The Wages of Fear (2024) on Netflix is the latest adaptation of the book… or a remake of either the 1953 film or Sorcerer from 1977. And what does a modern French remake of two classic white-knuckle adventures that were deeply suspenseful in their own unique ways do? More gunfights, less travel.

Wages of Fear is about a small convoy of trucks laden with unstable nitroglycerin traveling cross-country in the hopes they won’t hit a bump and blow themselves up. They have limited time to get to their destination and all sorts of hazards along the way…. but mostly gun fights.

Relocate adventure to an unknown Middle Eastern country full of Arabs with guns? Check. Load up the cast with French speakers? Check. Toss in more gunfights, more explosions, and less nerve-wracking travel? Absolutely. Whatever merits the first two versions of this story have get chucked out the window for some decidedly modern shoot outs…. which would be equally dangerous without the nitroglycerin so, really, what’s the point?

Some of this lack of creative energy could be forgiven if the movie were more thrilling or suspenseful. And there are individual moments of both but not nearly enough to compensate for being just another action flick.

Two of the main navigational hazards that the previous films had do show up… but they are crammed into the last thirty minutes and are handled super easy, barely an inconvenience. They might as well not have bothered but I guess the audience would be expecting road blocks and oil spills… even if nobody making the movie apparently thought they were important.

I get the desire to remake a 50s and 70s classic with modern aesthetics… but this wasn’t it. It’s not thrilling enough, not suspenseful enough, and it misses what makes the story so gripping. It’s not man vs. man, it’s man vs. an uncaring, cruel environment. Not more gun battles.

Score: 67