait, what are those people in orange suits doing? Our group of misfits slowly starts getting bombarded with tannoy announcements (one of my favorite British phrases… did not ever think I’d have a reason to say it. Hah. Just means Public Address Systems) which proceed with “Stay calm…”
In the distance a man is banging vigorously against the glass of his apartment window. There is a runner who springs into action, knocks the man in the orange suit down, and makes a break for it, only to get shot. Over and over again, the scenario of watching these orange men seem to fall apart, and why shouldn’t they? But then the men in Orange start coming into the buildings and dragging people out of the buildings against their will. And this is how it goes. After all, the so-called heroes have little choice but to watch them. Until they devise a strategy to get out and attack them first.
Containment revolves around obtaining information. When they got to one of the Sectors, Sally, you would expect the pieces to logically begin fitting together, but that is as far from the truth as humanly possible. There is a sickness. It’s almost always fatal. It’s air borne. And that’s about all we will learn because, like I mentioned before, this particular Orange Man (or woman) has only just begun on their journey. This means the screenwriter has ensured the viewer knows as to what is truly going on. Leave the audience in the dark.
As the film plays out, we can’t help but question what else lies in the world. Our newly acquired Orange Man(woman) did hint something along the lines of a contagion emerging a couple weeks back and her agency set a a full stop on any announcements that could potentially inform the people of what is really going on. But there was a problem… The illness spread further than it ever should have.
As we witness the protagonists fall one after the other due to the outbreak of chaos and danger, we begin to notice that there are trouble waiting outside the gates. When Mark sends Nicu ahead, we hear that the zone is being released and the outbreak is expanding.
The part of the movie I found most interesting was what was not directly told to us. For instance, I found myself wondering if the Orange Agency had in fact activated the contagion on purpose. Did they seal off this specific zone for the purpose of studying the infection? Was it a cover up for something else? There’s not enough information here that allows me to defend myself if I postulated that this contagion was actually global in nature and the only people who had the chance of living were the people who had enough intelligence to grab bunny suits in time. But this is me, and I always have some weird idea. So let me tell you what my idea about the movie Containment is.
I believe that Containment was contemplating an experiment to see how far they could push the people that lived within the towers. It was as if they were researching an anthropological case on the psychosis of modern man – the beast within us all. You have to admit, it’s a little bit interesting…and alarming all at once. First off, ask yourself this question… was the illness even a thing? I personally think it was a well orchestrated plan. The “illness” was doctored in some way to justify the action. We saw only one person or two people cough and show any real sign of illness, this is evidence in and of itself. The “dead” we saw were indeed fake. I would assume the Orange Men could have hunted them. It could just be that because we see so little action, there is actually nothing going on.
Are you recalling the dialogue we have with Enid? She was in Terry Giliam’s movie Brazil was she not? Oh well, you are welcome for that amazing trivia. I bet it was bugging you just like it was for me! Hahaha! Was it on the roof? The one where she discusses how in a different era they would have behaved well. They would have undergone this containment with a resolve and a stiff upper lip that is absent today. That the people today were mad, and had an utter disregard for other people? Remember that? It was a note to self.
The main point I want to emphasize is that ‘the doors and windows were locked in a manner that was preposterous.” If you pay enough attention to what I said, I had counted the windows and levels in regards to each apartment building. I would estimate four hundred apartment buildings in total across the four buildings. So, now I ask you, how is it real that, all these buildings combined together result in upwards of 720 doors? 720 doors to epoxy. 720 * 5 windows. To seal shut. 3, 4 thousand? While everyone is sleeping? That seems like quite the issue trying to coordinate so many people. And that’s not even the current level of takedown. You need a crew positioned at every single floor ready. And simultaneously at that. Even then all of that is provided. That is if has to goes in the latters. You need the resources to sound the alarm while also not getting caught. In Which case you would need dodgy split division to take Point along with hundreds of Orange Men that are placed at unaccounted corners waiting for withing chopping triggers go set off.
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