The Order

by Mike McGranaghan

The Order is based on a true story from the 1980s that feels uncomfortably relevant forty years later. Jude Law plays Terry Husk, a jaded FBI agent who arrives in the Pacific Northwest, where a series of banks and armored cars have been robbed over the past twelve months. There are no solid leads regarding the perpetrators. Husk comes to suspect that the thefts were orchestrated by a white supremacy organization with headquarters deep in the middle of nowhere. Furthermore, he believes they’re using the money to finance an eventual coup against the United States government.

If this calls to mind groups like the Proud Boys and incidents like the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, it’s probably not coincidental that the movie is opening at this point in time. The Order makes clear that such movements are not new and, in fact, have been making gradual strides over the decades, thanks to people like Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult), the leader whose boyish looks and clean-cut appearance hide virulent bigotry. Those outward traits are used to lure in newcomers, making the group’s activities sound almost heroic in nature. He talks a lot about God and country, as though identifying as a Christian patriot excuses away crime and racism. Hoult is terrifying in how he captures the insidious nature of Matthews.

Director Justin Kurzel specializes in digging into the psychology behind real-life crimes, having also made the historical drama True History of the Kelly Gang and Nitram, the latter of which is a vastly underrated portrait of the man who committed the worst mass shooting in Australian history. He stages half the movie as a taut police procedural, with Husk and a local cop named Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) working to put the pieces together. The other half is a harrowing exploration of how hate groups operate, creating a “they’re out to get us” illusion that draws in people who have secretly been harboring such fears.

Kurzel sways back and forth between them in a natural, flowing manner that builds continual tension. Part of what the picture gets at is that such groups originate in secret, only to make a public emergence when they’re strong enough to have an impact. The Order builds a ticking clock type of suspense, since Husk and Bowen recognize time is drawing near for Matthews to make his big move. Aside from that sort of surface-level drama, the film gets you thinking about how the Bob Matthews types of the world are out there right now, doing the exact same thing. The only difference is they’ve had four additional decades to perfect it.

I’m not sure what made Kurzel think of Jude Law for the role of the FBI agent, but it sure works. The actor envisions Husk as a laconic personality, while still suggesting a ferocious inner anger that seems barely contained at times. This represents one of Law’s best, most riveting performances. Sheridan is also quite good, as is Marc Maron, who plays ill-fated radio talk show host Alan Berg, one of the real-life Order’s primary targets for violence.

The finale wisely stays true to actual events. Even though the resolution doesn’t provide a traditional showdown between hero and villain, it manages to chill because neither Husk nor Matthews has any intention of conceding to the other. Maybe that’s the overall message of The Order. White supremacists are ride-or-die for their cause. To defeat them, the rest of us will probably need to take a similar stance.

---