Introduction I
During the final days of the break, I decided to relax with my mom and watch a movie. Now, my mom and I have very different movie tastes. While she would pick out something like Taken or Bob’s Burgers, I mostly lean towards Emergency Declaration or The Pitt. Anyway, despite our differing tastes, I decided that this time my mom could choose what we watched. So, she went to Netflix and chose Firebreak.
Background Info II
Firebreak is a movie that just came out on Netflix. Published on February 20, 2026, by David Victori. Now, I would like to point out that if you look this movie up, you would see that it has a rating of 34% on RottenTomatoes. Who I honestly rarely trust. In fact, I’m not a “movie person” (read pretentiously) per se, but I do love a good list. So every movie, show, or album I come across, I will write it down and rate it. All of this is to say, I really, truly, honestly, morally, sincerely, truthfully, and every other word that means the same HATE this movie.
The Gang III
The main characters in this movie are a family who recently experienced the loss of both a dad and a brother to a terminal illness (we’ll get back to this later).
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Mara (Mother)
Santi (Neighbor)
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Lide (Daughter)
Luis (Mara’s brother-in-law)
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Elena (Wife)
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Dani (Luis and Elena’s son)
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Gustavo (Mara’s Husband): No Actor/Visuals
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Context Iv
The main family, Mara, Lide, and Gus, who died, were packing up to move out of their glass cabin that was deep in the woods. A large fire breaks out miles away, giving the family ample time to pack up and leave. In these moments, that general vibe is bleak and somber, as it tries to convey the loss that the family was struggling with. The daughter ends up talking to her mother, and reminding her that they need to go into the woods to say goodbye to the woods and her father. However, her mother gets angry with her because Lide didn't understand that the family needed to evacuate due to the upcoming fire.
She’s Missing V
Lide runs away after this confrontation, running into the woods to say goodbye on her own. She says goodbye and ends up talking to their neighbor, Santi, who asks her why she was out by herself. She responds that she’s saying goodbye to her Dad. Santi understands and notices that she looks calm and well-managed on her own and leaves her to it, returning home.
Vital Information VI
- Santi gave Lide a pinned butterfly when they were having breakfast. (Introduces his character as a viable villain.)
- Santi was packing up to evaluate.
- The family was moving to the beach to live beside each other
- The father refused medical treatment, eventually succumbing to his disease.
Breaking Point VIi
After this, everything started to go wrong. After about an hour, the family notices that Lide isn’t with everyone when they’re about to leave. They go looking around for Lide. They couldn't find her and then called the police. The police come out and tell them to evaluate and tell them that the woods are too extensive to be out there searching on their own, while the fire is spreading rapidly. The family promises to evacuate (They lied.) The police question Santi, and they find out that he was the last one to see Lide. They ask him why he left a young girl in the woods by herself when he knows everyone should be evaluating, but he says that she looked calm, and she grew up, so she seemed like she would be able to find her way back home. A little while later, Mara and Luis begin to question why Santi wasn’t evaluating. They question him and begin to look at him as a suspect for a potential kidnapping. Santi then offers the family an opportunity to ride with him in his car and look for Life as if it were faster than traveling on foot.
The “Discovery” VIIi
Luis and Mara get in the car, waiting as Santi goes back into his house to retrieve flashlights. As they sit in the car, they notice Lide’s bracelet that was given to her by her mother, and she never takes it off on the gear stick. Both Luis and Mara conclude that no, this isn’t a case of a lost girl; it was a kidnapping. Skip past some plot, but they ended up holding Santi hostage within his home. Especially since he and his home were suspicious, with the secret rooms, and the natural remedy room that he had at the back of his home.
The Problem Ix
Okay, now up until here, these conclusions were reasonable. However, that soon became false as Luis and Mara began to beat the hell out of Santi. It was horrible. It was a solid 30+ minutes of them being Santi to tell them where Life was, and Santi begging them to let him go. Honestly, it was so bad. Like, I understand the mother was already going through a hard time with the loss of her husband, but why was her only line, “Where is my daughter?” in 1 million different fonts? Like, genuinely, it was so annoying, I couldn’t even feel empathy after a certain point because nothing she did added to the conversation; she was just begging a man whom she actively beat and held hostage for the location of her daughter. Time skip again, it’s night now, Luis unlocked Santi’s phone and found videos of him digging holes in the ground and lying in them. Leading him to believe that he might have done the same thing to Lide. He beats Santi up again, tells his wife what’s going on, grabs a shovel, and starts digging. While this is happening, the nephew, Dani, wanders into Santi’s house and helps Santi free himself. Which is bad for him, considering two seconds later, Santi uses him as collateral to get his car and escape. Santi gets into his car and drives down the road before stopping to help Dani get out. When Santi gets out of the car, he’s caught once again by Luis, who beats him up and drags him into the woods with Mara. As they both scream at him, asking for Lide's whereabouts. Santi tricks them and runs away into the distance, and the fire being closer makes it harder for them to find them. While running away, Santi hears Lide in the distance. He calls her name, looking for her, and finds her in a pit where she fell and was stuck all day after running from a bear. He helps her out, and after helping her, he’s found by Mara, who proceeds to beat him up and leave him for dead near the fire.
The Truth x
After finding out the truth, Mara goes back to help him, which aids Santi in finding a car that drives him to the hospital. He’s then questioned by the police, and lies about his injury, and in the end, he lies and says that his injuries came from a “Mama Bear.”
Conclusion Xi
I genuinely hated this movie. Throughout the movie, they tried to implement larger topics like the loss of Gus (Lide’s Father), who “gave in” to the unmentioned disease rather than going through an attempt to go through with treatment. Which, they also revealed, was the true reason Santi was digging holes. His job was making medicine, digging holes, and having sick people lie in them to help them get comfortable with death. And the larger image, of Mara being a “mama bear”, that was only protecting her child (cub). I genuinely did not care. Watching this movie was a horrible experience, as it was just 85% torture of an innocent man and 15% “Where is my daughter?!” This movie was bad, and the only reason I would recommend this movie is for someone to understand my pain and hate this movie just as much as I do.
Rating: 2/10 at best.
Rating: 2/10 at best.
