They Lit a School Bus on Fire—and Called It Cinema
Matthew McConaughey answering a crackling radio call—“There are 22 kids who are stranded…”—is how The Lost Bus trailer opens. And just like that, Paul Greengrass yanks us into the eye of the Camp Fire inferno, California's deadliest wildfire. It's chaos, smoke, and screaming engines.
Apple just dropped the first look at its biggest awards-season flex, and cinephiles are foaming.
Why This Feels Different (And Also Very Greengrass)
First off: It's not fiction. The Lost Bus adapts Lizzie Johnson's real-life account Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, a searing chronicle of survival and moral panic. And the setup is sickeningly cinematic: A bus driver (McConaughey) and a teacher (America Ferrera) trapped in an apocalyptic firestorm with 22 kids, armed with nothing but guts and hope.
The trailer feels like Speed meets United 93—if Dennis Hopper were replaced by climate change.
And then there's this detail: Greengrass brought in Brad Inglesby (creator of Mare of Easttown) to co-write the script. If anyone knows how to inject dignity into desperation, it's him.
Compared to Greengrass' recent polite misses—News of the World (respectable, but toothless) and July 22 (important, but inert)—this looks like a full-throttle return to form. Think shaky cam. Think ticking clocks. Think moral crisis on a highway to hell.
The Ghost of ‘Captain Phillips' Is Driving This Bus
There's an invisible lineage here—Greengrass doesn't do disasters; he does duty. In United 93, it was airline staff facing the unimaginable. In Captain Phillips, it was Somali pirates versus protocol. In The Lost Bus, it's a yellow school bus barreling through what looks like Mordor. But the real horror? The adults in charge don't have a plan.
In 2018, the real Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, killing 85 people. This isn't some Roland Emmerich popcorn flick—it's a moral indictment disguised as an action movie.
It also hits now, post-Oppenheimer, in an era where audiences seem hungry for human-sized heroism grounded in real-world trauma. This isn't about saving the world—it's about saving the next generation, literally one ride at a time.
Would You Get on That Bus?
If the trailer's any indication, McConaughey's not doing his usual drawl-and-dazzle. This is Interstellar dad mode. Ferocious. Focused. Frazzled. America Ferrera, fresh off Barbie, looks like she's got more grit than an N95 mask.
The bigger question: Is Greengrass about to re-enter the Oscar race? Or is Apple just playing prestige bingo again?
Either way—get ready. The fire's real, and the exits are not clearly marked.
