Jessica Alba as Parker in ‘Trigger Warning’
trigger warning This is a film you don’t expect anything from and if you’re in the mood to be happy for a busy ride you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The action is delightfully relentless from start to finish. We start with the obligatory nameless desert chase and bullets flying. Special Forces commando Parker (Jessica Alba) expertly disposes of the nameless bad guys.
Parker has bad news as her father Harry (Alejandro De Hoyos) has died suddenly. She returns to her hometown of Creation (actually) and finds she has inherited the family bar as well as many secrets and lies. She meets her ex-boyfriend and now sheriff, Jesse (Mark Webber) to try and figure out the cause of her father’s death who was killed in a mine explosion. Parker is surprised to learn this is because Harry knew the mine so well, he kept it a cozy hideaway, as one character says, “He built a man cave in a cave.”
New cameras have been installed in the mine and when Parker asks her covert operations partner and hacker Spider (Tone Bell) to look at the footage, things start to happen. Jesse’s brother Elvis (Jake Weary) and father Senator Swann (Anthony Michael Hall) may have something to do with the bad things going on at Creation. Mike (Gabriel Basso), who manufactures marijuana, is another person Parker can rely on for help.
trigger warning
Director: Mouli Surya
Mould: Jessica Alba, Anthony Michael Hall
Plot: A Special Forces commando returns home with his dead father and a can of bugs
Runtime: 106 minutes
A threat to security, another almost nameless terrorist, lots of explosions and shootouts and a bit of torture before everything is finally okay, which we hear on the radio. By introducing Indonesian knife fighting, first-time director Molly Surya, along with Alba, have added a level of intimacy to the action.
(L-R) Jessica Alba as Parker and Tone Bell as Spider in ‘Trigger Warning’ | Photo credit: Ursula Coyote/Netflix
Alba puts a strong faith in her Parker, who is a mix of Jack Reacher and John Rambo, with a little bit of John Wick thrown in. Like the nomadic tough guys mentioned above, Parker too arrives in a small town and uncovers a major conspiracy with a mix of brawn and brains.
She’s smart enough to tie her hair up when she’s chasing the bad guys, which as we all know is the mark of a serious warrior – just look at Furiosa and Ripley, who shaved their heads so their hair wouldn’t get in the way of defeating the bad guys/xenomorphs.
trigger warning It doesn’t deserve so much hate. It’s a skilled action movie, led by a credible Alba. It could have been better, sure, but it’s not so terrible that you want to gouge your eyes out.
Trigger Warning is currently streaming on Netflix
