Fuze Review: A Tense Bank Robbery With Too Many Twists

Workers find an unexploded bomb at a London building site. The police clear the surrounding streets, and a military team arrives to make it safe. For most people, that means leaving work and finding somewhere else to go. For the thieves in Fuze, an empty neighborhood is a chance to break into a bank.

David Mackenzie's British, English-language crime thriller follows both groups at once. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Will Tranter, the officer responsible for the bomb. Theo James plays Karalis, who leads the robbery. Neither has much time to finish the job. Watching them work is tense and fun; the long explanation of how everything happened is less fun.

A bomb outside, a robbery nearby

The thieves do not walk through the bank's front door and demand money. They dress as workers and use a neighboring basement to reach the vault. Meanwhile, Tranter has to examine an explosive that could kill the people around it. The robbery gives you something specific to follow: how will these men get inside without the police noticing?

Switching between the two jobs makes ordinary tools frightening. In one sequence, Tranter works carefully with a drill near the bomb, then the film cuts to a noisy metal drawer being pulled open at the bank. For a moment, the sudden sound makes you fear that his work has gone wrong. The film creates suspense before anybody needs to fire a gun.

The empty streets help, too. Traffic lights keep changing even though the usual crowds have gone. With fewer people around, the criminals have more room to work, but fewer places to hide if someone spots them. You can understand why they want the evacuation to continue. That makes the race to finish the robbery more interesting than a countdown on its own.

The actors are good, but we learn too little about their characters

Taylor-Johnson makes Tranter's concentration believable. He gets close to the device, studies it and keeps working while other people wait for his answers. His careful movements make the danger easy to understand, even if you know nothing about explosives. You do not need a lesson on how a bomb works to worry about the person touching it.

James is more relaxed as Karalis, and that difference is fun to watch. Tranter has to prevent a disaster; Karalis wants to profit while everyone is distracted. James makes the thief look comfortable with the plan, which leaves you curious about what he knows. Karalis is entertaining even when there is little reason to like him.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Zuzana, the police chief trying to manage the evacuation and the investigation. She gives her orders firmly, but the script mostly leaves her responding to information from other people. Zuzana needs more to do than keep track of the men. The film has several recognizable actors, yet it tells us much more about their jobs than about the people doing them.

The final explanations go on too long

As the robbery develops, Fuze keeps changing what we know about the plan and the people involved. Some of these twists are fun to watch. The problem is that important background information arrives very late, followed by an extended look back at earlier events. We get answers, but too many depend on information we were not given before.

That changes the experience. During the break-in, you can watch what the thieves do and wonder whether it will work. Near the end, you spend more time listening to explanations about why things happened. By then, another revelation is not as exciting as the original question of whether they will escape. The film would be easier to recommend if it stopped explaining sooner.

Pixel Twelve score: 6.5/10. Fuze is worth considering if you enjoy bank robberies, tense police operations and criminals who cannot fully trust one another. The actors and the two simultaneous jobs give it plenty to recommend. But the late explanations and limited character development keep it from being a great thriller. Watch it for the break-in and bomb-disposal scenes, not for a mystery you can work out from the clues.

In the United States, Fuze is streaming on HBO Max. See the Fuze film page for the trailer, cast and watch options, or browse more Pixel Twelve reviews. Availability varies by country.

More images from Fuze

2 screenshots

Images: © Fuze Movie Limited / Sky.