Unlocked (2017)

Plot of Unlocked: Alice Racine is a CIA agent with a past, working for a charity in east London where she mainly deals with people of Islamic faith, and passes any tips on to her handlers back in Langley. She also has an association with MI5 chief Emily Knowles. When a possible plot is uncovered, she is activated by the European Bureau chief to interrogate a messenger, but she finds that it is a scam and that she and the messenger face death unless they escape.  The messenger is killed and Alice is propelled into a maelstrom of misfortune, sometimes helped and sometimes not by her former boss, Lasch, a renegade soldier, Alcott and the MI5 chief Knowles. Meanwhile a biological weapon has been primed at an American football match in Wembley stadium, which, if it goes off, will cause worldwide casualties due to an Embola-like virus.

Content: No sex or nudity, nor I don’t think, any smoking or drinking or drug taking. There are scenes in the MI5 office, the CIA office and other temporary facilities, the Islamic plot seems to be based in the back room of a Moroccan restaurant. Alice seems to be mostly on the run, being chased by traitorous members of the police, the CIA and MI5, and as a result there are a number of fire fights as she defends herself and anyone who even temporarily is on her side.

A View: This outing went through development hell, starting in 2010 when it was optioned by Warner Brothers, and even though it was completed in 2015 its release was delayed for two years. Not a good sign. Said by one critic to be  ‘bogged down in genre clichés and a predictable plot’. For much of the time I had no idea why things were happening, and even reading the plot summary did not help much, but Toni Collette must have been pleased with her very cool haircut. So maybe a watch if you are a hairdresser. If you are a Noomi Rapace fan try the Lisbeth Salander films instead.

Fun Fact: Rapace had her nose broken during one of the fight scenes. She probably cursed in one of the languages in which she is fluent: Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish or English.