The Bunker

When an alien armada appears in the sky, a team of scientists are sealed in underground bunkers and are tasked with creating a bio-weapon that will stop the invaders. But soon enough, the isolation and the paranoia causes one scientist to question the true intention of her mission.

In October, I went on a little trip to Trieste, Italy.

A port city in the far northeastern corner of Italy, Trieste is a mix of Italian, Austro-Hungarian, and Slovenian influences set hard up against the head of the Gulf of Trieste in the Adriatic Sea. Known as the “City of Coffee,” it was considered to be the end-point of the maritime leg of the famous trade route known as the Silk Road, and was an important deep-water port owned by the House of Habsburg, an aristocratic family that was as powerful as it was inbred. Now, it's just a nice little seaside city, and in October, it had a film festival called the Trieste Science Fiction Festival. While I was there, I saw several films.

The Bunker was one of them.

So, when aliens invade earth, a group of scientists are selected to work on the creation of a bioweapon that is humanity’s last hope. In order to best protect the covert project, each scientist is confined to a different hidden bunker around the world. Alone and deep underground, each one works on a different aspect of the weapon, and their only contact with the outside world is during the regular team meetings that are held over Zoom.

Doctor Michelle Riley is one of these scientists. Leaving behind her family, she is taken to a hidden location to begin her work. Despite her expertise, Michelle feels outclassed by her brilliant colleagues. She struggles with the fact that some of the team are not impressed with her at all, and believe her to be too inexperienced for such a high stakes project.

To make things worse, the alien enemy is hunting for them, their probing scans able to penetrate deep in the Earth. If the scan finds them, it will melt their minds. Their only hope is a strangely complex field generator in their bunker. It will shield and protect them, but only if they get it turned on in time. During one scan attack, Michelle‘s generator malfunctions, causing her to hallucinate and pass out, making her question her entire reality as she races against the clock, trying to finish the bioweapon, all while her team is killed off in their hidden bunkers one by one.

This is a film about isolation and loneliness and the paranoia that can bring on, which makes sense, because this film was made during COVID. Not only was it made during COVID, but the filmmakers built the entire story specifically around the idea that they could film it within the safety regulations and social interaction limitations imposed by the Pandemic, while also reflecting the reality of day to day life during this time.

This means that more than one cast member is rarely in the same room at the same time, and that most of the characters’ interactions are done over Zoom. This does hurt the chemistry a bit, not to mention some of the timing of the dialogue, but not too much. Besides, the reality is that the Bunker is a low budget film, and while it’s not bad that overall either, it does have a lot of the usual issues that these kind of low budget films have, so the film’s attempts to work within the realities of the Pandemic don’t really register on screen in any signifigant way.

But whether it wholly works or not, I appreciated the effort, especially now as people are desperately trying to memory-hole the COVID-19 Pandemic and all of the trauma and horror that came with it. I understand the motivation, after all, it’s been five years, and an estimated 20 million deaths worldwide, since the first case in December 2019, and an estimated 78% of Americans were infected, which in the United States alone, means that the official Covid death toll stands at 1.22 million.

But despite being understandable, we can not allow ourselves to forget.

Because despite the continued efforts of the wealthy and the corporations–not to mention business owners, landlords, and their pet politicians–to claim that the Pandemic is over, efforts often eagerly bolstered by the stupid, the sycophants, and the selfish bigots, the spread of COVID-19 is still an ongoing issue.

The virus is much less active now, of course, which is great news, but still, every day, the same people are getting infected again and again. And all while refusing to wear masks too. All while refusing to upgrade air filtration systems too. Not even in just grocery stores, doctor's offices, or on public transport either, something that would allow the immunocompromised to be able to live their lives. No, they are willing to do nothing. Nothing. They refuse to consider or implement any mitigation efforts at all. No way. No sir. No how. And all despite getting sick now a half dozen times a year. In a nutshell, the general public has refused to do anything, and they're all out of ideas.

Apparently, all these assholes, too selfish to think about others, too cowardly to wear a mask because of the mean looks, have collectively decided to just accept the fact that they now get sick over and over. And when they do get sick, they stumble all over themselves in a rush to assure you—red-eyed and hacking up a lung—that while it’s true, they didn't test (because they would never pick up a COVID test at the store, not in a million years), they are definitely NOT sick from COVID. And it’s not due to any COVID-related complications either! Definitely not! All it is, is yet another one of those “summer colds” they are all telling themselves and each other is a totally normal thing that we've always had. And if it's not that, why then it’s just that pesky “bad flu” that seems to be going around… again.

What can one do against such reckless hate?

The answer is... you gotta watch out for yourself, you and the others who are still being cautious, who still trying to live their lives and not die. This past decade of Trump and COVID has shown pretty clearly that the majority of society is willing to do literally nothing for another person if it might inconvenience them a little bit, even if it’s only for a moment, so yeah, that’s our only option… We gotta watch out for each other. Luckily, an N95 is an easy way to spot the members of the same club, the ones who care about others.

Still, it’s depressing. And it’s our reality.

So, we went to Italy because it was a special occasion, because it was supposed to be a nice break, because we had miles and a free companion ticket, and because we wanted to leave the country and still be able to come back before Trump and his Brownshirts took office and maybe decided that people like us weren’t real citizens or something. In a nutshell, it was basically our wake for America. “May we all be alive at this same time next year.” But before this trip, before this film festival, the last time I was in a theatre was February of 2020. I saw Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), and I loved it.

Totally underrated. Totally under-appreciated.

But it will get its due eventually.

But since then? Nothing. No thank you. It’s risk vs gain now, baby. Risk vs gain. And the reality is, when it comes to getting infected, like most restaurants, most movies just aren’t worth it, not for the ridiculous ticket price at most theatres, not for the filthy facilities, and not for the usually reliably shitty experience of seeing a film with the general audience. I’ve managed to stay COVID free thus far. It hasn’t been easy, and I have no intention of changing that, certainly not for a subpar and over-priced experience. As someone who used to regularly take a day off just to see a couple of movies in a row in the theatre, right now, the truth is… streaming is simply the better option.

Besides, I’m definitely not interested in joining the ranks of dumb fucks who have been infected multiple times, and are now saddled with an uncertain future due to Long COVID. I don’t want that. Not in this era of White Christian Nationalism. Not in a time where the Climate Crisis only gets worse. Certainly not in a world without affordable healthcare, let alone the kind of cutting-edge scientific research needed to address the still-developing reality of Long COVID-rooted health issues. In the years ahead, not having an unknown, untreatable chronic health issue that was the result of me deciding that it was just too much to ask that I wear a mask, or maybe not eat at Chili’s and avoid going to sold-out movies, is gonna be something that is worth its weight in gold.

Good luck to the rest of you, though. F’reals.

Anyway, I‘m meandering, I know. I bring this all up because life is stressful now—and I blame this on the abject selfishness and obstinate ignorance of the majority of the public, and generally carry a lot of rage about it—but also to say that I live my life now as a series of calculated risks. So… as we made our way across the Italian Peninsula, as we saw more masks, and fewer assholes coughing up a lung with their mouths wide open and spraying their infected mucous everywhere, plus the mere fact that we were in Italy, and at a film festival… we decided to risk going to the movie theatre.

Masked, of course. We’re not stupid. And still COVID-free.

This is the long way around for me to say that it was really nice to see the reality of COVID, this very terrible and traumatic experience that continues unabated to this day simply because of selfish assholes, reflected on screen in a pretty well done and not-that-bad (but sure, also not that great) little sci-fi film.

The reason that The Bunker is mostly “not that great” is because it’s pretty obvious. Everything goes pretty much exactly as expected. There were a couple of points where I wondered if the whole thing was fake. Was Dr. Michelle Riley being tricked? Do the faces she sees on the science team’s Zooms each day really belong to real people, or is she actually being manipulated by the aliens? Or even by her own government? Gasp? All of reality is suspect.

But... nope. While, yes, technically, this is what the film is about, it's also not what is actually happening in the film.

Che peccato...

And while it's true, as I said, that The Bunker is a low budget film, meaning that it has that familiar cheap Syfy TV show kind of look ot it, and a lot of its designs are clearly cribbed from some familiar sources (if not directly lifted, like the alien ships are), it's still pretty fun. In the end, this is a nice little sci-if romp, if a somewhat predictable one.

This is a good "take a gummy and have a matinee" film.