Today’s quick review: Helios. When Helios (Chang Chen), an international arms dealer, steals a prototype nuclear device from South Korea, Colonel Choi (Jin-hee Ji) and Lieutenant Park (Si Won Choi) are dispatched to Hong Kong to get it back. There they join forces with Inspector Lee (Nick Cheung) of the Hong Kong police, physics specialist Professor Siu (Jacky Cheung), and Chinese official Song An (Xueqi Wang) to hunt down Helios.
Helios is a Chinese action thriller about a stolen nuclear device that turns Hong Kong into a battlefield. The members of an international task force must put aside their differences to catch Helios, recover the bomb, and transport it safely out of the city. The movie features a strong sense of tension, a plot that weaves together several competing agendas, and a couple of sharp twists, making it a worthwhile pick for action fans.
Helios puts a new spin on a classic formula by pitting its heroes against each other. Choi, Park, Lee, and Song all have very different ideas about what to do with the bomb once it is found. What begins as a unified task force devolves into infighting as the political interests of Hong Kong, South Korea, and mainland China collide. This tug of war nicely complements the hunt for Helios, resulting in a story that’s tense from start to finish.
Otherwise, Helios is a capable but fairly standard action thriller. Bursts of high-stakes violence serve to break up a longer stretches of tracking down Helios, gathering intelligence, and quarreling over what to do with the bomb. The plot can be a little cluttered, thanks to the large number of factions involved, but the events are not too hard to follow, and the movie does a great job of establishing what is at risk.
Helios does make a few mistakes. The movie shoots for a relatively serious tone, so its heroes are flawed and prone to infighting. Their conflicting priorities and willingness to make moral compromises can make it hard for the audience to root for any of them. At the same time, the political drama of the situation is not robust enough to rise to the level of commentary. Finally, the movie doesn’t quite stick the landing, with a dicey finale.
Give Helios a shot when you are in the mood for a tense thriller that has a nicely tangled plot. The flawed nature of the task force gives the story a reliable source of conflict, while the external pressure of locating and disposing of the bomb keeps the story moving quickly. Steer clear if you dislike the genre or are looking for something with more clear-cut heroes.
For a more entertaining action thriller about a stolen weapon of mass destruction, try The Rock. For an American film in a similar vein, try The Peacemaker. For a Japanese crime thriller that takes a deeper look at the ethics of law enforcement, try Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.
[5.6 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3614922/). I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for hard-hitting action wrapped around a solid plot.