Interceptor is an action film based on a recently demoted female US army officer who comes face to face with the instigators of a nuclear attack on the country. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In case of a Russian nuclear strike on the US, only two interceptor bases can destroy the incoming missiles. One is Fort Greely, Alaska, and the other is a seaborne platform known as SBX-1.
The film is set in the latter, with the first base getting attacked and left incapable of stopping a nuclear strike. 16 missiles have been stolen and could be launched anytime.
Captain JJ Collins (Elsa Pataky) has been demoted back to the SBX-1 base after an incident which stopped her from climbing further up the ladder, much to her frustration.
Joining her on the base are Rahul Shah (Mayen Mehta), Lieutenant Colonel Clark Marshall (Rhys Muldoon) and Beaver Baker (Aaron Glenane).
The news of Fort Greely reaches them and Collins quickly deduces it’s an inside job. The janitors hear this, and reveal themselves as the culprits, quickly killing Marshall.
Collins manages to subdue them and lock them outside. Their leader reveals himself as Alexander Kessel (Luke Bracey). Collins has Shah and Baker with her, but the latter is unconscious.
General Dyson makes contact with Collins, who tells him they don’t have much time as the infiltrators will break in soon. Dyson tells her SEAL officers are on their way but they need to hold the base.
One of them manages to break in through a different route but Collins beats him. Kessel starts taunting Collins with her past, the aforementioned incident.
She had bagged a role in the Pentagon but was harassed by her boss. When she filed a complaint, nobody believed her. She recorded proof of his advances and got him discharged, but army officers loved him and kept harassing Collins through insults and pictures of her.
Fed up with everything, she tried committing suicide by drowning herself in a bathtub but was saved by her father.
Baker reveals himself to be an American extremist traitor and lets the infiltrators in, who capture Collins and Shah. The Russians launch the missiles, with the only operating interceptor base under Kessel’s control.
He provides a live feed to President Wallace (Zoe Carides), Dyson and everybody with a smartphone and reveals the plan to bomb Los Angeles first, and then major cities of the United States.
However, due to Collins’ dislocated thumb during her days as a goalkeeper, she manages to free her hands and attack them all, locking them outside once again. She launches the interceptor missiles to destroy the incoming nuclear missiles.
Kessel is revealed to be a former US Intelligence officer with a speciality in torture, going too far sometimes. He captures Collins’ father and threatens to kill him if she doesn’t let them in.
She refuses, and he is supposedly killed. Kessel uses a protocol to submerge the entire interceptor underwater in 13 minutes.
Shah goes down to close the valves and buy them some more time. He manages to get them a few more minutes but Baker finds and kills him.
The base is going to flood in 15 minutes. They would just wait for it to sink and fire the missiles after that. Collins proposes that she let them take the centre and fire the missiles, only to take the base back and intercept them.
Even with theorists saying the odds of success are low, she urges Dyson and Wallace to go through with the plan, and she has their support.
If you still have doubts about the ending, here’s a detailed breakdown:
Interceptor ending explained in detail:
The bait
Kessler and the infiltrators believe that if they take the centre, they win. When they reach it, Collins is missing, and they assume she is on the roof. They launch the next set of missiles.
Baker goes up to find her, but she is nowhere to be found. Kessel starts suspecting that she is still hiding in the centre.
They try to find her but she sneaks up on them and kills a few. She gets hold of a gun and Kessel runs away. His device that runs the protocol is left behind.
She takes it to the roof to activate the interceptors from there. Baker finds her and tries to kill her. In the ensuing battle, she gets the better of him and falls into the water.
Fight back
She remembers her father’s words to never stop fighting and gets back out of the water and accesses the interceptors.
By activating the interceptors, she successfully destroys all the remaining nuclear missiles that were heading toward the US.
Kessel reaches the roof and berates her for ruining his day. However, since he managed to bring America to the brink, he plans to do it again.
The two get into their final fight and Collins manages to injure his leg and win once again. The Russian submarine that was meant to help Kessel escape arrives.
Instead, the Russians shoot and kill Kessel, which could possibly have been their aim all along even if he had been successful, and weren’t actually fond of his plans.
Due recognition
As Collins recovers in the hospital, the President arrives and tells her she won’t be going back to the interceptor base and now will be part of the President’s guard.
She also invites another person in, who turns out to be his father. He survived the attack by Kessel’s men as he had strong friends from the Army in the retirement home.
He brings a turtle with him that was found at the base, which originally belonged to Shah.
As her father tells her to talk about those they’ve lost to never forget them, she starts telling him more about who Shah was as a person, concluding the film.
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