Yesterday my husband and I, rented the movie Unthinkable from one of the Red Box vending machines that are scattered all over town. Since watching this movie I have been pondering the main thought of the movie (warning spoiler alert) which is this. Is it wrong or "unthinkable" for our government to use necessary force, torture or even a terrorist's wife and children as means to get information? I suspect that my own conclusions may not be popular ones, but I have to ask myself honestly what is most important to me...and it is hard to choose between someone's civil liberties and that lives of many US citizens.
In this movie, Samuel L Jackson, is the character "H" who is evidently a "black-ops" interrogator who has clearance from the highest authority to obtain information regarding three nuclear bombs from a surrendered terrorist. His methods are brutal and raise questions of what is right and wrong in the name of national security and saving millions of lives.
Let me back up for a moment and get a little deeper into the storyline. It is one that I am sure our government is concerned would happen in real life. An American Muslim named Yusef has obtained nuclear materials from Russia and has made a tape in which he shows three locations. He says that there are three nuclear bombs in major cities in the US. Yusef is captured and a countdown begins, the FBI and "H" have three days to find the bombs and save these cities from destruction. "H" is told he has control over how much torture and how far to go for whatever means it takes to break Yusef. Yusef is determined not to break and "H" decides, in the last hour to bring in the wife and children. "H", in desperation, ends up cutting Yusef's wife's throat and then actually convinces the higher ups to let him bring the children into the torture chamber and while Yusef watches he cuts out the lights and begins to "process" the screaming children.
At this point I was on the edge of my seat. I had to ask myself, could this really happen in real life? Would our government use someone's children against them to save the lives of thousands of other children and adults? Is it ok to do that? Would I stop this from happening if I were in a position where I could. Then I shuddered as I started thinking about my own kids and my family.
The answer in the end is very disturbing. I was left with a feeling that YES, they needed to allow H to use the children against the terrorist Yusef, because there was information that could have saved thousands of lives maybe millions. Let me point out that this was my feeling, not that it is the right or wrong answer here. I don't even know He didn't end up hurting the children, but you didn't know they wouldn't and that was the point. However, they made a grave error in thinking that they got the answers they needed by using the children. Perhaps they didn't go far enough - I was left with that too.
So what is your opinion?
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