The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur) (2024) – Movie Review

TL;DR – While there is a solid narrative framework for the action, we end up with a film that has more missed opportunities than times they cut to jiggling nitro canisters.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

A oil pump explores.

The Wages of Fear Review

Today, we are looking at a remake of a classic novel and a classic film. I have not watched or read the original, but even then, their legacy looms large. Getting a second or third but at the apple can be an advantage because you have seen where things have not worked before, but then, when you are walking on the same ground as a classic, you might be lurking in dangerous territory.

So to set the scene, we open in the middle of the North African desert as pursuers ambush two cars from World Wide Heath and are just able to get into a local village before getting overrun. But a single stray bullet was enough to take out the local gas well. If the fire spreads, it will take out the entire village. They have only 24 hours to get enough nitro-glycerine to explode the gas pocket. Fred (Franck Gastambide) does not want to risk the ride through occupied territory; good thing the head of the oil company, Anne (Astrid Whettnall), had the perfect leverage, Eric (Alban Lenoir), Fred’s brother stuck in jail for a crime, Fred committed.   

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