Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2019 French-Belgian war film called,
15 Minutes of War. Spoilers ahead. Watch out and take care.
The movie starts with a flash statement saying, “This is a time of turmoil of clashes between two
of economic crisis, and the mire of bloody conflict; terrorism strikes Europe and the
Middle East daily.” It was the horrors of 1976. The bus stops in front of the parents and students
going to school. They go inside and the driver is indeed very friendly with these pupils. On
the other side, the car is reviving being run by a woman who happens to be a teacher. She immediately
prepares the classroom and polishes everything. The bus opens for the two boys and suddenly, a
man also enters and points the gun to the driver, telling him not to move or they will shoot him.
He immediately does what they say and the man says drive them to Somalia's borders.
It is now past nine so the panic comes to the teacher.
She hurriedly goes to the other classroom asking her fellow how many students are in her room.
She has four missing students while she, on the other hand, has all of them missing from nowhere.
At the bus, a boy asks one of the men if they will still be going to school. The man gets pissed so
he slaps the boy’s face with a rifle, leaving him with blood. A few minutes after, a group of
cars is now chasing the bus. The men threaten the driver to not let them pass or else he will die.
The terrorists fire bullets as the cars speed their way through the bus.
The children come to panic and shout. The men in cars call the soldiers at the border,
saying that they should close it. As the bus gets closer, they fall smoothly out of the cliff;
however, the borders are now closed which makes the men mad. They force the bus driver to leave
his seat and tell those soldiers to open the border again. He runs but the armed soldiers
directly aim the gun at him and suddenly click, leaving the innocent bus driver dead.
Meanwhile, a man is taking care of her daughter recovering from surgery. A call rings then he
calls his men as well. He is now following orders from the woman amidst confusion because
if they negotiate, they are selfish; and if they act, the kids will be dead. He’s being
sent to the camp together with his mates to prove the “special” in their special unit.
The unit arrives at the airport with their long gear; one of them is even supposed to
marry someone. They are now joking with each other when a man says to the captain
that their plane is full. He threatens him to get on the plane and it worked.
Suddenly, the teacher arrives at the border, wanting to act as a volunteer to go to the bus
and see her students. She straightly walks towards the bus but one of the terrorists threatens her
if she moves, he fires bullets near her feet. The teacher states that she wants to see them
and further explains some things going on the other side to the terrorist who asked.
They let her on the bus and she immediately checks the pupils wherein she asks who’s hungry
but no one raises a hand but when she asks who needs to pee, every single hand is up in the sky.
The special unit lands safely and is now off to the borders. While on their road trip, they joke
about a lot of things such as their age, hair, and why they accepted to be on that specific unit.
It is already nighttime and the teacher is walking inside the bus when she sees
her student covering his face. She gets really worried and tells him that it will get treated.
She tells the men to get it treated but they said he’s okay and when the teacher starts defending,
they threaten her that they will kill him. On the other hand, the special unit arrives
on the borders with the lead soldier looking at them down because they
don’t look “elite,” they now enter the camp. The captain observes the place and says he needs
to go to look for a firing position. The soldier disagrees as they haven’t got an order from Paris.
He wants to look over the place so the other camp sends one person to watch on them. The captain
calls his men to go out for recon; now, two of his men are in a firing position while their captain
is still going around. He runs towards the bus; luckily, the terrorists didn’t see him. He hides
at the back of the bus and even makes himself scared when the teacher goes to the back to pee.
She then excuses that it was just a snake. Slowly, the captain turns on the other side
of the bus when suddenly, lights from the bus lit up which somehow made him exposed. He runs
very fast towards their camp. The terrorists see him and the other camp lights up as well.
The special unit members come aggressively as to why the lights were turned on but end up fighting
because the soldiers mentioned their age. It is also because they are dressed as civilians.
Having a nice whiff of cigarette, the teacher is on the back of the bus with a campfire. The
terrorist asks her why is she in Somalia; she says it’s a long story that doesn’t
need to be shared with strangers. He advises her to get married and have children while
the teacher defends her side and states that her life is with the children today.
Another man comes and tells his fellow that he is wasting his time and they should kill
the teacher now. He then replies that he is always in a hurry and they can do it later.
One of the men under the special unit is filled with conscience regarding “shoot to kill.”
His fellow members give him advice about their very job. Later on,
their captain comes up with a plan. They discuss it thoroughly. The position of each and their
tasks. They then prepare their weapons as they will go through the site at five in the morning.
Paris is now on the line and she tells the unit to not fire because diplomacy is always at first.
However, both the soldier and the special unit beg to disagree as they suspect suspicious
movements within the bus and Somali border. She is now getting pissed off so she ends the line.
It is now early morning so the special unit hurriedly goes to the firing station,
where they could be hidden. They run swiftly and they finally arrive without further notice
from the other side. They prepare their gears and codes. When they are now ready to fire,
the captain asks for permission but the queen’s order remains the same,
to not fire. His members become pissed as it is now getting hot but no orders have arrived,
they could be waiting at the hotel pool but instead, they’re out in the heat.
Again, they start to get ready to fire with their codes however, the queen remains in the
same order. The captain tells his men to be at ease, they breathe and drink water.
The man tasked to observe sees some activity. The captain looks thoroughly and sees some
trucks and Somalian men getting ready. He then immediately reports this to the queen.
On the other hand, a vehicle from the French border is now approaching the bus
to give food to the children. One of its soldiers starts a conversation with the
leader asking for negotiation. However, he fumes up as there is nothing to negotiate.
The teacher tells the soldier to take the injured kid and he gets shocked as there is one.
A girl runs to hug the soldier which upset the terrorists more. The captain gets in a
position to fire together with his members, but there are too many movements. They need to fire
in a clean way and manner. As anger gets to the terrorists’ leader, he then shoots the soldier
and gets back the girl with him. The girl cries as she witnesses the
soldier’s death in front of her so the teacher hurriedly hugs her tight. The soldiers take a
rest while discussing what had just happened, some of them care too much and the others are
just doing their job, they discuss it thoroughly. The terrorists are taking a whiff outside when
the teacher goes through their way saying that the wound of the kid is getting worse
and needs to be treated; the men just laugh at her. They make her a laughingstock but
the teacher is not giving up, he wants the boy to be okay and get medical assistance.
The terrorists beside her talk that they will evacuate at nightfall so they must prepare buses.
The special unit captain leaves together with his assistant and lets other men be at the observance.
They went back to the camp but the soldier there says that they should withdraw and assemble his
men. He refuses as the other side will take the kids anytime soon. The teacher together
with the injured kid suddenly goes to the camp. The kid then goes to the medic while the teacher
is given cold water, they initiated a convo asking her about the other side’s weapons. She mentions
some pistols and explosives. She also states that those men are getting tired and aggressive;
at sunset, they will take the kids to Somalia. With those being said, the captain suggests
evacuating the kids by twos. The teacher gets shocked as it seems impossible. She says that
won’t happen unless they drug them, which they will do. The captain requests a lot
of sleeping pills and the teacher is still in shock about what will happen.
The men of the special unit left in the firing place are now dehydrated from the great heat.
Some of them even eat wood because of too much hungriness. While waiting for their captain,
they share conversations about various topics to ease the tension from the happenings.
Suddenly, the observant sees a jeep at the back full of Somali soldiers.
On the other hand, the teacher comes back to the bus with the help of a soldier’s vehicle.
She gives the children cold water to keep them hydrated. The terrorist mocks her to
be back and she states she does what she says. At the firing station, the men from the special
unit share French bread and delicious sardines while drinking cold water as their captain goes
back to them. They see various jeeps and buses from the Somali and immediately smell danger.
The man with him says to not call Paris because it will only tell them to stand down.
The man from the camp goes with them so the captain trains him with the codes; zero for firing
as they will count to three before they click. He gets a bit culture-shocked when he learns about
the counting but he still follows the captain. After a few chugs and chews, and few discussions,
the captain decides to task positions again and be prepared for any dangerous circumstances. He gives
his men different targets among the terrorists inside the bus. The unit is now starting the code,
saying that they are now ready while the other says no because of a few movements.
They try to prepare and start over again. At the bus, the Somali men are just chilling,
taking a whiff of cigarette in the blazing heat while the kids inside are now falling asleep.
At the Somali border, a handful of men are getting prepared for something nonchalantly. The men on
the bus are alternatively getting in and out to go to the border then back to the vehicle. They
are preparing to evacuate the kids on the sunset, as the message to the French soldiers has stated.
The Somali men are now discussing something in their camp as well as the special unit
preparing to fire anytime soon. The unit is also getting stressed and weak from the amazing heat.
Even the captain is hallucinating thinking that her daughter is inside the bus.
The captain immediately calls queen as he sees a huge truck from the other border hinting to
evacuate the kids, but the permission to fire is still negative for there is only one terrorist
inside the bus and can be seen as an act of war. The captain tells his men to take a break for a
meeting. He lets his men choose if they will give up and go home or save the children.
All of them decide to continue fighting which makes the soldiers alarmed.
The unit is now starting the code, being ready to fire. The captain says “zero” and all of
them fire after three seconds. The terrorists inside the bus get shot exactly in the head.
The Somali men get ready as they hear the gunshot while the teacher is waking up the students.
The terrorist hurriedly goes to the bus but before he fires,
the sniper from the unit shoots him directly to the head leaving his armor shoots from nowhere.
Suddenly, the firing station of the unit is being shot, the other camp now knows their hiding area.
The Somali soldiers keep on firing endless bullets that make the children scared.
They fire as if it’s the end of the world. The legion,
on the other hand, is still doing nothing so the special unit shoots the enemy who has weapons.
One of them is down already and the firing is still not stopping. The teacher gets frustrated
as the enemies are being closer to the bus so she gets the pistol from the dead terrorist.
The members of the unit need to go closer so the captain let them as they will cover for them.
An enemy enters the bus shouting to the teacher to drop the weapon. He gets
shot instantly and three of the special units come running to the bus to save the hostages.
One of them is outside of the bus and the other two are inside, trying to defend the vehicle.
While defending, a special unit member gets shot in the foot; this does not stop them
from fighting. They even get more eager to win the battle. One of them throws an explosive
that makes the battlefield exude zero-percent visibility from both parties. The unit keeps on
shooting despite the foggy area. At last, the cavalry comes to save the hostages. They pick
up the children staying low for them to be safe and protected. When the kids are now evacuated,
the special unit and the teacher breathe. However, a member sees something under the bus chair, it
was a dead girl that was shot during the battle. The teacher cries and the unit grieve with her.
The captain goes to the camp where the general tells them that was honestly a
success that upsets him even more because a kid just died. The captain goes somewhere and cries.
After a few medications, the kids go back home and their parents welcomed them with a hug.
A statement flashes that the hostages weren’t recognized as victims of terrorism even if it
already happened years ago. Then, the teacher hugs the parents and gives appreciation to the
special unit. A statement again flashes saying that the special unit was renamed G.I.G.N.
and has freed 600 hostages and lost 11 members in their 40 years of duty. The movie ends with the
unit going back home together and a text stating that the movie was based on real-life events.