Fuze
A fizzling fuse that fails to detonate
10 Apr 2026 
Michael Walsh Director David Mackenzie has built a career on taut, high-concept thrillers that blend genre mechanics with simmering tension. His films Hell or High Water and Relay have showcased his ability to fuse character drama with propulsive stakes and his work often operates in that space between control and chaos, where plans unravel under pressure and time starts to run out. Fuze feels like a natural extension of that filmography: another pressure-cooker premise, part heist, part ticking-clock thriller, that promises both precision and volatility.
Enigmatic, energetic and escalating, Fuze grabs your attention early and refuses to let go, at least initially.
The original premise is inherently compelling: a buried World War II bomb discovered beneath London becomes the perfect cover for a carefully orchestrated heist. Chaos above ground, calculation below. It’s the kind of pulpy genre setup that feels tailor-made for tension, misdirection, and spectacle and to the film’s credit, it largely succeeds on that surface level. For much of its runtime, I was genuinely engaged. The pacing is sharp, the stakes feel immediate, and the film leans confidently into its genre beats. There’s a kinetic energy to the storytelling with twists, turns, and shifting allegiances that keeps you leaning forward, trying to stay one step ahead.
But that’s also the problem: Fuze is far more satisfying in the moment than it is in retrospect. The longer you sit with the story, the more it begins to unravel. What initially feels like a tightly constructed narrative gradually reveals itself to be something far more fragile. Plot threads don’t quite connect. Character motivations feel underdeveloped. Key decisions hinge on convenience rather than coherence. By the time the credits roll, you’re left with the uneasy sense that you’ve been swept along by momentum rather than meaning. It’s a film that hooks you early, but struggles to justify where it ultimately lands.
The cast, on paper, is excellent, but frustratingly underutilised. Theo James is easily the standout, bringing a sense of charisma and playfulness to his role. He seems to understand exactly what kind of film he’s in, leaning into the heightened tone with a performance that feels both controlled and slightly mischievous. His South African accent is surprisingly convincing, and more importantly, he looks like he’s having fun. In a film that occasionally takes itself too seriously, that counts for a lot. Gugu Mbatha-Raw brings credibility and groundedness as a London police officer, but the script gives her little to work with and she never finds any sort of resolution. Similarly, Aaron Taylor-Johnson delivers a stoic performance, but one that lacks the edge or unpredictability the role seems to require. He’s solid, but never surprising. And Sam Worthington is particularly underused, with his presence raising expectations that the film doesn’t seem interested in fulfilling. His character feels almost extraneous and is an odd inclusion in a story already struggling to balance its moving parts.
Technically, however, Fuze is impressive. The editing is slick, maintaining a sense of urgency even when the narrative begins to wobble. The sound design is particularly effective, heightening the tension and reinforcing the ever-present threat of the bomb beneath the city. But technical proficiency can only carry a film so far. At its core, Fuze is a heist film, and heist films live or die on the strength of their construction. We want to believe in the plan, even as we anticipate its unravelling. We want the twists to feel earned, the reveals to click into place, but the more you examine it, the less it holds together and that’s where the film ultimately fizzles. For all its energy and intrigue, Fuze doesn’t quite know what to do with its own everchanging premise. It builds tension effectively, but struggles to resolve it in a way that actually detonates successfully.
Reel Dialogue: When Greed Wins… or Does It?
One of the more striking aspects of Fuze is its moral ambiguity, or perhaps more accurately, its moral absence. The thieves, for all their deception and manipulation, ultimately get away with it. There’s no real reckoning. No meaningful consequence. The film seems content to let them disappear into the shadows, their plan successful, their greed rewarded. And in a purely cinematic sense, that’s not unheard of. Heist films often flirt with the fantasy of getting away clean.
Which raises a deeper question: what does it mean when greed appears to succeed? The Bible offers a very different perspective. Far from being a neutral or even admirable trait, greed is consistently portrayed as destructive both spiritually and relationally. In Luke 12:15, Jesus warns, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Greed promises gain, but ultimately distorts our understanding of what truly matters. Similarly, Proverbs 11:28 reminds us, “Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” The pursuit of wealth at any cost is not a path to flourishing, but to collapse.
Fuse may present a world where the greedy seem to win but Scripture insists that this is only ever temporary. The consequences of greed may not always be immediate or visible, but they are inevitable. It corrodes character, fractures relationships, and ultimately leads away from life as God intends it. While the bomb in Fuse may or may not detonate, greed always does.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10
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