“The Ambush” is the story of an ambush of Emirati soldiers by the terrorists of Yemen in the middle of nowhere. The film adapts the American tropes of a war film in the context of a Middle Eastern crisis. The film is an extravagant war film where the UAE is providing military support to Yemen with military equipment, ski resorts, and artificial islands, all of which combine to make the film a super military entertainment film. It can be seen that the film is made to impress Western audiences with Western film tropes like camera movements and visual effects, trying to make it as real as possible.
Spoilers Ahead
‘The Ambush’ Story
“The Ambush,” directed by Pierre Morel, is made in Arabic, but it can be easily called a Hollywood film because of its substance and style. War films are always difficult to watch as they depict real events, and the destruction portrayed affects the audience’s psyche. The film transports us to war-torn Yemen, where the Emirati soldiers are aiding the civilians in the midst of the war with the terrorists. The enemy ambushed an Emirati soldier’s combat vehicle in the middle of the harsh terrain. The enemy had an advantage over the landscape, as they knew the mountains and harsh terrain all too well, whereas the soldiers were stuck in the strong combat vehicles, injured from the enemy’s attack. The combat vehicles were the only protection that they had from certain death. The enemy had planned the ambush and had been firing at the ambushed vehicle from all sides, trying to get the men out of it as the soldiers were trapped inside.
The narrative then progresses and focuses on the Emirati soldiers who had to rescue their injured men from the combat vehicle. The western tropes in the film can be determined not only from the making but also from the dialogues, one of which leaves no man behind. The soldiers address each other as brothers, and their brotherhood is celebrated all throughout the film while they are in a rescue operation. The film starts with the voiceover giving us a peek into the situation in Yemen, and in the next sequence, we see Emirati soldiers working out with equipment made from rubble and ruin, normal conversations happening around football, and then they have to leave the station for their usual routine patrol.
Three Emirati soldiers named Ali, Bilal, and Hindasi are the main protagonists of the film and seem to be looking forward to going home after their last patrol, but fate has another story written for them. They got ambushed by the local militants, as a result or because of which the commander at the base was notified about the incident and had to operate an unlikely military rescue mission. The three got disconnected from the base and was surrounded by the militants. They had to wait for the rescue team and while waiting Ali was killed, Bilal and Hindasi were injured in the ambush. The rescue team included more than nine combat vehicles to get them safely out of the situation. The entire convoy got attacked by the local militants, many were injured, a helicopter was deployed to attack the militant bases from above but was on the verge of being shot. Before pulling out, the helicopter had managed to neutralize two bases of the militants, and that helped the convoys to proceed further into the rescue mission.
‘The Ambush’ Ending Explained – Do The Soldiers Get Saved?
With the helicopter destroying the militants’ bases, the situation became a bit easier for the soldiers to tackle. The combat vehicles, which were all stuck in the ambush, could create a diversion and save the injured Hindasi and Bilal. While trying to rescue the two, many got injured, but they still had no regrets as they could save their brothers from the ambush. The ending was a rollercoaster ride for the audience, as many were sad and regretting that they could not save Ali from the militants. Ali was honored by the Emiratis, and his family was given proper recognition and a grand salute. Ali was on the last patrol when he got killed, and before getting killed, he had learned that his wife was pregnant. He could not see his unborn child, but his brothers were shown to be taking care of his family in his absence. The film successfully portrays an ambush in a war-torn region and a typical day in the lives of the soldiers who were in an unknown land providing aid for innocent civilians but were massacred. “The Ambush” holds our attention till the end and is a successful portrayal of the daily life of a soldier.