Risking the Unthinkable by Charles V. Peña

If you haven’t already, you need to rent Unthinkable on DVD (it was never a theatrical release and went straight to video in July) – it may be the best movie you’ve never heard of or seen. You’ll certainly recognize the two featured stars – Samuel L. Jackson and Carrie Anne-Moss – but the third lead actor, Michael Sheen, is lesser known (he’s the voice of the White Rabbit in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Lucian in the Underworld movies, and will have a starring role in the upcoming TRON Legacy to be released in December). The tag lines for the movie are:

* Right and wrong no longer exist
* How far would you go to make him talk?
I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t already seen it, but here’s the basic plot: A white American Muslim and former U.S. Special Forces soldier – Stephen Arthur Younger aka Yousef Abdul Mohammed played by Michael Sheen – claims to have planted three nuclear bombs in large cities of the US, threatening to kill millions. The movie centers around the interrogation to find the location of the bombs. Even though he is a U.S. citizen, Younger is held by the military at a secret facility as an enemy combatant. The FBI is brought in to assist the military (Carrie Anne-Moss plays FBI agent Helen Brody). But – with the blessing of "higher authority" – the military hands over the interrogation to a contractor, Henry Herald Humphries or "H," played by Samuel L. Jackson, who will go to any lengths to break Younger. (WARNING: Unthinkable can be disturbing and not for the squeamish – it’s brutally graphic and, even though it qualifies as a psychological thriller, virtually nothing is left to the imagination). The battle is not just to break Younger before the bombs are set to explode, but also between Brody and H over the methods being used to interrogate Younger.