“The Order” recreates a vivid, violent past in the 1980s Pacific Northwest — the FBI’s quashing of armed white supremacist groups — to remind us where we are today.
“This was a passion project of mine,” announced Jude Law, who produces and stars as FBI agent Terry Husk who hunts, amid the picturesque forests, a racist terrorist group led by the charismatic Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult, “Juror #2”) whose meticulously planned, increasingly violent robberies finance their intended uprising against the U.S. government.
Although fictionalized, the movie is based on the 1989 nonfiction book “The Silent Brotherhood” — and there really was a racist group called The Order.
“It’s rare you read something that’s a true story that hasn’t been told and has relevance to today but is a piece in its own right with a global message,” Law, 51, said in a virtual press conference.
“Yes, it’s a cat and mouse thriller at its heart but I hope people walk out with a better understanding of this group at this specific time.”
He was also “amazed,” no one had done it. “It seems timely for unfortunate reasons. It sheds a light on something very subtly. I hope people come away with an understanding of why people behave like that.
“For in order to understand you have to know what got them there. It’s not an American problem,” this English veteran pointed out. “It’s a global problem — and we have to look at why that behavior occurs. And to understand that is eye opening.”
Screenwriter Zach Baylin in adapting the book, Law believes, “made a good decision to not put the real agent in the story but create this fabricated agent. To set up contradictions and use him as a symbol if you like.”
The Husk Law bring to life is damaged. With no relationship with his wife or family, the crutches he uses to get through life include smoking and drinking.
“We tried to create someone who felt the toll of this career and the battles with these groups. We see the amount of sacrifice Husk experienced in pursuit of this kind of justice.
“We see the effects of his stressed, unhealthy life. He used to take blood-thinning pills, and then came nosebleeds.
“I just wanted him to be broken — because of the cost of what he’d achieved in the past. It was important he was a fabrication and to position him in the story just so,” Law said, adding, “He was complicated and there were all sorts of tricky aspects to overcome.
“Because I had an input in fully realizing him, that wasn’t necessarily from the page.”
“The Order” opens in theaters Friday
