Fort Greely has fallen. And because of that, America is suddenly much closer to collapsing.
You see, there are only two early warning stations capable of shooting down nuclear missiles in the entire United States. Fort Greely, Alaska, was one of them. That’s especially bad news, because rogue terrorists have stolen 16 nuclear missiles from Russia and are threatening to launch each at various major U.S. cities.
The only thing stopping them? SBX-1, a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean that now stands as the only remaining anti-ballistic warning station left for the United States. If it falls, the terrorists will launch the missiles, and in less than half an hour, more than 300 million Americans will be killed.
On the terrorists’ side, they’ve got a group of highly trained and extremely motivated mercenaries who will do whatever it takes to destroy SBX-1’s defenses. On America’s side, they’ve got Captain JJ Collins, the only combat-ready person left on SBX-1. What’s more, she’s a seasoned Army soldier whose father instilled one principle within her: “Never stop fighting.”
Sure, the odds aren’t in JJ’s favor—or America’s for that matter. But with millions of lives on the line and a Navy SEAL team en route, JJ will do anything to stop the terrorists trying to burst through the front door.
The obvious positive in this flick is that JJ desperately fights to protect the millions of Americans whose lives are in danger from the terrorists who’ve seized. No matter the challenges and personal sacrifices, she continues to protect SBX-1 from being overrun.
That’s especially poignant because of JJ’s past. Though the military severely mistreated JJ (in events that will be explained in our Violent Content section), she refuses to join forces with the terrorists when they ask her why she continues to help the U.S.—even when the terrorists offer her $30 million. It’s apparent that JJ recognizes that neither America nor its military are perfect, but that doesn’t mean she destroys it—rather, she fights to make it better.
Her only other ally, Rahul, also helps in the fight against the terrorists. Though he can’t fire a gun or throw a punch, he bravely provides his own contributions in order to prevent the capture of SBX-1’s control room, such that the terrorists comment that they didn’t think he would do that since their intelligence on him said he would buckle under the pressure.
Rahul is Hindu. Alexander asks if Rahul has ever been mocked or mistreated for his faith.
A photo of JJ shows her wearing a shirt that partially exposes the bottom of her breasts. A man touches JJ’s covered rear in a flashback, to her visible distress. JJ partially unbuttons her shirt to reveal a wire, and her bra is somewhat visible.
A man says that a poker game will include “locker room talk.” Spray-painted graffiti references a particular sexual function. Rahul makes a lewd joke about the size of Alexander’s genitals.
The primary concern in Interceptor is violence—and not just the ominous threat of nuclear annihilation. Many people are gruesomely shot, stabbed, punched and more. We see many dead bodies, and wounded characters leak seemingly gallons of blood. Perhaps the most disturbing violent scenes involve the unique ways people die in the film. At times, it feels as if the director was intentionally dreaming up an audition tape to be the next director of a Saw movie.
For instance, a man’s arm is burned with steam, and he is killed by having the barrel of a gun forced into his eye. Alexander, the leader of the terrorist group, executes a man with a gunshot to the head, and he uses the blood splatter to draw a frowny face. He mentions that he used nerve gas and bullets to kill everyone else on SBX-1. A woman gets stabbed in the neck with a sharp trophy, choked with insulation foam sprayed into her mouth and finally gruesomely shot to death. Another character is decapitated onscreen after he is hanged by razor wire wrapped around his neck. A man’s finger is cut off. Knives and shotgun blasts claim people’s lives as well.
Three years prior to the events of the movie, JJ took a job serving a general at the Pentagon. During this stint, we hear that JJ was sexually assaulted (though to what extent is never made entirely clear) by the general. She used a hidden recording device to prove his misdeeds, getting him discharged. However, this also resulted in many people sending JJ death threats and performing a “bounty hunt” for lewd photos of her. This culminated in her home being graffitied and wrecked—causing her to attempt suicide.
One terrorist threatens to rape JJ. Elsewhere, she dislocates her thumbs to escape a zip tie.
The f-word is used some 17 times or so and is once preceded by “mother.” The s-word is heard 15 times, and “h—” is used eight times. “A–” and “b–ch” are both prominently used both vocally and written out (and the former is said once in Spanish). “D–n,” “whore,” “slut,” “ho,” “b–tard” and “p-ss” are also all used. God’s name is misused nine times—and four of those are paired with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is misused twice. Someone is called a “crackpot,” and another is called a “moron.” We hear a crude reference to the male anatomy, too.
A general pours alcohol for himself and JJ. Empty pill bottles are visible when JJ attempts suicide.
A terrorist says his life was ruined because of immigrants coming to America.
After the fall of Fort Greely, America’s anti-ballistic station SBX-1 is the only one left capable of preventing nuclear missiles from striking American soil. But for families looking for a fun action thriller, that danger will be the least of their concerns.
The violence in Interceptor instead takes place primarily atop SBX-1, the seaborne missile-intercepting platform. And if terrorists are willing to murder millions upon millions with nuclear weapons, they’re certainly not afraid to do whatever it takes to the personnel stationed to protect and work within the only place that could stop them—whether that be through bullets, knives or nerve gas.
The same sentiment is true for JJ, the only combat-ready soldier left to defend the base: She’ll do whatever it takes to keep the terrorists at bay. And with much less at her disposal, her violent dispatch of her enemies will feel more like Saw meets Home Alone: violently inventive and improvised.
The terrorists themselves take on an aura reminiscent of the villains in Star Wars’ First Order. They’re definitely a threat and are willing to decimate a portion of a planet, but they’re also a bit goofy. They’ll mercilessly gun down anyone in their way, but they’ll also pose as a group when they blowtorch a door down.
Their motives are flimsy at best. One terrorist wants to blow up 16 whole American cities because “immigrants took his job,” and he wants money. Alexander, the leader of the terrorist group, wants to nuke America because he feels the rich (including his own father) have become too powerful, and so he wants to start America over—and at times, he’s as if someone looked at The Office’s Andy Bernard and wondered what the character would be like as a terrorist.
To put it all simply, Interceptor is a violent, cheesy, geopolitical thriller with action scenes will leave the camera and the characters soaked in blood. Add large amounts of swearing and occasional sexual content to that, and parents may want to consider whether or not they want to intercept this movie.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
