“Crisis”

Movie Review

Nicholas Jarecki wrote, produced, and directed the criminal thriller Crisis released in 2021. The movie stars Martin Donovan, Greg Kinnear, Evangeline Lilly, Gary Oldman, and Armie Hammer. According to the movie's narrative, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seize Cedric Beauville, a young drug dealer, on the Canada-U.S. border while he is in possession of a sizable quantity of illegal fentanyl pills.

Northlight Pharmaceuticals has hired Dr. Tyrone Brower, a research scientist at Everett University, to conduct a study in favor of their newest drug, Klaralon. It will soon be available as an alternative to Oxycodone and is being hailed as the first non-addictive painkiller. The study reveals alarming findings: after 7 days of daily use, Klaralon becomes approximately three times more addictive than oxycodone, although initially showing no signs of addiction. Brower suggests to Northlight that they delay the distribution of Klaralon for additional testing because they are aware of the potential effects on public health, but they disagree. Dr. Bill Simons, a board member, offers Brower a sizable research grant in an effort to persuade him to change his mind, but Brower rejects the offer. Greg Talbot, the department chair, puts pressure on Brower to allow the study because Northlight is one of the university's major contributors, but he again refuses. Everett University terminates his tenure when Northlight starts releasing information intended to damage his reputation. In his desperation, Brower contacts the FDA as a whistleblower and is put in touch with investigator Ben Walker.

DEA agent Jake Kelly, who is located in Detroit, has been able to penetrate two sizable fentanyl-trafficking organizations. The Armanian Mafia, which runs pill mills all throughout the Nation, is in charge of one. The other is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, and is run by drug lord Claude "Mother" Veroche, who conducts business out of the unremarkable restaurant La Marina. Kelly wants to make the two cartels work together so that when they meet, both leaders may be taken into custody at once. Due to his younger sister's debilitating heroin addiction, Kelly has a personal incentive to bring them down. When word of Cedric's capture spreads, Kelly's relationship with Mother becomes strained because Mother worries that his organization may have an informant. Garrett, Kelly's superior agent, gives him less time to plan the meeting between the two cartels because of issues with operating financing. In exchange for Cedric's quiet, Mother has him assassinated in detention. She also has Guy Broussard, Cedric's second in command, killed after learning he had been cooperating with the police.

Designer and in rehabilitation Claire Reimann, an oxycodone user, is concerned when her 16 years old son David, does not return home from hockey practice. Later, he is discovered dead from a fentanyl overdose, stunning Claire because she is certain he never used narcotics. She employs a private investigator who concludes that David was forced to take the fentanyl and was murdered, even though the Detroit police department handles it as an accident death. Via her son's social media, she finds one of his friends, who admits that, despite David having only done it once, numerous teens from the hockey teams in Detroit and Montreal work for Mother as drug couriers. Reimann proceeds to Montreal after crossing the Ambassador Bridge, where she employs a different private eye who gives her information on Mother and an untraceable ghost gun. Derrick Millebran, a different drug dealer, fears that Mother is killing them to wrap up loose ends following Cedric's imprisonment, so she threatens him. Kelly discovers Reimann's activities when looking into Cedric's friends, and she meets her outside La Marina. Instead of making an arrest, he asks her to put her pistol down and begs her to go.

The meeting between the two cartels proceeds as a joint DEA-RCMP unit secretly observes it. Kelly's companion, Special Agent Stanley Foster, is killed in a gunfight as a result of an RCMP surveillance officer unintentionally disclosing his whereabouts. Mother also flees, and it's thought that she went to Algeria. Both American and Canadian agencies decide to call off their ongoing hunt for Mother and the Armenians in light of the drugs being seized at the rendezvous. Kelly is furious and defies orders to proceed to La Marina, where he threatens a worker who tells him that Mother is still in Canada but is about to leave that evening from the Port of Montreal by seaplane. This information is also provided to Reimann by her private investigator. Reimann beat Kelly there before opening fire and killing Mother as he made his way to the plane as Kelly arrived at the pier. She gets wounded in the arm by his security, who is then quickly shot by Kelly. He then swaps out the men's firearms for Reimann's ghost gun and his own unregistered backup gun to make it look like they were fighting over cash that Mother was carrying at the time. While tending to her gunshot wound, he assures her that she won't be arrested.

A last-ditch attempt by Northlight CEO Dr. Meg Holmes to persuade Brower to support the company also fails, and an FDA hearing is held. To Brower's surprise, the government decides not to rescind Northlight's authorizations for the release of Klaralon, stating that the potential advantages to the general public exceed the risks outlined in his analysis. Walker is also transferred as retaliation. In spite of the potential legal repercussions, Brower violates his non-disclosure agreement and contacts the media, so making the information public. He eventually receives a job offer from the University of Michigan as a result of his activities and is shown delivering an introductory lecture to a packed auditorium. His honesty and integrity paid off.

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