Those Who Wish Me Dead Is a Flash-in-the-Pan Thriller

Those Who Wish Me Dead is the type of action thriller that most likely was sold on one scene. Just picturing Angelina Jolie in a movie where she gets to play a bruised-arm action hero fending off assassins from murdering a boy while doing battle in a flaming forest is just too tantalizing a sight to pass up. But while there’s great anticipation for this moment, the rest of the film really feels as though it’s struggling to achieve its crescendo.

Angelina Jolie as Hannah in Those Who Wish Me Dead. Emerson Miller/Warner Bros. Pictures Entertainment

The film is in such a rush and has such a thirst for the action that it throws in a lot of familiar thriller templates and does little to change the formula or even fill in the blanks. Jolie plays Hannah, a former Montana smokejumper who finds herself unable to put behind the tragedies of the past. She can’t stop dreaming about that one forest fire where she couldn’t save everyone, watching as people burned while she was unable to help. Trying to cope with the pain, she masks her sorrow in beers and wild stunts amid her fellow smokejumpers. Anything to make the nightmare cease.

Meanwhile, Connor (Finn Little) is a kid who finds himself on the run with his father, Owen (Jake Weber), an accountant who has discovered a truth that’s led to hitmen pursuing him—specifically, the father-and-son duo of Jack Blackwell (Aidan Gillen) and his son Patrick (Nicholas Hoult). As Connor makes a mad dash for help, Jack and Patrick kill anyone who may stand in their way. Though Connor eventually finds Hannah, he only happens upon her after she’s already been battered and bruised by a storm that ravages her tower.

These characters mostly fulfill the standard archetypes of the thriller. Hannah is haunted by her past but places her fears aside when it comes to defending a kid from being targeted. Connor doesn’t have much to do aside from snivel and sneer whenever the story requires some innocence, so stock that even Connor’s father doesn’t fully reveal the MacGuffin that’s caused them to be targeted. There could’ve been an interesting dynamic between Jack and Patrick, considering Jack is openly disgusted with the wilderness while Patrick looks on in questioning silence. There could’ve been an interesting contrast between their relationship and the one between Connor and his father. No such arc occurs, however, and Hoult merely steps up to the plate when the climax needs a tough and violent villain for Jolie to best.

Nicholas Hoult as Patrick. Emerson Miller/Warner Bros. Pictures Entertainment

The two most interesting characters in this whole piece, by far, are Sheriff Ethan Sawyer (Joe Bernthal) and his pregnant wife, Allison (Medina Senghore). Living out in the wilderness, they’re strong enough to not only take care of themselves but handle any intense situation that comes their way. I love the way they act throughout the story, encountering the hitmen as though this is not the first time they’ve been in this situation.

While it’s particularly rousing to watch Ethan call out the cliché of a hitman claiming they won’t kill their target if he helps them, Allison steals much of the show for combating the violent aggressors while pregnant. In one scene, she lights them on fire and shoots a hunting rifle toward them before making an escape. Later, she pursues them with the rifle while on horseback. That’s not exactly something I expected to see in such a movie, and I’m more than pleased that she’s portrayed as just as strong as Hannah.

Those Who Wish Me Dead is designed to be a simple thriller that thankfully delivers on the grit and intensity. While built with familiar gears, they’re greased up and shaved down just enough that it didn’t bother me so much that Hannah’s story is simplified and Connor’s dangerous knowledge is never verbalized. What it lacks in writing the movie makes up for Jolie’s displays of humanity and fury. The film comes about as advertised, with the highlight being Jolie kicking butt amid blazing carnage. It’s a great scene that makes the movie worthy of being a thrilling distraction, even if it’s built upon old and rickety thriller templates. I enjoyed it, but I doubt it’ll hold up over time as anything more than the Angelina Jolie forest-fire thriller.

Emerson Miller/Warner Bros. Pictures Entertainment