Summary

• Edge-of-your-seat action & drama in "The Wages of Fear" - refugees grappling with perilous missions and intense betrayals.
• Explosive sequences and complex character dynamics keep viewers guessing until the very end - a thrilling ride.
• A tense, suspenseful story full of twists and turns - a modern day remake that lives up to the hype.

Having directed other French Netflix exclusives like 2021’s Ganglands and 2020’s Earth and Blood, director Julien Leclercq has once again arrived on the streaming platform with a feature that is sure to satisfy those in the action genre. Titled The Wages of Fear (or Le salaire de la peur), this is actually a modern-day remake of a 1953 thriller of the same name which sold over six million tickets in France. The original also won numerous awards, like the Best Film at the 8th British Academy Film Awards and the Golden Bear (an accolade of the highest degree) at the 3rd Berlin International Film Festival. With both financial wins and positive reviews under its belt, it’s no surprise that Leclercq’s story never derived that far away from director Henri-Georges Clouzot’s vision — both are very tense and suspenseful.

The Wages of Fear takes place in the middle of the desert. Plagued by war and the extremities of the environment, a refugee camp depends on scarce and dangerous resources like an enormous oil well. When this towering behemoth catches on fire, several strong-willed outcasts who are also a part of this small town (since they were criminals in their home country which is also going through a revolution) participate to solve this problem. The only thing is that they have to transport two hundred kilograms of explosive nitroglycerin within twenty-four hours back to the local area in order to avert the catastrophe and suppress the impending explosion. Oh, and there are dangerous militias, hidden minefields, and betrayal in their own ranks all on the way.

Will they ever make it back to save their new home? Or will they randomly combust on the way there?

Explosions at Any Moment

Led by the heroic but flawed Fred (played by Franck Gastambide), Fred’s girlfriend and doctor Clara (brought to life by Ana Girardot) as well as his brother Alex (Alban Lenoir), they are the last few to come out alive from all the dangers that come their way. Even though Fred and Alex are at each other’s throats half the time (Alex still holds resentment toward his brother for letting the cops get him), they make it all the way to the very end of this tumultuous adventure (or so we think).

Throughout the movie, the members of Fred’s posse all succumb to some sort of twisted fate. One is reduced to ashes when a cuffed security guard breaks free and accidentally knocks over a tube of nitroglycerin after attacking our cast. An innocent doctor’s aide named Djibril (Bakary Diombera) is shot after trying to distract a ruthless militia member whom they all encounter. As aforementioned, the minefield sequence takes down not one but two of their support team members (and an ATV as well, if that counts.)

The trouble does not stop there. Towards the climax of the movie, it is revealed that the oil company who this well belongs to will turn on our brave heroes. Since the initial team that this mission was assigned to were all killed while trying to make it to this isolated location, they blackmail Alex at the very last minute to commit the final deed. With Marchand (the company rep, who is played by Astrid Whettnall) holding a gun to the head of Alex’s wife and daughter, she tells him to drive one van full of the volatile chemical straight into the combustible flaming oil — this will obviously kill him in the process. With Clara standing beside Alex at this very moment, an unlikely source takes the wheel.

A Betrayal Changes Everything

Sometime before this climactic scene, there were two more to this bunch: Fred and his supposed friend Gauthier. They were in charge of one van while Alex and Clara took the other. At one point, they both seemed to get in some sort of environmental predicament, but after a little creative ingenuity, the two pairs were on their way once more. Or so we think. Greedy for the double payday, Gauthier shoots Fred as soon as he gets back in the truck and leaves him for dead. As fate would have it though, this “killing” weighs too much on Gauthier’s mind, and he ends up swerving the vehicle off a very narrow uphill path, destroying the nitroglycerin and killing himself.

Clara and Alex see this from a distance and make their way towards the crash but are motioned to the side almost immediately by a family of nomads. They come across a semi-conscious Fred who is bleeding out. Clara and Alex take Fred in their truck and make their way back to the camp where they have the fateful encounter with Marchand. Unbeknownst to the ruthless oil company representative (but with a tear in his eye), Fred musters all the strength he has, says one last goodbye to Clara and hits the gas.

The reaction first causes massive flames and smoke, but then everything becomes diffused almost instantaneously with the help of the nitroglycerin’s effects. The refugees happily and cheerfully make their way back into their homes some time later and the day is saved — but not without its fair share of sacrifices.

The Wages of Fear is now available to stream on Netflix.