This psychological thriller is about an American Muslim man, Younger, who claims to have nuclear bombs planted in three U.S. cities

Agent Brody leads a team in the Counter Terrorist Unit, and is surprised one morning to find news channels reporting that one of the men on their watch list is wanted for questioning. She speaks to her supervisor, Assistant Director Jack Saunders, who is being very secretive, but he asks her to pull out all the stops and to follow up every single lead that they have.

One of her team decides to approach a suspect who was in one of the files passed to them by the NSA, a guy known as ‘H’. Two agents approach the house where H is inside with his wife and children. When the FBI agents ring the door bell, H picks up the phone and contacts Charlie Thompson. He is angry there are agents at his door and insists that Thompson deal with it. Thompson immediately gets on the phone, and calls Agent Brody. He insists on the highest authority that she instruct her team to stand down and not to approach this man. It appears the file was sent in error. When the agents cannot be contacted, a second team is sent to recover them. They arrive to find H has neutralized them both by taping them to chairs but allows himself to be taken in.

While Brody is questioning H, Saunders interrupts her and insists he is released into the custody of Thompson. H is very smug, and Brody does not like his attitude. H and Thompson leave, but Saunders instructs her to take her team to a secure location.

The team arrive at what looks like an abandoned high school. They are met by a General Paulson. Shortly after their arrival, H also appears accompanied by his handler Thompson. In a briefing, Paulson tells the FBI that their role is to try and locate 3 nuclear bombs that have been placed around the US by the same suspect that was on the news channels that morning, Steven Arthur Younger, and are set to detonate in a few days. A video of Younger, now known as Yusuf, is played showing him with the 3 devices. When one of the team asks if there is a chance this is a hoax, the General explains that Younger is ex-military. He served in Iraq and he has explosives training. They had also received reports of some nuclear material being stolen. Brody insists that their priority should be to find Younger and get him to reveal the location of the bombs. H interrupts her to say that they must already have him, otherwise he wouldn’t be there.

Brody and H are taken into a large hall that has a smaller secure interrogation room with a large one way mirror. In the interrogation room, a man is sat with a hood over his head while a soldier sprays him.

H marches into the room and proceeds to beat up the soldier. When dragged off, H claims that the usual methods of coercion won’t work on this guy. He is given permission to do it his way and starts off by strapping Yusuf’s arm to a table, and cutting off the ends of his fingers. Brody immediately objects to H’s methods and when she insists that Paulson stop this, he replies that H has been given authority to do whatever it takes to discover the bombs location.

As the torture progresses, H tells Brody that he is willing to do the unthinkable if Yusuf does not cooperate. Brody tries to reason with Yusuf, and asks him for a location of one of the bombs. Yusuf gives her an address.When the team arrive, the are lead to the roof of the building, where a photo of Yusuf is taped to the wall. The removal of the photo by one of the bomb squad triggers the detonation of a large explosive device in a nearby shopping mall, killing 53 people. From the roof of the building, the team have a perfect view of the devastation.

Brody is furious, but when asked why he did this, Yusuf claims he needed to prove he was serious, and that also it gave him a break. He now felt that he was able to last out the torture. Yusuf’s wife, Jehan, and children are brought in. Jehan claims that she knows nothing about any bombs and does not believe her husband could have done this. In Yusuf’s presence, H threatens to torture Jehan, but still Yusuf refuses to cooperate. Brody and the military try and put a stop to it, but H slashes her throat and she bleeds to death in front of her husband.

Time is running out and H demands that the two children, a girl and a boy, are brought in. Brody protests against this most strongly but she is overruled by a governmental observer who seems to have authority even over the military. H assures those watching that he will not actually harm the children. The children are taken in, and H starts shouting and threaten to torture them. Yusuf reveals the 3 locations, but yet H continues his threats on the children insisting that he is lying. The children are taken out of the secure room but H demands they are brought in as he insists there has to be a fourth bomb. Despite everyone else seeming keen to comply, Brody stands her ground and refuses to bring the children back. In desperation, H drags Yusuf out of the interrogation room into the main hall. H unties Yusuf and tells him he is a free man, as he believes that there is a fourth bomb that will kill them all anyway. Yusuf however, manages to obtain a gun, and shoots himself in the head.

The film ends with bomb squads finding the 3 devices and deactivating them. However, there is an alternate ending, where in one of the locations, the camera pans to a 4th bomb that has been hidden and as the officers are celebrating the deactivation of the main device you watch the counter count down to zero.

• The Filmstage.com – “Sheen brings an unflinching and frightening performance as Younger”
• The Critical Critics – “Michael Sheen is the pick of the actors here.”
• Movie Film Review – Michael Sheen proves his versatility playing a torture victim

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Unthinkable [Blu-ray] 2010