The wages of fearaction thriller…
For his new film The wages of fear, Julien Leclercq was freely inspired by Georges Arnaud’s novel, published in 1950 and already adapted twice for cinema. A first time in 1953 by Henri Georges-Clouzot with The wages of fearand a second time in 1977 by William Friedkin with The convoy of fear. In the new film, broadcast on Netflix, Julien Leclercq takes up the basic idea, a convoy of nitroglycerin trucks through an extremely dangerous path.
This time it involves transporting these explosives across the desert of an unspecified country which resembles a territory in North Africa, to put out the fire in a gas pocket and avoid a terrible catastrophe.
The characters in this Wages of fear 2024 version are original characters, and have no connection with the characters of the novel nor with those of the first two films. In fact, each of the four conductors, Fred (Franck Gastambide) the bodyguard, the humanitarian manager Clear (Ana Girardot), the pyrotechnician Alex (Alban Lenoir) – who is Fred’s brother – and the mercenary Gauthier (Sofiane Zermani) everyone has their own reasons for taking part in this suicide mission.
…and family tragedy
After many explosive adventures, only one truck reaches its destination. But the three drivers still alive, Clara, Alex and Fred, have not yet served their sentences. In reality Anne Marchand, the sponsor of the mission, hired by the company that exploits the region’s gas, lied. No training team is en route to put out the fire and she orders, with guns trained on Alex’s wife and daughter, to racing with the truck on the gas well to turn it off, before it explodes and razes the refugee camp to the ground.
At this time, although wounded, Fred shoots Anne Marchand and her henchman from the cab of the truck. His brother’s family is saved from this immediate danger, but the fire remains to be put out. Then he gets behind the wheel and, despite the pleas of Clara with whom he has a romantic relationship, he drives off and rushes into the fire. In a last heroic gesturehe therefore sacrifices himself and gives his own life to spare that of his loved ones and the many inhabitants of the townshipsaved from the explosion caused by the nitroglycerin in the truck.
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Fred’s debt
Because Fred, with whom Franck Gastambide delivers his tragic first performance, did he sacrifice himself in this way? In fact, against this altruistic decision, evidence of nobility of spirit, one could argue that he could have thrown the truck and jumped out before the explosion. But Julien Leclercq and Hamid Hlioua, in the script, wrote a decidedly tragic arc for this character.
This tragic character arc is actually much more than the dangerous nitroglycerin convoy a truly dramatic issue From The wages of fear. In fact, in the first part of the film, alternating past and present, we discover that, several months before this mission, Fred, determined to rob one of his clients, called his brother Alex to open a safe. At first reluctant, Alex, husband and father of a little girl – and who together with Clara is the most “moral” character in this story – ends up accepting.
Removes guilt and cowardice
However, nothing goes as planned. Alex is arrested in action and imprisoned. Fred is also guilty of having involved him in this failed theft cowardice, witnessing his brother’s arrest and not intervening. Now living with Clara, along with Alex’s wife and daughter, in the refugee camp above the burning gas pocket, Fred feels deeply guilty.
So when he accepts Anne Marchand’s proposal to transport nitroglycerin, it’s not so much for the money as for get your brother out of prison. Which Anne Marchand offers him, explaining that Alex’s pyrotechnic skills will be very useful to the mission. When the two brothers meet for this, Alex is very angry with his brother and hits him without warning.
A little later inside The wages of fear, their convoy enters a mined road. They both went to clear the path, Fred stepped on a mine. He tells Alex to abandon him, but he refuses. Alex then takes Fred’s hands to try to jump with him as far away from the mine as possible, ready to sacrifice himself to save his brother, or die with him.
Fortunately for them, the mine did not explode. What’s interesting here is that it’s not the action that creates this sequence The wages of fear, but the fact that Alex is willing to sacrifice himself for Fred. Exactly what Fred was unable to do itnine months earlier, during Alex’s arrest.
The wages of fear: this touching detail of Franck Gastambide’s character
Hero, finally
Seriously injured by Gauthier who wanted to go it alone and collect all the “wages of fear” – before the latter died when his truck went off the road – Fred perhaps thinks he will not survive the wound. But above all he knows that he has seriously disappointed his brother and that he will never do so his values ​​and his moral strength. Then it seems to him that, to redeem himself, he must save them allgiving back a hundred times what his brother showed him during the Minefield episode.
With this almost Christlike ending, this redemption through the sacrifice of his life, the journey of Franck Gastambide’s character thus reveals the true drama of the film. The wages of fear live inside his intimate conflict and this family tragedy. The intention was certainly to combine the physical qualities of Alban Lenoir and Franck Gastambide a great action show. But we can praise Julien Leclercq and his co-writer for having had the excellent idea of ​​giving them this interesting dramatic dimension as well.
Source: Cine Serie
Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.
