Fuze is a heist thriller following a military bomb disarmament unit locking down a few city blocks in London to disarm a recently unearthed WWII bomb. At the same time, a band of opportunistic thieves use the lockdown to perform a bank heist.
I found this an incredibly interesting thriller, one that was prepared to change itself to keep the audience hooked. At first, what we have is quite an operational high-stakes glimpse into a major event that forces military, law enforcement and other units of government to come together to protect innocent lives from this bomb threat. The additional element of a band of thieves steadily working throughout this lockdown also contributes to the tightly paced delivery, with their heist proving extremely methodical. At precise moments, you wonder whether this is the time the thieves would be caught, while at others, the risk of the bomb detonating escalates. The film is stacked with tiny micro-conflicts that shift things into tenser or more unpredictable spaces. Once the large pivotal shift of the film transpires, the dangerous elements really unravel, and our focus lies with the heist. Seeing double crosses play out, secrets become revealed and intensive shoot-outs play out, leave you guessing to the very end who our final triumphant characters will be. There is a strange sense of satisfaction in watching who walks away, regardless of how likable the characters themselves are. Fuze is a thriller where you might notice the cards it has up its sleeve, yet it spins its story very well.
This film has a very simplistic, everything precisely in the frame approach. We move and hold with the characters who lead the screen; this is a film that invites you to observe as it all unfolds steadily. The editing for Fuze is absolutely tight; it keeps an incredible pace and moves through scenes in a way that only serves the story that is being told. The score might not be the most impressive of 2026, but it manages to keep a tense feeling of anxiety going in crucial scenes.
Theo James, who played Karalis, is a pretty slippery criminal mastermind here; James' role is riding the stress and high of this caper the most out of anyone. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who played Chief Superintendent Zuzana, is a very stoic leader; Mbatha-Raw does a good job at showing a reserved and effective figure of authority. Saffron Hocking, who played Military Sergeant Dootsie Keane, is a strong foil to Taylor-Johnson's more aloof lead; Hocking banters with her lines impressively while switching into a more abrasive military manner when called for.
However, the best performance came from Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played Will Tranter. This might be a smaller film than some of Taylor-Johnson's recent leading work, but it also reflects how much he has grown as a performer. There is no point in this film where you don't believe Will is a man of action who is seasoned in difficult scenarios such as this. Taylor-Johnson commands the military response scenes, barking orders and holding the unit together with a casual grit. Yet, it's the scenes where his command is challenged that I loved; watching him grow stubborn and upset was a nice switch. Seeing the sort of compassionate soldier he was and the path he chose in that final flashback was a great piece of acting from Taylor-Johnson to close us out.
Fuze is a well-written, precise piece of cinema that isn't too hard to follow. This is the sort of feature that signposts where it's going pretty hard, and I felt the mystery would have been richer with some more subtlety. The way this thriller becomes so heightened near the end, with a scrabble for success, felt a bit messier than the polished first half. The final flashback scene, paired with the humorous credits roll, felt a bit unnecessary. It was an endpoint that had me wishing the film just trusted the audience to be smart enough to read it. The use of comedy before a full cut to credits just seemed tonally jarring when compared to the movie we had been watching.
The soundtrack for this film had some cool tracks, but a really strange mix of genres that made no real sense. The jump from reggae to a folk-rock thing really had me scratching my head.
Sam Worthington, who played X, isn't much more than a big grunt with a few more lines than most; whatever leading man talent Worthington used to wield has abandoned him here. Elham Ehsas, who played Rahim, has his own subplot that doesn't intrigue as much as the others; Ehsas is really held on his own to tell his story, which struggles.
A tense play-by-play that turns into a lively heist thriller. I would give Fuze a 7.5/10.
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