The Order

A run of bank robberies and killings in the American northwest in the mid-eighties. A worn-out FBI agent works out that this is not scattered crime but one organisation acting to a plan. Justin Kurzel directed. The source is the 1989 book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, and the film tells the real story of The Order, the white supremacist group founded by Robert Jay Mathews. Jude Law plays agent Terry Husk and Nicholas Hoult plays Mathews, with Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver and Marc Maron in support. Filming began in Alberta, Canada in May 2023. Kurzel stated the connection to the present plainly: the parallel between the January 6 Capitol attack and The Turner Diaries, the extremist text at the centre of the film. It premiered in competition for the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice Film Festival on 31 August 2024. Vertical gave it a limited US release on 6 December 2024 and it went to Amazon Prime Video internationally. Rotten Tomatoes has 93 percent of 162 reviews positive with a 7.6 average, and Metacritic 75. The domestic gross stopped at 2.3 million dollars. Who it is for: viewers who like true-crime thrillers and Kurzel's cold manner. Who it is not for: anyone who will notice the agent's private life is a cliché. The weakest thing here is that Husk settles into the standard worn-out-detective mould.