The Wolf’s Call is a 2019 thriller set in the near future, where a French submarine finds itself in a crisis situation.
If you’re any fan of submarine movies, your litmus test for quality probably starts with the 1990 John McTiernan classic The Hunt For Red October, the film redefining the genre and while more acclaimed films of the sort – Das Boot for example – have their proper place among the best, it remains the perfect undersea popcorn thriller. Entering the waters now, and one that deserves some comparisons with October, is writer and director Antonin Baudry‘s intelligent, tension-filled drama The Wolf’s Call (French: Le chant du loup), a fast-paced military action film with everything and more you’ve come to expect in this kind of story.
Set just a bit into the future, we open with an extraction off the coast of Syria where a team of a commando-types take to the waters, picked up under the waves by a French submarine. However, this doesn’t go exactly to plan as the ship’s sonar man Chanteraide (François Civil) gets a strange audio signature, and soon enough, everything erupts into chaos, leading to a serious international incident with the Iranians. Back on land, we learn the Russians have gone on the offensive and the United States have shrunk into isolationism, leaving the chance for a nuclear war, but Chanteraide is convinced what her heard is something more that it seems.
There’s no holding our hand in The Wolf’s Call, the movie establishing quickly in the opening moments that we are spectator’s in an unfamiliar world, and it’s our job to keep up. It’s refreshing to watch a movie that has such confidence in its audience to let the action tell the story, knowing that the details and dialogue don’t need explanation because the broader outcomes make it all clear. It lends the action in the submarine a lot of credibility.
On land, things are not quite as tricky, Chanteraide positioned as a sort of savant when it comes to acoustics, using his hyper sense of hearing to go on some bits of investigation. Even when he’s having sex, the guy ‘hears’ the ocean. Some of it is a stretch, but Civil is great fun to watch and lets himself sink right in to unusual role. Fact is, the entire cast sells this film with the likes of Jean-Yves Berteloot and Omar Sy building a lot personality out of their take in all this.
There is a large section of the movie set out of the water, but once back under the waves, it finds it proper grip, the story putting all its weight on Chanteraide’s ears. There are some clever twists in all this as things begin to take shape about what’s really happening, and fortunately Baudry blends well the high personal drama at stake with plenty of convincing hi-tech adventure. It’s good stuff.
Streaming on Netflix, this is a French language film and really should be heard that way, so if you don’t mind reading subtitles, that’s the way go. There is an English dub option, but as is typical, despite some good efforts by the voice actors, doesn’t have the same impact as in French. Either way, The Wolf’s Call is a superior bit of military intrigue that challenges and entertains. Highly recommended.