''The Unthinkable'' ( sv, Den blomstertid nu kommer) is a 2018 Swedish thriller disaster war movie produced by
Crazy Pictures Crazy Pictures is a Swedish film collective based in Norrköping, founded in 2008. They first found success with a short films series on YouTube, , and released their debut feature film '' The Unthinkable'' () in 2018. Their second feature film, '' ...
, starring
Christoffer Nordenrot,
Lisa Henni
Lisa Henni (born 19 September 1982) is a Swedish actress. She was educated in London at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, formerly Mountview Theatre School, is a drama school in Peckham, south London, Eng ...
,
Jesper Barkselius and
Pia Halvorsen. The film imagines a scenario in which Sweden is invaded during a rainy summer.
Plot
In 2005, Alex lives in a village with his mother and his aggressive, unloving father Björn. His mother leaves the family, and Alex's closest friend Anna moves to Stockholm. Alex decides to leave his father and moves to a relative.
Ten years later, Alex lives in Stockholm and is now a famous pianist. During Midsummer, there are multiple explosions in Stockholm. Alex splits with his manager and decides to go back to his home village to buy the church piano he and Anna used to play on when they were younger. There, Alex meets Anna again who has moved back to the village. The attacks on Sweden worsen to include people recklessly driving and crashing cars in the rainy summer. The electricity and mobile networks are hit and become unavailable.
At the same time in Alex's home village, his father Björn fights off armed men from entering a restricted area with access to the electricity network. Civilians come there to seek safety in the bomb shelter, including Alex and Anna. They have contact with the military via radio and go to meet them in the village church. Helicopters shoot at them, but Björn takes down a helicopter from his airplane, saving Alex and Anna, however Björn's airplane crashes.
The film ends with a scene in the village church, which has been destroyed and is on fire. Alex stands in the rain facing Anna in the shelter of the church, apparently having lost his recent memory due to the chemical weapons in the rain. Anna is taken away by the military. The very last clip of the film features
Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has Russia under Vladimir Putin, served continuously as president or Prime Minis ...
– suggesting that Russia was behind the attacks.
Cast
*
Christoffer Nordenrot - Alex
*
Lisa Henni
Lisa Henni (born 19 September 1982) is a Swedish actress. She was educated in London at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, formerly Mountview Theatre School, is a drama school in Peckham, south London, Eng ...
- Anna
* - Björn
* - Eva
*
Magnus Sundberg
Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...
- Konny
*
Krister Kern Krister is a Swedish variant of the Swedish masculine given name Christer and may refer to:
*Krister Bringéus (born 1954), Swedish diplomat
*Krister Classon (born 1955), Swedish comedian, actor, director and screenwriter
*Krister Dreyer (born 1974 ...
- Kim
*
Karin Bertling
Karin Boel Bertling (born 25 May 1937) is a Swedish actress.
Selected filmography
*2002–04 – '' Skeppsholmen (TV series)''
*2003 – '' Hannah med H''
*2003 – ''The Man Who Smiled'' (TV)
*2004 – ''Camp Slaughter''
*2005 – '' Wallander ...
- Grandma
*
Ulrika Bäckström
Ulrica, also spelled Ulrika, is a female given name of Germanic origins. Its male equivalent is Ulric, Ulrich or Ulrik.
Ulrike and Ulrikke are alternative names derived from Ulrica.
Ulrica may refer to:
People
* Ulrika Eleonora, Queen o ...
- Klara
*
Alexej Manvelov - Tholén
*
Yngve Dahlberg - Emil
*
Linda Kulle - Pettersson
*
Håkan Ehn
Håkan is a common Swedish given name. It has a common origin with the Norwegian given name Haakon (modern Norwegian Håkon, Danish Hakon) in the Old Norse ''Hákon''. The meaning of the name is disputed but a possible meaning is "high son" from ...
- Lasse
*
Tarmo Sakari Hietala - Berry picker
*
Niklas Jarneheim - Uncle Erik
*
Arvin Kananian - Sharokh
*
Lo Lexfors
Lo may refer to any of the following:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lo!'', the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort
* L.O., a fictional character in the Playhouse Disney show Happy Monster Band
* ''Lo'' (film), a 2009 indep ...
- Elin
*
Liselott Lindeborg - Lenny
*
Rickard Lundqvist Rickard is both an English surname and a masculine Swedish given name. It is of European origin and it is closely related to the given name Richard and the surnames Rickards and Richards.
People with the surname
* Bob Rickard (born 1945), founder a ...
- Landers
*
Carlos Paulsson
Carlos may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Carlos, Alberta, a locality
;United States
* Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County
* Carlos, Minnesota, a small city
* Carlos, West Virginia
;Elsewhe ...
- Policeman
*
Rikard Svensson
Rikard is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Rikard Andreasson (born 1979), Swedish cross country skier
* Rikard Berge (1881–1969), Norwegian folklorist, museologist biographer and magazine editor
*Rikard Bergh (born 1966), f ...
- Jögga
*
Johan Wåhlin Johan
* Johan (given name)
* ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller
* Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group
** ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group
* Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada
* Jo-Han
Jo-H ...
- Råsmark
*
Eleonor Leone
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
The name was introdu ...
- Julia
*
Erik Bolin - Incident commander
*
Magdalena Eshaya - The beggar
Production
Financing
The financing of the film started as a
crowdfunded
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
project on
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...
in 2015, where the project received 800,000
Swedish kronor
The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the official currency of the Kingdom of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it ...
($100,000).
After the initial crowdsourced funding, the film received more traditional funding,
from
SF Bio
Filmstaden AB (formerly SF Bio AB ) is Sweden's largest cinema chain, and was founded in 1998 after Svensk Filmindustri was split into SF and SF Bio. The company is owned by the european group Odeon Cinemas Group, which has been owned by the worl ...
,
Svenska Bio
Svenska Bio is a cinema company headquartered in Lidingö, Sweden. In the late 1980s, the company was formed from a merger between Fornstams Biografer and several cinemas owned by Svensk Filmindustri. In August 2007 the company bought two cinema ...
and others. The final budget for the film was 18.5 million
Swedish kronor
The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the official currency of the Kingdom of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it ...
($2.2 million
).
Music
Gustaf Spetz composed the soundtrack to the film. It features a version of the Swedish traditional summertime hymn
Den blomstertid nu kommer
Den blomstertid nu kommer (literally: ''Now the time of blossoming arrives'', Suvivirsi in Finnish) is a Swedish summertime hymn, traditionally credited to Israel Kolmodin after walking at Hångers källa outside Visby. It was first published i ...
, after which the film is named. The hymn is associated with summer and the film is set during
Midsummer
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe.
The undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian marty ...
.
Release
The film was released in Sweden on 20 June 2018, two days before Midsummer in Sweden, with the film itself being set during
Midsummer
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe.
The undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian marty ...
. The Swedish title of the film is the name of a traditional hymn strongly associated with summer,
Den blomstertid nu kommer
Den blomstertid nu kommer (literally: ''Now the time of blossoming arrives'', Suvivirsi in Finnish) is a Swedish summertime hymn, traditionally credited to Israel Kolmodin after walking at Hångers källa outside Visby. It was first published i ...
.
During the first weekend after its release, ''The Unthinkable'' was the second most seen film in cinemas in Sweden. In March, 2019 the company announced that the film had been sold to 100 countries, making it one of Swedish film industry's biggest exports in 2018.
Reception
Critical response
On the
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of .
References
External links
*
Kickstarter campaign
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unthinkable, The (2018 film)
2010s Swedish-language films
2018 films
2018 thriller films
Films about invasions
Fiction about invasions
Swedish thriller films
2010s Swedish films