Intense

Paul Greengrass and Blumhouse might seem like an odd mix, the former perhaps best known for his meticulous, sensitive docudramas, the latter most famous for low-budget, high-yield genre movies. But though it has its roots in the real world, The Lost Bus — the director’s first film since his 2020 Western News of the World — is arguably his first horror movie, made all the more frightening after the wildfires that swept California earlier this year. Based on real events, it’s a true story of heroism that took place in Northern California just six years earlier during what’s now known as the Camp David fire.

The beginnings of it are depicted in true disaster movie style, with ominous music and a collapsing electric pylon that causes a faulty cable to fall to the ground. The blaze starts small but soon catches hold, and these scenes are right up there in Greengrass’s wheelhouse. We see what looks very much like professional fire-fighters playing themselves, mapping out the path of the fire — or is several fires? — and arguing about the threat it poses. “I don’t think it’s an issue,” says one. “It should be fine.” Famous last words indeed.

It’s all theory at this point, and Greengrass incrementally introduces the reality of such a dangerous fire, and the first men to try to douse the flames soon realize they’re about to be fighting a losing battle. Going into the wildfire is a like a portal into another world; aside from the vicious heat, a constant rain of sparks flies through the smoke-choked air, and not only is hard to see, it’s hard to breathe. All of this is rendered with stunning ease by his VFX team, in scenes that look like a news bulletin from the apocalypse. In this sense, the film has two locations: the sleepy, sunshine town of Paradise and the fiery hellscape of Dante’s Inferno. The effect is jarring, giving the effect of night and day (indeed, it takes a while to realise that all of this happening simultaneously).

Paradise is where we meet Kevin McCay (Matthew McConaughey), a single father who has returned to his hometown from Reno after his father’s death. Kevin has started work as a bus driver but finds himself at the end of the list when shifts are handed out. This is why, as the fire is just about to spin out of control, he agrees to pick up 23 children stranded at Ponderosa Elementary School, plus their teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera). The fire has knocked out the bus’s comms and tracking system — hence the film’s title — leaving Kevin to battle the elements using only his and Mary’s intuition and common sense.

McConaughey starts out in usual mode; this could be his character from Mud with a few extra dollars in his pocket. He lives in a tumbledown comfort with a sick dog, his ailing mother and his son Shaun (Levi McConaughey). His relationship with Shaun is fraught, to say the least. As we see in an early scene, Kevin’s attempts to be a dad are lacklustre at best, and it ends with Shaun shouting, “I f*cking hate you. I wish you were dead.” These words are still ringing in Kevin’s ears when the disaster strikes, and the blaze takes on a more personal significance, a metaphor for Kevin’s mental state as he enters purgatory.

As with all Greengrass’s films, though, this is a film about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, which is no doubt what drew him to Brad Ingelby’s very human script. Once the chips are down, though, McConaughey effortlessly switches up to action mode, and the film starts to resemble a fever dream of Speed. Alongside him, the scared but somehow quietly reassuring presence of America Ferrera leavens the potential for cliched action-hero theatrics by giving the film a rare but for once very real sense of peril. The same goes for Ashlie Atkinson as bus controller Ruby, whose very human guilt is palpable throughout.

That we know, or can safely assume, that the story worked out well for the kids does take away some of the intensity, as does the film’s determination to make this film a moral journey and not just an experiential thrill ride. Nevertheless, it’s a trip in more than one sense of the word, and yet another streaming release this year that demands to be seen on the big screen.

Title: The Lost Bus
Festival: Toronto (Special Presentations)
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriters: Paul Greengrass and Brad Ingelsby
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vazquez, Ashlie Atkinson, Spencer Watson
Distributor: Apple TV+
Running time: 2 hr 9 mins