David Mackenzie’s new thriller Fuze lands as a taut, 96-minute race against time now available to rent or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV. Its premise — an **unexploded World War II bomb** discovered on a London construction site during an enforced **evacuation** — creates immediate stakes, while a concurrent diamond **heist** plot exploits the citywide chaos.
Tip Toe episode 5 left cast shaken after heavily policed shoot: they needed a week off
Toy Story 5 may close Woody, Buzz and Jessie’s chapter: filmmakers weigh in
The film sets up two parallel emergencies. On one side is Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his military team, tasked with neutralizing a decades-old explosive before the situation spirals. On the other is Theo James’s Karalis, who sees the evacuation as cover for a carefully planned robbery.
Pacing is the film’s most consistent asset: at roughly 96 minutes, Fuze moves briskly and rarely lets tension lag. Mackenzie stages several well-executed action sequences and set pieces that emphasize the citywide peril and the procedural work of bomb disposal.
American Horror Story season 13 ramps up terror: Coven spinoff episodes teased as even scarier
Toy Story 5 puts Jessie center stage: director reveals her backstory was always on his mind
Where the movie falters is in its human material. Big names such as Taylor-Johnson, James, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Honor Swinton Byrne deliver competent performances, but the script gives them limited personal ground to cover. Many supporting figures — notably the gang accompanying Karalis — come across as functional archetypes rather than fully drawn characters.
- Director: David Mackenzie
- Leads: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James
- Supporting: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Honor Swinton Byrne, Sam Worthington
- Runtime: 96 minutes
- Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV (rent/buy)
That imbalance — kinetic action versus thin character work — shapes the viewing experience. If you come for pulse-pounding sequences and a compact, plot-driven structure, Fuze delivers. If you expect deep interpersonal drama or emotional arcs, the film is more likely to disappoint.
Critically, the film’s evacuation setup does more than raise the tempo; it creates an ethical and logistical pressure cooker. Authorities must balance civilian safety with the urgency of disarmament, while criminals exploit the confusion. Those competing priorities generate most of the film’s suspense.
Several elements stand out in the movie’s favor. The production sells the scale of a city in lockdown, and technical details around explosive ordinance disposal are handled with clinical clarity. Visually, the nighttime London setting and contained locations give the picture a gritty, claustrophobic feel that fuels tension.
On the flip side, opportunities are missed to deepen the moral texture of the story. The robbers’ codenames and predictable interactions blunt potential emotional stakes, and major supporting characters largely exist to issue commands or execute plans from a control room rather than to complicate them.
Viewers who appreciate classic, scenario-driven thrillers will find familiar pleasures here. The film nods to 1970s disaster and suspense pictures — where the mechanism of danger, as much as the people caught up in it, drives the story — and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
Quick takeaways:
- Strong on tension and technical detail; economical runtime keeps momentum high.
- Underwritten supporting roles mean emotional investment is limited.
- Well suited for viewers who favor procedural suspense over character study.
- An ending that chooses restraint over spectacle may divide audiences.
Ultimately, Fuze is an entertaining, well-crafted thriller that prioritizes atmosphere and mechanics over psychological depth. It may not be the most rewatchable entry in the genre, but for anyone in the mood for a compact, edge-of-your-seat London thriller, it’s a solid choice available now on mainstream digital platforms.
Jessica Morrison is a seasoned entertainment writer with over a decade of experience covering television, film, and pop culture. After earning a degree in journalism from New York University, she worked as a freelance writer for various entertainment magazines before joining red94.net. Her expertise lies in analyzing television series, from groundbreaking dramas to light-hearted comedies, and she often provides in-depth reviews and industry insights. Outside of writing, Jessica is an avid film buff and enjoys discovering new indie movies at local festivals.