User reviews

Above average thriller with plenty of twists , turns and a suspenseful finale . It contains unstopped action with great cast and nice supporting actors giving good performances . Furthermore , displaying a colorful and luxurious cinematography as well as a stirring and emotive score . ¨Retribution¨ or ¨El Desconocido¨ deals with a bank executive called Carlos : Luis Tosar , who faces a risked situation when he receives a mobile phone call informing him he has just a few hours to get a large amount of money or a bomb under his seat will explode , but events are about to be worst . Complicating things still further , the police pursues him and surrounding his car and then happenings go awry .

This is a top-notch thriller about a high-powered banker submitted to weird circumstances surrounding him , that's just the starting point for him , and a bit later on , things get even worse . A film in similar quality other Hollywood blockbusters . As this film results to be a crossover from other benchmarking successes as well as grossing American films , such as : ¨Locke¨ by Steven Knight (2013) with Tom Hardy , "Speed" (1994) directed by Jan de Bont with Keanu Reeves , and "Phone Booth" (2002) Joel Schumacher with Colin Farrell . This splendid Spanish movie has a lot of action images , including pursuits , car crashes , explosion , and Police Helicopter scenes . The plot can not be very realistic ; however, displaying several scenes have you on the edge of your seat . The picture increases the relentless tension as well as the flick progresses on screen . Thrilling and nail-biting film with a lot of scenes of drama , tension , emotion and action , all of them at equal parts . This is a highly suspenseful and cerebral thriller , filled with plot twists , including an unexpected denouement in its final part . Hitchcock style psychological thriller , being surprisingly good and stunningly directed . The picture is pretty well , though sometimes stagy , as developing into the car , and it has a lot of turns . However , being very entertaining for its continuous suspense . The original as well entertaining premise is overspread across the movie adding some brief conventional pitfalls . The well assembled cast is frankly good , including masterful direction of players , such as : Luis Tosar as the selfish winner businessman , Javier Gutiérrez , Elvira Mínguez , Fernando Cayo , Goya Toledo , Luis Zahera and special mention for Paula del Río as his daughter Marta . It packs a colorful and evocative cinematography by Juán Inchaustegui . Shot in Vigo and especially in its Plaza de Vigo , A Coruña , Galicia . Rousing and moving musical score by Manuel Ribeiro . Soundtrack is really helping to keep tied to what happens .

This increasingly potent thriller was compellingly produced by Mercedes Gamero , Juan Carlos Caro , Emma Lustres , all of them have financed a great number of hits in the new Spanish cinema . This new film by Spanish writer/director Dani De La Torre was compelling and professionally directed . Dani previously realized short movies as ¨Lobos¨ and Minas¨ , and TV Mini-Series : ¨Mar Libre¨ and his first film was this ¨El Desconocido¨ , a film full of emotional thrills , suspense , mystery and non-stop action .

I watched Korean movie 'Hard hit' a few days ago that time I had no clue, that it's actually remake. I enjoyed that movie wasn't bad and today I surprisingly came across the original one, it's good too. Story remains same, Korean version didn't changed anything. But, original remains original and it's acting is far better than korean version, kind of realistic.

It's a really amazing thrilling movie. The whole movie is in a car yet it was enjoyable and kept the suspense til end.

An attention grabber and holder that takes place in the Galicia area of Spain, north of Portugal. I think the main actor's portrayal is superior to those of the last two years in the Oscars. He displays a very wide range of emotions sitting in the driver's seat of his car. Never a dull moment.

If you take LOCKE - starring Tom Hardy spending all the feature length speaking in a cell phone whilst he drives his car - and Joel Schumacher's PHONE BOOTH, starring Colin Farell trapped in a phone booth because of a death threat over his head - not a bomb but a sniper - you will easily get this film topic. OK, that a pretty good suspense, but admit that since a couple of years now, you have many of those topics emerging every where; I mean phone calls involving death threats, or a person asked to kill some folks by unknown killers using a cell phone. A very predictable scheme. When it is not persons buried, locked in a coffin, room, car chest, basement...I guess you will see many more in a near future. Only a not predictable ending can spice those suspense stories. It is also a little "tribute" to the economic crisis; the banker accused to have pushed a woman to suicide because of her lost savings...

I liked this movie, but I was not to impressed. There were already a bunch of movies with a similar storyline, but because it was a spanish movie I liked it more. The spanish movies are getting better and bettere each year and this movie prooves it. The main character's acting was on point, plus the kids were just as good. 7/10 for me.

I only watched this film because I wanted to practise my Spanish and didn't expect to enjoy the flick. In fact, it had sat on my hard drive for nearly a year before I got around to finally watching it. Imagine my surprise and delight when the movie kept me on the edge of my seat for the duration. It is formulaic, to be sure, like most action films, but still has enough twists to keep up the suspense. Plus, the acting is great across the board. So, for those like me who always want more of the same, it hits the spot.

Not just cruising, there is a lot more weight to this (pun intended). It does show that there is a really good genre scene in Spain. While you could argue that this is a mixture of different other (American) movies, it still keeps an original touch to it. Now the message on the other hand is a bit convoluted.

But let's keep it real: How many movies can really balance political or social statements and deliver on the thriller aspect the viewer is expecting? Not that many who are really exceptional. This is still pretty strong and good, even with a couple of plot holes and suspend your disbelief kind of stuff. If you're able to, the movie will be a somewhat enjoyable ride (pun not intended)

Bank executive Carlos (Luis Tosar) finds himself dealing with the volatility of the financial market in the wake of the Spanish financial crisis while also dealing with mounting tensions between him and his wife Marta (Goya Toledo). On a routine drive to work and school with his children Sara (Paula del Rio) and Marcos (Marco Sanz) when a stranger (Javier Gutierrez) calls telling him there's a pressure sensitive bomb in his car and no one is to leave as Carlos is forced to go through various avenues to secure a specific amount of money for this man who carries a grudge against him.

Retribution (aka El desconocido "The Stranger") is a 2015 Spanish-French action thriller directed by Dani de la Torre and written by Alberto Marini. Critical reception was mixed with a skew towards positive with many complimenting the acting and tension while also pointing out the preposterousness of the plot. The movie has had further exposure internationally with two local language remakes for Germany and South Korea (2018's Don't. Get. Out! And 2021's Hard Hit respectively) with a forthcoming English language remake starring Liam Neeson soon to be released. Retribution is a simple movie that could've fallen into the pitfalls of conveyer belt thrillers, but there is a strong enough core to give leeway to the outlandish plot.

Given how the film was written at the tail end of the Spanish Financial Crisis, the movie sets itself up as a morality play with Carlos very much a cog in the machine that left countless citizens at the mercy of economic upheaval while they remained unscathed. Despite the audience being able to understand "the stranger's" motivations, the movie never sympathizes with him and he is still very much a ruthless antagonist who although humanized by a tragic set of circumstances has driven to some extreme ends that can't be justified. De la Torre's direction keeps the tension high and Luis Tosar does a good job as Carlos who conveys a desperate man trapped in extraordinary circumstances quite effectively with scenes of him at his breaking point showing full commitment to the performance. While on occasion Carlos' children could be a little much, they still felt like they fit within a reasonable level of believability and it helps they're played by good actors. The plot also does stretch itself a bit at the one hour mark with some decisions made by the police or Marta that are there simply because it needs to be there, but thriller logic is afforded a certain degree of "leaping" and I never felt like it broke the movie.

Retribution is an engaging high tension thriller with committed performances and solid direction. While the plot does occasionally stretch believability, it's tight enough in the pacing and tension that it'll keep you engaged.

A normal day in the life of an bank executive, he wakes up early, answers phone calls related to his work, takes the children to school and notices that the door of the car was already open, but he does not do anything and gets in the car with their two children and is on his way to take them to school and then go to his work at the bank.

Everything goes well until our protagonist (Carlos) receives a call from a cellphone that is not his, he finds it strange but he answers it and on the other side of the line is a stranger who demands a large money transfer to his bank account, if Carlos does not what the unknown person says him will blow up a bomb that's on the inside of the car, and also Carlos will have to make the transfer inside his car because if he gets up of his seat it will activate a bomb inside his seat and will blow up the car as well, leaving him with no possible escape to this problem.

Basically this is the premise of the film, a very intense thriller simply breathtaking and with a unpredictable outcome. One of The best movies from 2015, and with an extraordinary performance by Luis Tosar. My Vote is 8

I recommend it.

Title (Portugal) - "O De$conhecido" ("The Unknown")

A banker goes to work one day and takes the kids to be dropped off at school but before that can happen, he receives a phone call from someone who tells him he has placed a bomb under the seats of the car and tells him he must arrange a transfer of money to him.

It's the kind of idea that has been seen before whereby someone on the end of a phone is controlling someone else for their gain but from the offset we are sent on a thrilling journey making you wonder why this is happening and making you wonder what you would do in such a situation. The director manages to keep things fairly grounded and so the realism assists in building up the tension. There are a couple of twists thrown in which keeps the pace going.

Good acting from everyone involved in a cast that I am unfamiliar with due to the Spanish production. In the decade of remakes and reboots, this is certainly a film I can see being remade at some point. Provided you do not mind reading subtitles this is certainly worth the viewing time.

I saw the other reviews and I wanted yo watch the movie a friday night at home. Terrible mistake! Go away! You're going to loose your time. This is a kind of movie when you can see how much money was to payed for special effects, or tow expensive actors, but not for a good script. Yes, the movie is dinamic but the best is the drone filming opperation. The story go an go... and go and there are so so so many options to solve the problem in the thriller. If I'm not a financial trader and I can ser all those opportinities, why he didn't. The answer is the bad script. My night was stressfull 'cause it never ends, that dad must be tougher with those idiot kids, the police needs more trainnig, the wife needs to be punished, the bombman must get over it! And I hace to warn you to not see it.

Everything was too much... A poor script badly performed.

If you enjoyed La Casa de Papel (spanish series) you will definitely enjoy this movie, it has similar action and similar drama, superb acting that hits right in the middle of your heart, and the tense is breathtaking. I found a couple of mistakes more at the end but didn't care, worth watching.

Good Spanish production, atmosphere of tension, blood, blackmail, speeding cars, escapes, dramatic explosion, small children in danger, broken family, unreasonable ambitions, adorable ... Good distressing scenes, like the little boy bleeding and the father under pressure with the cops, the girl becoming a hero, cute and the twitter plot, excellent...

A banker got threatened call from a stranger while he driving his car with his kids... The caller claims that he planted bombs in his car and demand to send money to his account... The protagonist try to save his kids and also he utilise police help.. From the starting of the movie onwards we would engage with the script and get start to burn after his friend's car get blasted.. Must watch thriller..!!

Spain left an unexpected surprise with this film not only for its production quality, but also for having achieved enough fame that in just a short time it had three recreations made by Germany, South Korea and the USA. This film is a thriller that plays in favor of the desperation that Julio goes through. It doesn't take the trouble to introduce the characters, since a few minutes into the movie, it gets straight to the point. The plot is intriguing and full of tension. The performances are somewhat exaggerated, but the desperation of Julio and his children is well captured. Everything even becomes more tense when the youngest son's life is at risk. The chase scenes are well executed and it is a good thing, since it is not something you see a lot in Spanish cinema. The quality of the production and photography are certainly worthy of a Hollywood film. El Desconocido is a shocking film that you cannot take your eyes off until you know what happens in the end with the protagonists. Another interesting film from Spanish cinema. My final rating for this movie is a 9/10.