Director: Jakob Verbruggen
Writer: Charlie Brooker (Screenplay)
Starring: Malachi Kirby, Madeline Brewer, Ariane Labed, Sarah Snook, Michael Kelly, Kola Bokinni
Plot: Future soldiers Stripe (Malachi Kirby) and Raiman (Madeline Brewer) must protect frightened villagers from an infestation of vicious feral mutants. Technologically, they have the edge – but will that help them survive?
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun But Slow
Story: Men Against Fire starts as we meet new soldier Stripe (Kirby) who gets assigned on his first mission to find out whether a village was attacked by creatures known only as ‘roaches’. We see his unit led by Medina (Snook) go on the hunt for this roaches.
As the hunt continues we learn that the roaches are feral mutants that have been terrorising the local villages, but the question comes to how the disease is transmitted. After his first encounter with the roaches Stripe starts to have different reactions to everyday tasks that the military can’t find any issues with. With his ability to see the truth we get to see how Stripe has to try and convince the rest of what is going on in the world.
Men Against Fire is one of the most original twists on what starts off as a zombie concept but it soon turns into a fresh look at how to train soldiers to be the most efficient they can possibly be. This offers plenty of morale questions about how soldier are trained and what they are capable on the battle field if certain parts can be removed from their decision-making process but otherwise this is one of the weaker stories in the series so far.
Overall: The slowest of the series so far.
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