Black Box or Boîte Noire French Movie Recommendation. And I feel badly mentioning this movie, because it hasn’t found distribution yet. But, if I don’t post about this great French film right now, I’ll forget about it and it will be as if it never existed in my mind. So, with that said, Black Box (or Boîte Noire) is a terrific avionic/investigative thriller with more under its hood than meets the eye. Black Box tells the story of a talented black box analyst who is on a mission to discover why a deadly air crash killed over 300 people. Worse, when he feels like the investigation has been railroaded in one convenient direction he risks his own grip on reality in order to figure out what is really going on here.
This movie rivals a standard, high budget, Hollywood experience, but without the fairly affected rigidity and controls one might find coming out of Hollywood. I mean, heck, a story about a Black Box technician/reader? That by itself strains credulity as something that Hollywood would sign up for. (Well, Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack did do Pushing Tin about air traffic controllers… so what do I know?) Regardless, this is a fantastic film with a really riveting plot and investigation that could really go in any possible direction. And the direction it does go in, is really an enjoyable ride. Can’t wait to see this film get its day in wide distribution.
Black Box Movie Walkthrough Explained
Goes without saying that you shouldn’t continue on unless you’ve found a way to watch this movie. But I’m guessing it’ll probably hit the wide markets and streaming houses in the next few months. Regardless, Mathieu Vasseur, a gifted black box analyst has been shouldered out of an enormous crash in the European mountains. Pollock and another analyst have started leaning in to the crash and Mathieu has been excluded. But when Pollock goes missing, and no one has any sort of idea as to where he might have gone, Mathieu as included on the investigation. And quickly, Mathieu makes headway where others couldn’t. He finds, buried in the transcript of the audio recordings, a hint that the air crash as a terror attack. And voila! The case is solved. Simple.
Soon though, Mathieu begins to doubt his own conclusions when he realizes that something was way too trite, and simple, about his analysis that it was a terrorist attack. There is way too much involved for the airline manufacturer to allow it to be the plane’s mechanical fault… there is too much money hanging in the breeze. Mathieu at first thinks it might be the auto-leveling systems for when the plane goes into an incorrect attitude… but later he realizes that it might be some other mechanical difficult instead. The shifting theories makes him start to doubt himself… does he just have a grudge? An axe to grind? Besides, his wife, Noémie, has convinced him to take a deep breath. He’s chasing ghosts. And heck, he’s already saved the day! The BEA, the French FAA, looks good, they’ve solved the case… he has done his job.
But when Mathieu realizes that Noémie is leaving the BEA, and is joining this same airline manufacturing company… her allegiances might not be all the pure either. And sure enough, she has been seeing someone from the airline manufacturer, and spending dinners and time with him. Is it an affair? Who knows. It is clear though that she is soiled by her allegiances… it means she isn’t the best person to trust at this juncture. And when Mathieu learns that there was a known problem with the plane, a weakness of the networks, that might have been covered up prior to its being adequately solved. Mathieu steals the paper from Noémie’s computer, which gets her fired. But Mathieu now knows that there actually is a problem with the plane, factually. He isn’t certain though that there is an actual problem that caused the crash. Eventually, he gets hold of a few messages that were made during the flight that tells him his black box recording isn’t completely whole – there are elements that are definitely missing.
When Mathieu determines that the entirety of his investigation rests on the finding of the original black box investigator, Pollock, his search takes him back to Pollock’s house. He has found a very specific latitude and longitude that was buried in a totally different audio recording that only he and Pollock had access to. The coordinates takes him to Pollock’s home, deep in a lake, where he discovers the original black box, which was swapped by another soon after the crash.
Apparently, Pollock had been on the payroll of this airline manufacturer for years, constantly tipping the results against the pilots, and away from the actual airplane’s fault. And as Pollock found himself slipping deeper and deeper into this tar of bribery he was asked to cover up the real fault of this latest crash that took the lives of 300 people. He is done with the bribes, the lies, and being guilty for taking the cash. And so he has pointed Mathieu to the real black box, and has run for it. With the new recordings, and the real data from the recorder, Mathieu quickly discovers the truth of what happened on that fateful flight.
The Ending of Black Box Explained
The question that has plagued us since the beginning of this movie is simple… what caused the airliner to crash? What was the real cause for the death of over 300 people? Well, now that Mathieu has the ACTUAL flight recorder, and the details from the real black box, he is able to put the pieces together. Apparently, an individual who had warned about airplane’s network weaknesses was actually on the flight under an alias. He was there to prove his theory was correct… that the plane’s networks were very weak, and vulnerable to hacking. So, to prove his point, he hacks the plane, but when the plane’s systems engaged due to an incorrect attitude adjustment, it locks the hacker out of the systems and he is unable to disconnect what he had done previously.
The cause of the plane’s crash? A hacker onboard attempting to prove a point that took his meddling too far. And in the end, the airplane manufacturer’s goons came looking for Mathieu and what he might find out at Pollock’s home. They hack his car, and cause him to run into a tree, but not before he sent the real flight recorder information to Noémie. Noémie, grieving her husband’s death, whom she now knows was right all along, plays the Pollock video he recorded for Mathieu wherein he admits his own guilt, at an aviation conference. And news of the subterfuge quickly spreads around the world. And voila, Noémie gets her revenge as the police and the authorities begin investigating their murderous actions.
Black Box or Boîte Noire French Movie Recommendation
Black Box gets high marks on its seemingly big budget feel. The film was able to take over a warehouse, and build out an entire plane re-assembly effort. They were also able to do some fairly impressive CG that was thoroughly immersive as Mathieu continued playing out his theories in his mind. It was so compelling I almost though the film was wasted on a fictional story… that maybe it should be the background for a high profile documentary. I’m not going to complain! I loved the treatment, and really found it a compelling use of tech and budget. Saddest part? I’m dubious this movie will get much in the way of eyeballs without an English remake. Which, would be the saddest thing that could possibly happen to this movie. Just saying.
Interested in other investigative films like Black Box? Dopesick, though a true story, was amazing. Profile? A story of a British journalist attempting to join Isis? That’s a fictional story, but could have been real similarly to how Black Box could have been real. Bad Education – a semi-autobiographical story about fraud in a local school system. Or what about the crazy movie Dark Waters? Again, another real story… but still in that same vein of investigative goodness.
Edited by: CY