
“Inspired by a true story of survival.”
A determined father risks everything to rescue a dedicated teacher and her students from a raging wildfire.
Release Date: 9/19/2025
Runtime: 130 minutes
Languages: English
Director: Paul Greengrass
00Companies: Blumhouse Productions, Comet Pictures, Apple Studios
Countries: United States of America
CinemaSerf
Ok, so there’s no volcano, but otherwise this is a pretty straightforward hybrid of “Dante’s Peak” (1997) and “Speed” (1994) only here it is Matthew McConaughey who’s driving the bus. Of course, we have the usual dysfunctional family background for the recently divorced and struggling “Kevin” as he tries to reconcile with his disinterested son “Shaun” (his own real life son Levi) who has come to stay with him and his wheelchair-bound mother (his own real life mother Kay). He has been doing his school run when he espies plumes of smoke coming from the hillside above their town, a town where wind gusts of sixty miles per hour are common and where it hasn’t rained for months - so the vast expanse of forest is a tinderbox. Next thing, one of the high-altitude power lines has become disconnected and it’s sparks have started a conflagration that has soon taken hold, causing chaos and leaving a group of children stranded in their school in the path of the flames. With nobody else available, “Kevin” quite reluctantly volunteers to drive to collect them. By now, he’s guessed the dangers they are all in, and so isn’t best impressed when he meets their rather fastidious teacher “Mary” (America Ferrera) but those reservations - like just about everything else - melt away as the fires closes in around them and their journey becomes a matter of life and death. McConaughey does fine here, but the real problem is the complete lack of jeopardy throughout. Despite some crack(l)ing visual effects accompanied by some really quite effective audio, there simply isn’t any way this film is going to end with lots of sprogs being charbroiled inside a big yellow bus! Once that is settled, the rest of this is quite well paced but really nothing special. It’s based on true events and at times it does showcase some of the freneticism that ensued as the authorities fought valiantly to arrest a series of fires that were making mincemeat of all of their ground defences and grounding their air ones, too. It also spotlights the worst in human nature as looters and opportunists take advantage of the breakdown of law and order. If anything, this film does remind us of just how little mankind can be when nature gets fed up with us, and also of however devastating the damage, how readily it can rejuvenate - but that hasn’t really got much to do with the quality of the actors nor of the meekly written dialogue. It’s a compelling watch, but I suspect once will do.

Matthew McConaughey
Kevin McKay

America Ferrera
Mary Ludwig

Yul Vazquez
Chief Martinez

Ashlie Atkinson
Ruby Bishop

Kimberli Flores
Linda
Levi McConaughey
Shaun

Kay McConaughey
Sherry
John Messina
John Messina

Kate Wharton
Jen Kissoon

Danny McCarthy
Matt McKenzie

Spencer Watson
Elliot Hopkins
Beth Bowersox
Beth Bowersox
2002