Cleanskin

Plot synopsis:
Harry (Sam Douglas), a British arms dealer, is seen in bed with a prostitute named Rena (Shivani Ghai). While toying with Harry's pistol, she unloads it but replaces the empty magazine. Harry's bodyguard Ewan (Sean Bean) is a British Secret Service Agent. Harry and Ewan travel to a bank, transporting a briefcase of Semtex. The men are followed by two terrorists, Ash (Abhin Galeya) and Ibrahim (Mens-Sana Tamakloe). Ibrahim approaches Harry and Ewan from the top of a staircase, shooting at them. After Ash shoots Ewan twice, Harry tries to shoot Ash, only to discover there are no bullets in his gun. Ash kills Harry and takes the briefcase of Semtex. However, Ewan manages to shoot Ash in the arm; but, before he can apprehend him, Ash returns fire and escapes with the briefcase.
Ash sews the stolen Semtex into a jacket along with a detonation device. He gives the jacket to Adel (Shane Zaza), who goes to a popular London restaurant and detonates the bomb. Being the only person who knows about the stolen explosives, Ewan is tasked by his two Secret Service superiors Charlotte (Charlotte Rampling) and Scott (James Fox) to find and eliminate the terrorists who created the bomb. His mission is off-the-books and unknown even within the Secret Service. He is given an assistant, rookie agent Mark (Tom Burke). Ewan finds Rena and beats her for any information she has about Harry. She tells Ewan and Mark that a man she frequented, Paul, paid her for information about Harry and to unload his gun. Ewan, Mark, and Rena go to Paul's house where Rena tries to aid Ewan and Mark in capturing Paul. However, Paul kills her and attempts to detonate a suicide jacket but is killed by Ewan.
At a cafè, Ash sees Kate (Tuppence Middleton), his former lover, and they exchange numbers. A series of flashbacks are shown from six years ago, where it is revealed that Ash and Kate were dating at university, where they both studied law. At the school, Nabil (Peter Polycarpou), a Muslim extremist, befriends Ash and asks him to join the pro-Muslim student group he heads. Ash and his friend Yussif (Chris Ryman) join the group and are exposed to Nabil's anti-Western teachings. Later that night, when Ash is at a bar, he sees Nick (Chris Geere) drinking and hitting on Kate. He argues with her but ultimately forgives her. Ash returns to the bar the following day and sees Nick, who insults him and says that he slept with Kate. Ash beats Nick up and goes to his apartment and breaks up with Kate. Nabil continues to brainwash Ash.
In the present, Ewan and Mark are sent to an abandoned building they are told is the home of a terrorist. Ewan confronts the man they find there (Jeetandra Lathigra) and interrogates him. The man begs for mercy, but Ewan sets him on fire and leaves him to burn to death. Searching the building, Ewan takes the man's jacket.
A series of flashbacks cut to three years earlier, where Nabil senses Ash's readiness to do more for the cause. Nabil tells Ash to participate in the punishment of Sgt. Glen Conlan (Glenn Wrage), an ex-soldier living alone on a farm, who he says killed and tortured Muslims throughout the Middle East. An experienced foreign operative named Amin (Silas Carson) is flown into the UK; Ash and his friend Yussif are instructed to act as his local guides and assistants. They travel to Conlan's farm. Yussif confronts Conlan in a barn but is stabbed in the face. Ash then chases Conlan and knocks him unconscious. Ash searches the house and finds a woman with a baby but does not tell Amin about them. Amin then searches the house again and kills the woman and her baby. Ash and Amin take Conlan to an abandoned building, where Ash films Amin beheading Conlan.
Ewan and Mark go to a housing estate, where they are noticed by Ash and another man wearing a bulky jacket. The unknown man takes off running, and Ash gets away on his motorcycle. Mark chases after the unknown man and shoots him dead. Mark and Ewan are told by Charlotte that the Secret Service has found out about their covert mission and is hunting them. Later, when Ewan is sleeping in a hotel, Mark breaks in and tries to kill him. After a fight, Ewan stabs Mark; but Mark refuses to tell Ewan who sent him. Ewan then kills Mark. Ewan realises he is now alone and must stop the terror cell before he is killed. Using Mark's earpiece, he discovers that whoever Mark was working for is facilitating the next bombing.
Ash and Kate get back together after six years of being apart. However, Ash sees his work with Nabil as more important and leaves Kate for a final suicide mission. Nabil tasks Ash with killing the head of a pro-Iraqi War think tank at his daughter's wedding in London. Ash makes a video explaining his reasons justifying his planned suicide attack. He travels to the wedding reception but is confronted by Ewan. Both are wounded in a fight, but Ash gets away. Disguising himself as a waiter, Ash makes his way to the reception's head table. Moments before Ash detonates his jacket bomb, he is shot by Ewan. After disabling the detonator, Ewan leaves the hotel. At the exit, Ewan notices men in suits delivering luggage on a trolley into the hotel lobby and then driving away from the hotel. Moments later, a bomb hidden in this luggage detonates in the hotel lobby, killing Nabil's targets.
In the epilogue, Ewan finds a safe deposit box key in the jacket of the man he killed earlier. He finds the box and its contents: a folder and video camera. He watches the tape, which shows footage of the man Ewan set on fire saying that he is an English citizen named Hussein Malik, who is an undercover Secret Service agent like Ewan. Ewan, distraught, goes back to the hotel room where he killed Mark and finds Charlotte's lighter in Mark's shirt. He realises that Charlotte hired Mark to kill him and framed Scott for being corrupt to cover any trace of her covert mission. Ewan confronts Charlotte at her countryside mansion and kills her, framing her death as a suicide.

Tags: boring, flashback

Review:
However, although a serious topic, you'll find some light hearted humour in parts of the film.Have already recommended to friends and family, purchased on DVD myself, so go and watch too if you already haven't.Overall, a great watch with some excellent action shots and twists and turns throughout..
It started off well, had some great action scenes throughout and finished excellently (a nod to a famous death perhaps?).It amazes me that a film of just £2m can produce such a twisty-turny story with some easily recognisable British actors.
The good thing about his character is that he wasn't the standard angry soldier, he had a history and motivation.My favourite scene was when Ash is about to commit his attack he visits the Cleric, Ash wants reassurance about heaven and the cleric reassures him then hurriedly goes to his sons birthday party leaving Ash alone to commit his act while the Cleric is enjoying himself elsewhere.
I was expecting a rather mindless 'lets get the terrorists' themed action film but was instead treated to a film that, to a limited extent, tried to explore the motivations of the main characters whilst still maintaining the feel and pace of an action movie.
The reasons as to why British born terrorists turn to the path of mass murder are explored well in this very British film.Sean Bean is well cast and his performance is brutal and minimal, he ticks the boxes of Cleanskin's demands.
This is shown with Ewans and Ash's character and their leaders, played by Charlotte Rampling and Peter Polycarpou.There are key moments in the film that are obviously meant to show and mirror the traits and similarity of the two leads, both have started moral but Ewan has turned to questionable and Ash has no excuse for his horrific acts, but the interest is how it is done this with subtlety.
Sean Bean's character Ewan lost his wife "in the bombings a few years back" which I guess is reference to the London tube/bus bombings, and so you can forgive him for wanting to catch all terrorists and "send them to the deaths they pray for" (which is my favourite line in the film).There are lots of twists throughout this movie, and you can never be sure if people are who they say they are - much like the modern world really.Apart from the few niggly continuity mistakes, I think the production team can give themselves a pat on the back for making a film that touches on a very sensitive subject yet tackles this subject from both sides.On a side note, Tom Burke (Sean Bean's sidekick) puts up an excellent performance..
There are scenes that make you squirm, laugh, gasp and applaud (I won't give away too much) and that's why I also found the ending great - just simple acting with continuous twists and turns.Considering the budget, I am amazed how they manage to get Sean Bean, Charlotte Rampling & James Fox all in the same line up?
A great performance from not only Sean but also the girl (Tuppence?), and it was nice to see Peter Polycarpou back on our screen!cleanskin will appeal to a wide audience, not just those who are still recovering from 7/7 (which i couldn't stop thinking about whilst watching) and it's helpful seeing the side from the "good guy" and the side from the "bad guy".having lived in London when i was younger, it was nice to see some of the landmarks i visited as a kid, so it seems they really went out of their way to keep the realism in the film.
After an unsuccessful mission when a load of explosives is stolen by the terrorists Ash (Abhin Galeya) and Paul (Tariq Jordan), the British Secret Service Agent Ewan (Sean Bean) is assigned by his superior Charlotte (Charlotte Rampling) to team-up with agent Mark (Tom Burke) and hunt down the terrorist before the elections.
He's a good actor with a solid presence, and he's has played some fantastic roles and been in some great films and TV series (even recently such as Game of Thrones) but he always seems to have bad luck follow him, for some reason he never has made it to the hall of fame as a true Hollywood star and hero.
A typical law student with an identity crisis that develops into some extreme moral tensions, inevitably seeing him drawn into Islamic terrorism.You may think that having a good-looking sultry student-type turn into a terrorist is a bit bad taste, but Hajaig's script is all about moral ambiguity and identity.
Almost a few stories going on at once, I thought it was good character development, you have to concentrate to keep up in between the present and past sequences, but that's what made this film different in its style and approach of the topic.
I sure we can say that the main terrorist is certainly dead, no no chance of bringing him back, but I would like to see the character of the secret agent continued in a secondary movie with a new task at hand and a cleaned up loyal team (not to give to much away).
This movie was not what I was expecting at all, the synopsis and plot summaries do give you a hint of the subject, but the film itself opened into something a lot better than just chase, shoot and kill.There appears to be a clever character build up to both the heroin (Ewan in my opinion) and the enemy (Ash among others), leaving the viewer piecing together the hints and clues (which almost seem to be subtle) along the way.
I recently caught this film, billed as an action/drama/suspense flick, quite by accident, and immediately wondered why I saw no promo for it...First off, it was nice to see Sean Bean, who has played some bad ass bad guys (eg.
There wasn't too much publicity and it certainly wasn't shown in my local cinema, but I picked up the DVD on the hunch that a film with Sean Bean and Charlotte Rampling must be worth watching, surely!Some great scenic shots with a little sprinkle of humour mixed in.
But the way he is manipulated gives an insight into a world that I never wanted to know about.My partner wasn't really keen on watching the film given its subject, but we sat down together and thought how realistic the settings and characters look.All in all, a pleasurable watch..
The plot is fast paced and full of great action and the script is intelligent and realistic, much more true to life than many of the pieces of trash I've suffered through from Hollywood that are nothing more than government propaganda so a population can feel good about being at war with innocent people while decrying their resistance as the reason for invasion..
My wife purchased the CLEANSKIN DVD for me recently (despite asking for a Sean Bean film of a different name!) and it turned out to be an enjoyable watch.
The theme of terrorism and radicalisation trends throughout the world, and the July London bombings of 2005 suddenly come flashing back whilst watching CLEANSKIN, so you find yourself cheering for Sean Bean quite loudly during the film.Equally, you also find yourself in the mindset of the terrorist Ash's head, and you pray that he won't go on and want to commit such atrocities.
Liked this film loads because it is is quintessentially British apart from its visual style which is slick.Sean bean plays the down at heals, troubled tortured and brutal agent with a dark past, he does it as he always does it, with minimal fuss and brooding intensity.The British terrorist is played well by Abhin Galeya, it shows how these British born guys go and do these horrible things but not in much detail as the film is primarily entertainment but that doesn't mean its not smart but hey look.
The plotting is lean and fast paced.Charlotte Rampling is a class act all the way and plays her part with finesse as do the other actors in the film.All in all a rollicking cracking old fashioned British thriller old boy, wot wot!!.
Ewan has "served for his country" and appears to be very proud of that fact.I thought the performances of both characters Ash and Charlotte were very powerful, although I didn't take a shine to the nutter from abroad (although having watched the film again, I see the reason why he was in the movie).Cleanskin's storyline and unique take on the subject was eye opening and expanded my knowledge on something I know very little about!Overall it was a pleasant surprise to discover this film and Sean is always watcheable..
I enjoyed the way this film go started, straight away there was action and suspense in the opening shoot out.Not sure why some people said it was not that good, I followed it very well, the on screen direction of present day and previous year captions helped keeping up with the flashbacks.
Of course having Sean Bean as the lead role was always going to make me compliment this film, but it really does get you thinking outside the box.The only reason I didn't give the film a higher mark is because of an unnecessary killing during the barn scene by the creepy tall guy.I think the ending also left itself open to a sequel, which I would be more than happy to pay to watch.Congrats too to Peter Polycarpou - he's come a long way since Birds Of A Feather!.
A rough, tough and extremely violent movie that sees Game of Thrones star Sean Bean swap doublet and sword for civvies and gun to play a British secret service agent who's ordered to going under cover to track down some missing Semtex explosive and the home-grown Islamist suicide cell possessing it.
It was marketed as some sort of sean bean action movie turns into a love the terrorist drama then a conspiracy theory anti government thing.
" did we change channels, weren't we watching a sean bean film, who is this guy and why did the movie just end.Seriously, they just stop following the action story and start on a new tact for like 30 minutes of explaining away terrorism drama, then go back to the action movie bit and then go government crazy.I seriously don't get who wants to watch an ultra violent action movie and an terrorist apoligist drama at the same time.Must be an audience of like 5 people in all of the UK.Truly bizarre concept, and the marketing was horrible, tell me its an action movie and thats what I expect..
In the end Sean Bean does indeed get the bad guy, both the terrorist (one of them at least) and at the same time exposing that the terrorists actually had help from within thus throwing some sh-t at the British government and the fight against terrorism at the same time.When watching this movie I could not help but feel that this was just a, mildly concealed, political propaganda movie and that the killing of a few of the terrorists in the end was just to get it to pass as politically correct in the Western world.
The recruiting of Ash was illustrated fairly well, but I think it could have shown him questioning his recruiter and new friends a bit more than he did.Sean Bean gave a decent performance but not great, and I would have liked to see a bit more of an emotional performance based on the past of his character.The action is fairly good.
A British film about suicide bombers in London is most likely to be too dark (and a little too much like real life) to be a mainstream success, so many people may be forgiven for never hearing about Cleanskin.Sean Bean plays a Secret Service agent on the trail of a suicide bomber cell in Britain.
While Sean is your typical no-nonsense tough guy (think Liam Neeson in the Taken films), the terrorists are actually pretty well thought out characters - no 'True Lies' clichéd Arab terrorists here.
It takes something pretty well written to make you have sympathy with a terrorist one minute, then be revolted by his actions the next, plus even weave in a convincing love story into the mix.I won't go into too many details about the film's plot, as there are a few twists and turns you might not see coming.
Although the twist in the end is quite predictable to some, the movie goes as far as possible on this plot-line and leaves a lot of discussion topics for the viewer.Albeit the main characters past and sometime present has some holes, the filmmakers have made the right choices here, to make a good streaming thriller that deals with what is happening when people make the choices and carry consequences, rather than delve into exactly how and what happened that lead to that decision.
STORY:The film starts begins with secret service agent Sean Bean being tasked with stopping a terrorist cell.
4/5EXECUTION:Having never heard of any of the actors apart from Sean Bean I was surprised at how good the acting was all round, I must give particular mention to Abhin Galeya who plays the young student turned suicide bomber exceptionally well.
This is a nicely paced action/thriller movie about a hunt to stop some terrorists that has nice points but ultimately is not entirely convincing and leaves certain things unexplained or overly convenient.The overall story is well-used but developed with some nice twists and unique details.
Solid performances throughout the entire cast, and who doesn't like to see Sean Bean kick some major butt!There was some pretty great action sequences in this movie, but do not go into this movie thinking that it is a full on action flick.We also see the complexity of Ash, as he is changes from a normal University student to a brainwashed terrorist.
This insightful film addresses this very concept of sharing with the audience the factors behind what encourages men to terrorist acts, especially those of suicide bombers who by their actions work with the concept that in carrying out such bombings to kill infidels they gain immediate access into Paradise with the concomitant virgins and joining deceased family and friends.The title holds some clues as to the film's direction: 'A 'cleanskin' is a term for an undercover operative unknown to his or her targets, or, as more commonly used in the UK following the London bombings, an extremist with no previous convictions so therefore unknown to national security.' A strangely quiet man named simply Ewan (Sean Bean) is a rather ruthless British Secret Service Agent who with his partner Mark (Tom Burke) is directed by his superiors Charlotte (Charlotte Rampling) and Scott (James Fox), and faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a British born Muslim suicide bomber Ash (Abhin Galeya) and his terrorist cell directed by Nabil (Peter Polycarpou).
The process of pursuing the capture and the perpetration of the terrorist activity is full of surprising twists and turns and the resolution is entirely unexpected.While the film focuses attention on Sean Bean as the name actor, the story really belongs to the very gifted young British actor Abhin Galeya who plays Ash, a handsome idealistic student in love with a non-Muslim girl Kate (Tuppence Middleton) who struggles with the concept of terrorism yet grows into a man with a terrifyingly single-minded mission.
According to Wikipedia , a "cleanskin" is a term for an undercover operative unknown to his or her targets, or, as more commonly used in the UK following the London bombings, an extremist with no previous convictions so therefore unknown to national security." Not knowing what the title meant maybe was a turnoff at the box office besides being a low budget film without big name stars receiving little promotion if any.A small film with well known English actors is not a bad thing as this was a suspenseful dark thriller with good performances.
He is played like a pawn by Charlotte Rampling because she knows he will do whatever it takes to stop these murderers, particularly when it's in her interests too (she is aiming to knock the top Secret Service guy - James Fox - off his perch and grab a promotion).While the young terrorist Muslim being manipulated by the recruiter of Nabil, Sean is busy on the streets of London hunting down the bad guys.
I like the way the film shows that Ash is potentially brainwashed into wanting to commit atrocities, and we know very little about Ewan's character, which makes Cleanskin an interesting watch.Where Four Lions was too humorous about the subject, this film takes extremism and makes the viewer see both sides of the story.
In a way, the movie and main character redeem themselves at the end when the imperfect good guy kills ANY evil people involved.
The writer has taken no account of her fears or feelings, and has written a comic book character.What is more, why didn't they call in an anti terrorist team to surround the house and take him out – the team wouldn't have needed to know the details, and it would have stopped him escaping – and would be closer to real life.For me, the Characters just didn't work.Sean Bean's character alternates between a "Callan" type character – rebellious toward authority, but with a strong moral conscience about killing – and then is suddenly a Terminator figure.His partner's character came across as quite confusing, and I still have no idea why he did some of the things he did, or why they had a wind up toy.There are lots more about this film I didn't like, the main one being the script.
Pity a great actor like Sean Bean is wasted on this film full of western fantasies about Muslim terror cells .