If you are frustrated with something that has recently transpired in your life, and you want to get rid of that feeling, watch “Bunker.” But keep another film that you like close to you because you will need it after watching this one. You will be surprised at how it shifts your frustration from that thing to itself. The sheer nonsensical presentation of what could have been a sensible plot makes you want to take refuge in a “bunker” rather than wait for the movie to end. The conviction with which the actors play their parts is what further makes the film more ludicrous and irritating. Without any further criticism, let’s see what happens in “Bunker.”
Spoilers Ahead
‘Bunker’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
World War I is underway. A group of men led by Lieutenant Turner are in No Man’s Land fighting the Germans. His unit includes Private Segura, Private Baker, Private Gray, Private Lewis, and Lance Corporal Walker. The men find the bunker but get stuck inside due to an explosion that closes the entry point with a rain of rocks. There, they find a crucified German soldier, Kurt. They bring him down, and his wounds are attended to. Weirdly, his stares and smirks seem to indicate that he understands what the others are talking about, but he is deliberately keeping his mouth shut, pretending as if he has no idea what’s going on. He knows something but doesn’t say it.
Turner orders his unit to dig a hole through which they can get out of the bunker [how digging will help them come out of the underground bunker, we do not know], which is already low on food and water. Segura goes against Turner’s orders and uses the radio, which they found in the bunker, to call for help. The person on the other side [who, weirdly enough, sounds like Turner] tells him to keep Kurt safe as a priority but doesn’t tell him why. But Segura has other things to worry about like the men turning on each other, some of them vomiting white slime-like liquid, unusual white roots in the ground and on the walls, and the bunker’s overall foul vibe. Is there really a devilish entity with them in the bunker?
The Sense Of Nonsense
Okay, spoiler alert without any exclamation whatsoever: A demonic entity, obviously from Hell, which can exist only in conflict, is what gets inside the soldiers and turns them against one another. According to Kurt, who tells Segura about it, the entity is lifeless, deathless, damned, fallen, and all things bad. It needs a vessel to survive and exists only to consume all that’s good in a person. It is surreal and bizarre how the filmmakers incorporate a demon that turns people against each other in the middle of a world war. War is the only time when the devil doesn’t need to do that. It can just sip on a glass of iced tea, lean back on a recliner, and enjoy watching as mankind destroys itself. We do not intend to hurt anyone’s emotions, and we condemn war in all its forms, but this film calls for it. In the name of corny and clichéd horror, we get a cloud of smoke, white vomit mixed with pseudo-Prometheus squid babies, over-the-top blood squirts, and a bipedal devil. That’s about all. There is no intent to make things appear reasonable, and almost anything and everything that can happen in a bunker with trapped soldiers does happen. If you don’t find any sense in the previous sentence, it’s okay; there’s none in the film either.
The makers try to add emotional depth to the story by showing how Segura maintains a diary, a record of honor and sacrifice. We also see how the trauma of killing a person haunts Baker almost throughout the film. But all this is in vain, as the first time they show these is practically the only time we see them. Everyone dies and only Segura, Baker and Kurt are left for the climax.
‘Bunker’ Ending Explained – Do Any Of The Soldiers Survive?
Yes, only Baker survives at the end of the film. How? Segura brings him out of the bunker [Baker is taken away by his troops], thanks to a hole Segura notices in its ceiling. He then goes back in to bring out Kurt, who has already been shot by Turner. This is when he encounters the demonic entity that has been responsible for whatever the soldiers have gone through till now. He finds that Kurt is dead and from inside him has sprouted what seems to be some kind of egg that is somehow related to the entity. It looks more like the ball that we find in the Xbox symbol [only it has three hands instead of the four we see in the logo]. Segura is also almost consumed by the entity. In other words, he, too, begins to vomit white fluid. But before the entity is able to gain control of him, he comes across a trip wire and pulls it hard. This triggers an explosion that kills the entity along with him and brings the bunker down on itself. That’s it. That’s the end of the “Bunker.”
So, to answer the question in the title, the bunker isn’t haunted the way we presume it to be. It is just home to an entity from Hell that feeds on hatred, so to speak. It possesses a person and turns that person against others. It may have been chained to the spot by the Germans, who, after finding out that it had taken control of Kurt, crucified him so that the entity wouldn’t escape. It is only after Turner’s men bring Kurt down that the weird events start to occur.
“Bunker” is a ridiculous attempt at a war-horror film with a story that is stretched beyond sanity. Those who will start watching it because they love war films will be forced to stop midway because no war is addressed here. Frankly speaking, nothing is addressed in the film, and it is a hotchpotch of multiple ideas that the makers tried to connect with each other but failed miserably. The sound effects are over-the-top generic, and you know exactly what note will follow the one you just heard. We would have accepted all that happened if we had gotten more scenes from the war. If only the camera got out of the bunker and gave us a few shots of men killing each other, it could have added to the whole theme of the film, however absurd it may seem to be. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen, and the ending is the most predictable there can ever be in such a film. In conclusion, we would like to say that if you have suffered from this film, just watch “Fury” once again and you might feel better. If you haven’t watched this film, skip it and just watch “Fury.”
