21 Bridges

Did you know Manhattan has 21 bridges?

Sometimes movies that we watch for mere entertainment add to our general knowledge— like this one; 21 Bridges, an action thriller released in 2019. I searched the internet to find out if it’s true and guess what, there are 21 bridges and 15 tunnels connecting Manhattan to surrounding neighbourhoods.

How intense the action scenes are? Well, I’d say it’s like bullets everywhere— but not so many like Black Hawk Down. I wonder what was the explosive and decoy budget for Black Hawk Down, or, in general, all of Michael Bay’s films. Anyway, to understand the intensity of actions in 21 Bridges movie, the following quote is enough—

Makes sense? Yeah, it gives the viewers a hint of what to expect.

The quote was by Andre, a police detective who said when hunting down two suspects who killed cops while robbing a cartel hideout. Unexpectedly they discover a stash never imagined and somehow this is linked to police involvement. Things went out of control when they had to find their way out shooting 8 cops, killing all of them and many others while attempting to evade getting caught.

That’s the story, more or less. The rest is connected to uncovering the mystery of police involvement in drug dealing across the city and how massive the network is. Stips the corruption bare layer by layer— it got emotional to some points but when it comes to drugs, there should be no compromise.

Starring Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman, this is one of the last few movies before he died of cancer at a young age. He is indeed a talented artist with a bold outlook and an intriguing action persona. 21 Bridges celebrates his characteristic trait to the fullest, placing him on the frontline of bravery and intelligence. Although it’s merely a story written for the sake of commercial interest, corruption of such kind exists in real life— law enforcement bodies get involved in crimes and often stay off the radar cause they are the last on the suspect list.

But, this movie shows how a brave person can go beyond the limit to restore the law if he wishes to. Unfortunate though, such souls are rare nowadays.

Anyway, apart from the action-gripped plots, I liked how everyone contributed to the growing suspense. You can feel it right after the first quarter, playing hide and seek to save themselves and the great crime. But it has to end at some point. I thought it would turn into a more violent scene once the crime is uncovered, but it didn’t— rather, the ending scene is quite off the track. Perhaps the director didn’t want to prolong the movie to another 30 minutes or there are some other reasons why the story is cut short at the end. And as soon as I finished watching it, I felt like it would be another not-so-impressive movie to remember for another day. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to watch.

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