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Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera.Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera. More
Stefano Sollima, the director of “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse,” narrates a sequence from his action thriller.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.A crashed plane is the setting for a centerpiece action sequence in the thriller “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse,” which tells the origin story of the novelist’s popular character John Clark.In the film (streaming on Amazon), the character is initially known as John Kelly and played by Michael B. Jordan. A Navy SEAL whose wife was killed by Russian assassins, Kelly is on a mission to track down the killer.While that mission is moving forward, a plane carrying Kelly and his team is shot down by the Russian Air Force and crashes into the sea. The plane breaks in half and the section carrying supplies that Kelly needs for his mission sinks deeper into the water. Narrating this scene, the director Stefano Sollima explains the many moving parts that had to come together to pull this off this elaborate set piece, following Kelly all the while through the ordeal.The filmmaker and his crew used an actual plane that could be cut into pieces and filled with water. Part of the set was built inside a rotating mechanism that would turn to keep the action unmoored.And for the part of the scene where the plane is fully submerged, Jordan trained for months to be able to hold his breath for longer intervals and carry off the underwater action.Read the “Without Remorse” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More
Aside from a few set pieces, this action film, starring Michael B. Jordan, is a surprisingly dull adaptation of Clancy’s 1993 novel.Situating the bulk of its action in 2019, “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse” updates Clancy’s 1993 novel by opening with a prologue in Aleppo, Syria, and making reference to the Russian military presence in the country. But the geopolitics and relative lack of cyber-anything otherwise date the movie to a barely post-Cold War period, while the plot mechanics grind along like holdovers from Charles Bronson’s heyday.Michael B. Jordan plays John Kelly, a Navy SEAL whose pregnant wife (Lauren London) is killed when Russian operatives invade their home, intending to terminate him. A sympathetic colleague from the SEALs (Jodie Turner-Smith) and the defense secretary (Guy Pearce) relax protocol to help Kelly get revenge, but a C.I.A. official (Jamie Bell) gets peeved, signaling to viewers that he’s secretly working for the other side — or at least that the screenwriters, Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples, need them to think that. (Either way, Bell could dial down the superciliousness.)The director, Stefano Sollima (“Sicario: Day of the Soldado”), manages the proceedings with a minimum of zest, relying on a score by Jonsi (of Sigur Ros) for ambient energy. Even the visuals are gray and indifferent, and the briefer-than-expected running time does not correspond to a brisk pace.Three set pieces — an ambush outside Dulles airport; a creatively executed hostage-taking at a prison; a plane crash — elevate the movie’s pulse, but most of “Without Remorse” is surprisingly dull, more concerned with laying franchise groundwork than with being exciting on its own terms. Jordan makes a sturdy enough action hero, but the character as portrayed doesn’t give him any contours to play.Tom Clancy’s Without RemorseRated R. The human toll of espionage. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime Video. More
