I thought this was really solid. Schwarzenegger and McNairy were equally fantastic in their respective roles, and honestly at times I didn't know which one to feel more sympathy for. My only real problems with the film is that it felt too much like a made for TV movie and the ending was a bit unsatisfying, but that's about it.

Aftermath

A snail's pace dramatic effort from Blitz director, Elliott Lester. Produced by Schwarzenegger himself (and Darren Aronofsky), you'd be forgiven if you expected thought-provoking cinema or something with a little more pizzazz. Unfortunately Aftermath continues Arnold's gloomy, lethargic screen presence that he debuted with Maggie. While it is rewarding for Arnold to attempt more weighty and serious material, he doesn't have the range for full-on drama. That being said, Arnold does his best with a pedestrian screenplay while others like Maggie Grace and Judah Nelson highlight its direct-to-video origin. Aftermath is not the quasi-revenge thriller that it was advertised to be either. It is a mix of a slow but vacant character study and a halfhearted investigative based-on-true-events drama.

I am not entirely sure why this film was once called 478. The colliding flights in the film are referred to as AX-112 and DH-616.

C

It is a limited film in certain ways (not much visual interest, for example), but I admired it and would give it a solid B. The emotional journeys undergone by the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Scoot McNairy characters drew me in, and, in an almost perverse way, I enjoy how fiercely committed it is to being super mournful. It finds this overcast, melancholy note and just lives inside it for an hour and a half, consumed with anger and grief, and the result is modestly affecting. It is far less effective, but its tone and purpose remind me a bit of, say, In the Bedroom.

I do not believe it quite earns it final moments, with the now-adult son of the air-traffic controller sparing Arnold's character in the graveyard. I understand the idea—this cycle of loss and vengeance, loss and vengeance, etc. coming to a close—but it just feels a tad trite and cute.

As evidenced by this and Maggie, Arnold does seem to conflate "respectability" with extreme solemnity. Maybe he should star in The Crucible or Jude the Obscure next.

The good American lad does the right thing. Something the dirty outsider could not.

I was quite liking this movie for the most part, it's an interesting story, Scoot is great, Arnold himself is good, just the character is a bit iffy, the rest of the cast is fine too. The movie has a good tone, its slow pace worked well for me. Sound and cinematography click well, yet ultimately there's a cheap feel to the whole product. The elements taken from the true story of the Uberlingen disaster are put quite well to the screen, but whenever the script takes it's liberties with becoming fictional it falters. Those are parts that make it not believable as a whole and it's hurting the film in the third act and especially at the very end. It's not bad, partially paints a good portrait of the main characters, but mostly lacks a capable script to become really engrossing.

C+

Did you notice anything in the film referencing its working title, 478?

Nothing obviously, trying to recall it now, but can't think where it might be referred too.

It's strange indeed, I've been searching a bit of background on the film and I can't find anything as to why it was called 478 before, a bit odd really.

The original title is a mystery to me, too. Maybe it was just a placeholder? I thought for sure it would be one of the doomed flights' tail numbers, but, as Algren says, it is not.

The flights are AX-112 and DH-616. There were 271 passengers aboard the flights. Even the actual incident it is based on, 478 doesn't get referenced.

Possible meanings could be the Georgia telephone area code. But the film is not set in Georgia. Apparently in texting language, 478 means "drop dead". That could make sense, but I don't buy it. How about in the Hebrew holy book, where the meaning for '478. Elishaphat' is "God has judged". That could be it, but still, the film is not related to that side of the world, and the writer of Aftermath is Spanish. I don't buy it.

I'm just rambling here: fourseveneight...sounds a bit like forsaken hate? But that would also be too weird.

I enjoy those ramblings.

I loved Arnold's role in this and the first half where it focuses on the characters and their loss but once the confrontation happens it just does not work at all. Yes these characters were built but those results were never hinted and it essentially their actions felt out of character of what is built before. The finale is also not emotional enough and while Arnold does great he is unable to portray different emotions needed for this kind of movie.

C+