Tank 432

Tank 432
Directed by	Nick Gillespie
Produced by	Finn Bruce Jennifer Handorf
Written by	Nick Gillespie
Starring	Rupert Evans Steve Garry Deirdre Mullins Michael Smiley April Pearson Tom Meeten Alex March
Music by	Lumimarja Wilenius
Cinematography	Billy J. Jackson
Edited by	Tom Longmore
Production company	Belstone Pictures
Release date	23 July 2016 (2016-07-23) (FIFF)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United Kingdom[1]
Language	English

Tank 432 is a 2016 British psychological horror film written and directed by Nick Gillespie. Gillespie had previously collaborated with Ben Wheatley, who executive produced. Rupert Evans, Deirdre Mullins, Steve Garry, Michael Smiley, April Pearson, and Gordon Kennedy, Tom Meeten, and Alex March star. Evans, Mullins, Garry, Smiley, Kennecky, Meteen portray mercenaries tasked with transporting a hostage (Pearson) and survivor (March) across a battlefield. Along the way, the mercenaries become trapped in an abandoned tank they enter as refuge against an unseen enemy. It premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival and has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 20%.

Plot

Mercenaries Reeves and Karlsson rejoin the rest of their squad – Gantz, Capper, Evans, and commanding officer Smith. Reeves reports seeing a large group of hostiles heading away from them, and Karlsson administers a shot to Capper, whose leg is badly wounded. Evans reports a farm and jeep nearby, and Smith orders them to investigate. Smith leads two hooded and bound captives in orange jumpsuits with them, to the confusion of Reeves and Karlsson. At the farm, Reeves becomes ill and vomits after seeing a mysterious orange powder. Evans, already nervous, becomes increasingly erratic, especially once he finds the jeep's engine has been sabotaged in an unseen but disgusting manner. As Karlsson sedates Evans with an injection and tends to Capper, Reeves and Gantz explore the farm.

Reeves and Gantz come upon decapitated mercenaries in a barn. As they walk by a storage area, they hear music. Inside, they find a delirious woman. When they turn off the music, she becomes panicked, and Reeves calls for Karlsson to sedate her. As enemies appear on the horizon, Smith orders them to fall back and leave Capper behind. As Capper calls out to them, Evans turns back. The others, including the prisoners and rescued woman, continue through a field until they encounter an abandoned tank. Believing themselves safer in the tank, they empty it of its cargo to take refuge. Before entering it, one of the prisoners, revealed to be a young woman, stabs Gantz, and he kills her.

While inside the tank, they hear noises from outside. Convinced they are safe for the moment, Karlsson gives them tranquilizers to help them sleep. When they try to exit the tank, they find the hatches have jammed, trapping them. Worried they are now sitting ducks, Smith orders Gantz fix the tank. Gantz finds a rotting corpse in the front of the tank; the dog tags identify him as Evans. After Gantz fails to start the tank's engine, they search for tools to assist him, finding bottles of orange powder labeled "Kratos". Annabella, the surviving prisoner, introduces herself as a teacher and explains it means "strength in power" in ancient Greek. While the others are busy, she pockets a flare gun from a toolcase.

Now equipped with tools, Gantz returns to the front of the tank, only to become frustrated by his inability to reach the engine. He reports an orange powder on the engine and soon after becomes agitated, seeing a monstrous, gasmask-looking enemy in the distance. After being calmed, he refuses to return, and Karlsson sedates him. Annabella asks if Karlsson even knows what she is administering. The mercenaries become frustrated when they realize how little they know of the situation – and even themselves; Annabella claims to know nothing but her profession. The others accuse Smith of withholding information, but he claims ignorance.

Reeves dreams of the monster Gantz saw and an argument between Smith and the others. When he wakes, the argument plays out similarly. As Reeves attempts to fix the engine, Capper appears and taunts them, refusing to open the hatch. Karlsson finds dossiers on the mercenaries that identify them as dead, and Smith expresses disbelief, saying he did not expect that many casualties. As Smith and Karlsson argue, Annabella shoots Smith with the flare gun, killing him. Karlsson and Annabella shoot each other. Before Karlsson dies, she reads through Smith's mission notes, finding that Smith has been recording the dosages of the red-tinted sedative. The rescued woman, finally wakes and discovers everyone but Reeves dead.

Reeves starts the engine. Egged on by Capper, who ingests Kratos, Reeves attempts to run over his former friend. Capper eventually trips and falls. Instead of standing, he challenges Reeves to run him over, which Reeves does. The rescued woman suddenly realizes the tank's hatch is no longer jammed, and she flees the tank. Immediately afterward, a team in gas masks and a businessman arrive. Pleased to find a survivor in the tank, the businessman orders the team to kill Reeves and restart the experiment. A voice on a loudspeaker announces the experiment is about to begin, and a soldier emerges from a white box.

Cast

• Rupert Evans as Reeves
• Deirdre Mullins as Karlsson
• Steve Garry as Gantz
• Michael Smiley as Capper
• April Pearson as Annabella, a hostage
• Gordon Kennedy as Smith
• Tom Meeten as Evans
• Alex March as the test subject

Neil Maskell makes a cameo as the voice of the announcer, and Nick Gillespie appears as the businessman.

Production

Writer-director Nick Gillespie had collaborated with executive producer Ben Wheatley on several films previously, including Kill List. Smiley had also appeared in that film. Besides Wheatley, Gillespie cited Clive Barker as an influence. Although the film was not meant to be deeply political, Gillespie used imagery reminiscent of the Abu Grahib Prison Scandal to subvert viewer expectations about the prisoners. When they are revealed to be young women, Gillespie said it is meant to signify that "something's not quite right there". Of the film's plot, Gillespie said it was designed to allow viewers to come to their own conclusions, as he found it more interesting to offer clues than direct answers.^[2]

Release

Tank 432 premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival on 23 July 2016.^[3] It was released on DVD in the UK on 22 August,^[4] and IFC Films released it to video on demand in the US on 25 November 2016.^[5]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 20% of five surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 0/10.^[6] Metacritic rated it 43/100 based on seven reviews.^[7] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it "makes the familiar mistake of confusing obscurity with tension". Scheck further described it as "an occasionally intriguing but frustratingly oblique high-concept genre exercise that mainly induces tedium, not to mention claustrophobia".^[8] Writing in Film Journal International, Maitland McDonagh called it a "claustrophobic thriller with a disappointing payoff". Commenting on the plot, McDonagh said the film delivers many bizarre twists but "plays fair" in the climax.^[9] Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times called it a "high concept tease" with an unsatisfying conclusion and plot possibly kept vague to hide its lack of originality.^[10] At the Los Angeles Times, Noel Murray called it "more tedious and confusing" than ambiguous. Murray concluded, "A few memorable shots don’t offer enough justification to watch a film that’s not scary, rarely exciting and never as engrossing a puzzle as it means to be."^[11] Chuck Wilson of The Village Voice compared the plot negatively to The Outer Limits, calling the film a "busy but tedious thriller".^[12] In rating it 3/5 stars, Drew Tinnin of Dread Central praised the cinematography and acting but said answers to the film's plot come too late and are not satisfying.^[13] In recommending it for fans of atmospheric films, Patrick Cooper of Bloody Disgusting wrote, "This bad boy is all mood and atmosphere – at times feeling like an exercise in tension and dread more than a narrative."^[3]

References

External links

• Tank 432 on IMDb