- Directed by Greg McLean
- Written by Greg McLean
- Stars Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, Nathan Phillips
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S13W69FQhs
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The casting of Mick is perfect, John Jarratt really looks and sounds the part. The other cast are fine as well. The story doesn’t have a lot of surprises, but it’s gritty and realistic. It flowed well and entertained overall.
Synopsis
We are told that 30,000 people go missing in Australia every year. Ninety percent are found within a month; the rest are never seen again.
We cut to a guy buying a used car. A couple of girls talk about him, as they’re planning a road trip to Wolf Creek with him soon. Liz, Kristy, and Ben go out for drinks before leaving in the morning. They head off in the morning through the endless Australian desert as credits roll.
They’re all having a great time, and then Ben starts talking about UFO sightings; there are a lot of them in this area. They eventually come to Emu Creek, a last-chance-gas-station kind of place. Some of the locals, including a guy named Bazza, admire the girls inside. They’re all rude to Ben, who doesn’t appreciate it.
They finally come to the Wolf Creek Crater walking trail. It’s a huge meteorite crater, miles across. They all notice that their watches have stopped; must be magnetism or something. They all finish up and get back into the car, but the engine is dead. Could that be related to the watches? To the UFO stories?
They end up trying to sleep in the car. Eventually, a man in a big truck arrives. Mick looks at their engine, but he can’t fix it. They all think he’s funny, like Crocodile Dundee. He offers to tow them to his place for the night and fix it in the morning. They agree to his offer and Mick tows them to his place, way out in the middle of nowhere.
They stop at an old mining camp where Mick is staying. They all sit around a campfire as Mick talks about killing animals for a living. Ben makes a “Crocodile Dundee” joke, but Mick doesn’t seem to get it. He laughs, and it’s not quite clear what he’s laughing at– he’s very Aussie. They all turn in for the night.
Liz wakes up tied in a room. She finds some broken glass and gets to work on her zip-ties. She gets free and investigates outside– Mick has completely disassembled their car’s engine. She hears Mick inside the building, torturing Kristy.
Liz starts a fire as a distraction and rushes inside to free Kristy. She hides as Mick comes back inside and pulls a gun on the man. He yells, and she shoots him. She doesn’t know how to reload the gun, so she just whacks him on the head a few times before releasing Kristy. They plan to take Mick’s truck, but he has the keys in his pocket.
Mick’s not dead. He comes out with a shotgun, and they try to ram him before driving away. They don’t really know where they are or where they’re going, but they do get away in the truck. They stop at the edge of a cliff and push the truck over the side, hoping that Mick will think they died.
Mick drives up in another car and sees the truck far below. Liz runs back to the camp to look for more cars or maybe Ben. She finds many newspaper clippings about missing people in the area– Mick has done this many times before. She also finds and loads a gun. She finds a whole pit full of bones and a garage full of cars.
She finally gets in a car and starts it, but then Mick stabs her from behind. Turns out Mick did understand the Crocodile Dundee “This is a knife” reference. He then severs her spine so she can’t even try to escape again.
The sun comes up, and Kristy goes looking for Liz. She makes it to a run and starts running. She flags down a passing car driven by an old man. A shot rings out, and the old man falls over dead. Mick did brag about being a sharpshooter! Before long, he shoots her as well. Mick then loads the bodies in the trunk of the car and sets it afire.
Meanwhile, Ben wakes up tied somewhere with barking dogs, and there’s a very dead guy tied up nearby. He gets loose and starts walking through the desert. Eventually, some German tourists find him and pick him up. They take him to town, where he’s loaded onto a plane and flown to a hospital. He’s later arrested for the murder of the two girls. Four months later, he was cleared, but in the meantime, Mick got away.
Commentary
It starts out hinting that it’s going to be a UFO story, but then it goes a whole different direction.
Mick has a hilarious evil-villain laugh. More of a nervous giggle, actually, but it’s perfect! Mick’s character is fifty percent evil Aussie and fifty percent that laugh.
It’s very dirty, gritty, and intense once the action starts. You expect one of the young women to survive, but no– Mick is very good at what he does, and he’s a lot of fun to watch doing it. Ben survives because Mick allowed it.
If you like kidnap/torture stories, this really is one of the best.