The exploitation of human lives in the armed forces is as topical a problem as is reckless, rampant usage of private militia by the government, oligarchs, and conglomerates to do their dirty deeds—and trying to combine these two issues, director Patrick Lussier initially seemed to be on to something with his latest action thriller, Aftermath. However, having an interesting premise doesn’t really guarantee that the narrative is going to be engaging as well, as seems to be the case with Aftermath, as the movie fails to get viewers remotely interested about the characters or the story itself. Poor characterization, a crisis that makes less sense the more the situation escalates, a generic lead, and a bad guy who is so over the top that it’s borderline funny—the movie has almost nothing positive going for it. Aside from a couple of decently choreographed action sequences, there is not much Aftermath offers its viewers, even to the ones who aren’t expecting much from an action B movie.Â
Spoilers Ahead
What Did James Roken Demand From The Pentagon?
Afghan war veteran Eric Daniels has reunited with his family after a long time and is taking his sister, Maddie, to the movies—when the duo find themselves in a tight spot while crossing Tobin Bridge, as a bunch of former private military acting as insurrectionists take control of part of Tobin Bridge by destroying its road connection on each side resulting in the trapped people becoming their hostages. The chief of the insurrectionists, the dreaded Captain James Roken, wants to capture a certain Samantha ‘Doc’ Brown, a prisoner who is being transferred, and the prison van has been strategically isolated along with the rest of the vehicles stuck in the bridge. Samantha used to be a former Staff Sergeant in the United States Army, who had put Roken and his private militia buddies of the Retcon 13 squad under government contract. However, as Roken and his team’s violent streak resulted in the loss of a significant number of civilian lives, Samantha had decided to expose their actions, resulting in Roken’s unit getting sentenced to imprisonment in a black site for war crimes. However, Roken, who escaped custody with a number of his followers, maintains that they were following orders and have been betrayed by their employers after they became a liability to them, which is why Roken has taken civilians on the bridge hostage to force the higher-ups in the Pentagon to fulfill his demands—freeing him captive comrades—and making the Shattered Dove Initiative public.
What Was The Shattered Dove Initiative?
The Shattered Dove Initiative was a protocol that officially sanctioned Retcon 13 to take extreme measures, such as taking the lives of civilians to secure their missions. Samantha, who was aware of this, decided to turn on Roven’s team anyway in exchange for plea bargaining for herself in order to save her skin. Roken’s team was indeed thrown under the bus by the government, and their incarceration was unjustified in this context. His comrades were decorated war heroes who were not only neglected by the government but were also treated as an expendable suicide squad to do their dirty deeds for them. To force the people in power to confess to their sins through Samantha, Roken decided to orchestrate such a massive-scale terrorist plan and took the people stuck in Tobin Bridge hostage. However, that doesn’t mean that Roken was a saint by any means; as revealed by Samantha, he had abused his powers and taken too many civilian lives, even outside the scope of his missions. After being diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor, Roken became even more desperate and made it his mission to make the ones who were responsible for the misery of his comrades pay. Eric streamed the harrowing events online to make viewers aware of the despicable means the government was willing to resort to in order to serve its own interests.
How Could Eric Relate To Roken’s Plight?
Eric’s troubling past made him somewhat familiar with the dysfunctional power dynamics at work in the armed forces, as he himself was dishonorably discharged after going against the command of his superior to save a girl’s life during his mission overseas, who was of the same age as his own sister, Maddie. Eric tried to save the poor girl, who was trying to escape the clutches of the warlord she was forced to marry, but had to look on helplessly as she was gunned down. The severe trauma gave major PTSD to Eric, who lost his sense of purpose and could see the truth as it is. He no longer considered himself a hero and instead suffered from a crippling sense of self-doubt.
Eric wanted to save Maddie first, as after taking down a number of Roken’s followers by disguising himself as one of them, he tried to take Maddie to safety, prioritizing her life, as Eric feared he wouldn’t be able to save his sister just like he failed to save the girl during his mission. However, Maddie helped her brother to get a grip over his fears and doubts and implored him to prioritize saving everyone who was in peril after the duo saw the entire bridge was set to blow. With the help of one of the elder Vietnam vets, Joe Kozak, who was stranded on the bridge as well, Eric managed to disarm all the bombs one by one. However, Kozak was killed by Roken’s men, and Maddie, whom Eric had entrusted to Ozzie, another stranded passenger on the bridge, got captured by Roken’s followers as well.
Samantha, who managed to escape from Roken’s men initially, was captured once again. It is revealed much later that she was detained for misdemeanors and was charged with severe sentence, as during her incarceration, she’d rescued a young girl inmate by killing a bunch of gangbangers. Roken became aware of Eric’s presence ever since he was taking out his followers one by one but failed to capture him so far. Now with Maddie as his captive, Roken had the upper hand as he forced Eric to surrender himself in exchange for Maddie’s life.
Was Eric Able To Save the Tobin Bridge Hostages?
Much to Eric’s surprise, Roken revealed that he had contingency plans at his disposal, as he’d carried C4 explosives in the van he and his comrades arrived in, and even though Eric has been able to disarm the bombs laced throughout the bridge, there is no way he can stop this one, which is attached to Roken with a dead man’s switch. Observing the present events, the Pentagon eventually shared the truth of the Shattered Dove initiative, and Roken coerced Samantha to read the statement verbatim as he streamed the events online, exposing the truth to the world.
However, in the midst of all this, Eric managed to stall Roken by speaking his piece in front of the camera and stalled him long enough to allow Ozzie to create a car explosion (as Eric planned with him), which thinned Roken’s forces as they went to check up on the situation. This allowed Eric and Samantha to quickly take control over the situation, as they killed what remained of Eric’s men, but the problem with Roken’s dead man’s switch still persisted, as he threatened to blow the bridge with all the people stranded on it. Roken’s extraction arrived in a speedboat under the bridge, and as he made his way towards it, Eric moved out of his line of sight, and he directed the vehicle carrying the bomb off the bridge. Roken, who had already activated the bomb, was caught in the explosion as the falling vehicle was set ablaze after detonation, and the strange hostages survived thanks to the combined efforts of Eric and Samantha.
As the movie comes to an end, Eric and Maddie are seen to have arrived to receive Samantha, who gets discharged from prison—possibly because of her contribution in taking down Roken and his group of ex-army turned terrorists. It is revealed that the Pentagon had released the Retcon 13 members who were put into custody, ever since the truth of the Shattered Dove file was revealed to the people. In a sense, Roken had the last laugh, as he managed to bend the system to his will, even though his approach was horrible, to say the least.
