Jude Lawgives a spellbinding performance inThe Order, where he portrays FBI agent Terry Husk, whose investigations lead to the work of a dangerous white supremacist, Bob Mathews (played by Nicholas Hoult). Directed by Justin Kurzel from a screenplay penned by Zach Baylin, the crime thriller is based on a shocking true story and borrows from Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s book,The Order: Inside America’s Racist Underground.
Law’s veteran officer Husk and Hoult’s neo-nazi Mathews may be on opposite ends of the moral spectrum, butasThe Orderprogresses, they are each revealed to be reckless when it comes to their fervent causes. Though primarily a crime story,The Orderalso relishes in breaking down the psychology of Husk and Mathews, and how their actions impact their subordinates. Their cat-and-mouse game drives the narrative, but the leads are also bolstered by a strong supporting cast that includes Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver, Odessa Young, and Marc Maron.
The Order Review: Jude Law & Nicholas Hoult Explore The Evils Of Hatred In Gripping Crime Thriller
Justin Kurzel’s The Order is a warning, and it leaves us with the chilling sense that what happened hasn’t yet, or maybe can’t, come to an end.
ScreenRantinterviewed Law about stepping into Husk’s skin forThe Order, how he collaborated with director Justin Kurzel on building the character, and what separates him fromNicholas Hoult’s cult leaderdespite sharing a similarly single-minded pursuit of their respective goals.
Jude Law’s Husk & Nicholas Hoult’s Matthews Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin In The Order
“They’re both people who have a cause and a belief that they will give everything up for.”
Screen Rant: Jude, you are incredible as Terry Husk in this film. Husk and Bob Mathews are described as opposite sides of the same coin. Can you discuss their parallels, between Husk’s mentoring style and Mathews’ recruitment tactics?
Jude Law: That’s a great question. Two sides of the same coin, I suppose, because the similarities are that they’re both driven individuals, and they’re both people who have a cause and a belief that they will give everything up for. You are right, they recruit and draw on other people’s beliefs and goodwill. I suppose the difference is there’s a certain amount of knowledge that Terry Husk has that he’s bringing people into a fold of danger and risk. He almost warns off Jamie, the role that Tye Sheridan plays, from getting too involved emotionally.
Husk wears his own suffering life as a badge, as a demonstration, whereas Mathews uses it almost like he uses his acolytes, almost greedily. He knows that they’re going to lose their lives, but he goes in goading them that they’re living a better life and that they’re going to have some great end. So, there’s falsity and honesty, I suppose.
Screen Rant: Can you talk about your approach to playing Terry Husk’s struggle to separate his personal life from his demanding career, especially given his estrangement from his family?
Jude Law: Yeah, I was keen to really emphasize the detrimental effect this kind of commitment to the agency has had on him. He’s this broken man, weary with life. When we were developing the script, when we kept looking at his backstory and working out ways of referring to it, or just inferring it into his physicality. We talked about the family that he had maybe lost and left behind, and were they ever going to come? Was there any plausible future where they would join him there, or is that all in his mind? It’s just a hope; a sort of hollow hope.
And then the effects that his career has had on him physically. The stent that he, he’s taking these pills; you realize he’s getting nosebleeds because his blood’s thinner, and the drinking and the smoking. All of that was just physical signs, I suppose, for an audience to try and put together a guy who’s a husk of a man.
Jude Law Reflects On His Collaboration With The Order Filmmaker Justin Kurzel
Screen Rant: Can you talk to me about working with Justin as a collaborator to develop the characters? Did that provide any insight that shaped your portrayal of Husk?
Jude Law: Justin just has a fantastic curiosity and natural understanding of an actor’s process, and he’s very sensitive to how each actor wants to work, the potential they have, and what they can do in a scene. It’s not a skillset that every director has. He really draws on you and knows when to nurture it and knows when to provoke it.
We clicked very early on and knew that we had a character that we both understood. We really recognized the potential of this role and wanted to draw on every last detail that we could from him. And it was fun for me watching him do the same with other actors. He just runs a very thorough and fulfilling film set, certainly from an actor’s perspective.
The silence was something he really drew on. There were wonderful scenes already written with very clear physical moments, but the silences and the opportunity to really let Terry’s mind and the complexity of his mind demonstrate itself were something he drew out of me. That came as an unexpected delight.
More About The Order (2024)
For over a year, a series of bold daylight bank robberies and armored car heists leaves law enforcement baffled and the public panicked throughout the Pacific Northwest. As the attacks become increasingly violent, FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) becomes convinced that the robberies are the work of domestic terrorists that plan to use the loot to finance an armed uprising against the U.S. government.
Based on a true story, The Order follows Husk and his team into the tangled world of white supremacists as they attempt to head off a violent uprising that could shatter the nation. As the militia builds a war chest of over $4 million, Husk pursues the malevolent racist Bob Mathews to a final bloody standoff that will go down in U.S. history.
The Order
Cast
A lone FBI agent, stationed in a small Idaho town, uncovers a disturbing connection between a series of violent bank robberies and a white supremacist group known as The Order. As the investigation deepens, the agent finds himself up against a dangerous domestic terror organization bent on sowing chaos across the Pacific Northwest.
