The Divide

The Divide bears a just title, as the movie really does divide – first half more irritating than engaging, second half engaging and shockingly brutal.

After an onslaught of nuclear missiles on New York City, a small group comprised of tenants and the building’s caretaker try to save their asses by hiding out in the bunker-like basement. I am deliberately saying ‘hiding out’ because the shelter is further and unexpectedly attacked by mysterious armed assailants in hazmat suits – their motive unknown but whatever it is, it’s bound to be very, very bad.

As the days go by, the tension in the bunker rises and soon tenants and caretaker feel they are trapped in a living hell. Food and water supplies are running low as quick as optimistic outlooks. Lead by Mickey (Michael Biehn), a guy with an obvious anger management problem, the group soon is at each other’s throat. Biehn is the ‘star’ of the movie, but his character manages to irritate the c**p out of the viewers with his constant yelling and shouting - it’s somewhat of a blessing when he’s finally constrained. Not that the constant yelling is his fault mind you, we get to learn that he lost his family during the 9/11 attacks and was himself a fire fighter. Really, you can’t blame the poor guy for frequently losing his temper. He’s also the one who’s already been living in the basement before the nuclear missile attacks took place – a forgotten hero of 9/11 so to speak.

During the movie’s second half, things drift into ‘Lord of the Flies’ territory when everyone in the group turns into a savage primitive. Whether it is the claustrophobic confinements of the basement bunker, or the likely possibility that certain death looms as much outside the confinements as inside – the situation turns the group into beasts who lose all aspects of human behaviour, resulting in a barbaric orgy of torture, rape and killing. While the second ‘star’ of the film is Rosanna Arquette, it is Lauren German (from the TV-series Happy Town) as Eva who emerges as the real star, seemingly the only one keeping it together amidst the escalating madness. The scene in which she (literally) wades through tons of sewage in order to escape is as disturbing as the entire movie.

The Divide is an ‘ensemble’ movie of a different kind, a post-apocalyptic shocker with intense performances by all the cast. It is a very uncomfortable film to watch, clever in so far as it raises the question how we would behave in a similar situation.