Wildland firefighters might be pleased, disturbed, or distressed to learn that another movie about their profession is opening this week.
Those Who Wish Me Dead starring Angelina Jolie will be available on HBO Max Friday May 14.
Here is how it is described:
Angelina Jolie stars in this suspenseful thriller as Hannah, a smoke jumper reeling from the loss of three lives she failed to save from a fire, who comes across a traumatized 12‐year‐old boy with nowhere else to turn.
Those Who Wish Me Dead stars Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Tyler Perry, Aidan Gillen, Medina Senghore, Finn Little, Jake Weber, and Jon Bernthal.
In the trailer Ms. Jolie is seen at a lookout tower and later is being chased by bad guys with semiautomatic rifles.
The still shot taken from the trailer, above, shows Ms. Jolie holding what appears to be an ice axe, a tool not commonly used on fire crews. Perhaps there’s a really good reason she ends up with that particular tool. We’ll just have to wait and see….. IF we have a subscription to HBO Max.
I have to admit, if I was casting a movie about smokejumpers, Ms. Jolie would not be at the top of my list.
Few movies have been built around wildland firefighters. There was Red Skies of Montana that in 1952 introduced the myth of exploding trees, and Firestorm brought us Howie Long in 1998. Always, of 1999, was a good movie, but it was not really about wildland fire even though air tankers played a role. Many firefighters thought Only the Brave from 2017 was one of the best of the genre, perhaps because, in part, the producers hired hotshots as technical advisors.
(UPDATE, May 14, 2021: Wildfire Today’s review of Those Who Wish Me Dead)
The movie trailer is gawdawful.
I have not and will not see this movie, however I am sure it is a very accurate and detailed portrayal of smokejumper stuff, as an old Hotshot it may be entertaining to watch, well maybe not.
Just poking a little fun @ the jumpers hard not to after spending 12/13 yrs as a hotshot, it is what is is…..
Angelina Jolie-perfect-LOL!
Why is it always about smokejumpers or hotshot? Why can’t Hollywood ever produce a true down to earth story about Wildland Firefighters in general. We all do the same job when we get to the fire. We fight the fire regardless of how we got there. We all do initial attack regardless of how we got there. I’m just saying.
i worked with smokwjumpers as a hotshot. when boots are on the ground…..
Same work!
I believe what you meant to say is that all the jumper bros will be borrowing their hotshot friends ex girlfriends hbo max password.
All the jumper bros will be sharing their HBO Max passwords for this one.
We continue to fight for the day when we can all afford our own HBO Max accounts.
Until then
I believe what you meant to say is that all the jumper bros will be borrowing their hotshot friends ex girlfriends hbo max password.
There will be one password that a hotshot-friend lets one jumper bro in on. That jumper will be loose-lipped and the whole base will be logging in to that account. And they will be making their own profiles and trying to purchase premium features.