JustWatch

Out of the Blue

2006

The true story of a small town massacre

Ordinary people find extraordinary courage in the face of madness. On 13–14 November 1990 that madness came to Aramoana, a small New Zealand seaside town, in the form of a lone gunman with a high-powered semi-automatic rifle. As he stalked his victims the terrified and confused residents were trapped for 24 hours while a handful of under-resourced and under-armed local policemen risked their lives trying to find him and save the survivors. Based on true events.

Karl Urban Tandi Wright Simon Ferry Matthew Sunderland Lois Lawn Paul Glover William Kircher Georgia Fabish Fayth Rasmussen Timothy Bartlett Murray Davidson Baxter Cannell Tony Bishop Dave Dudfield Brenda Kendall Nick Duval-Smith Richard Knowles Thomas Lee-Batley Natalie Ellis Fatu Ioane Bruce Phillips Ryan O'Kane Michael Whalley Vaughan Slinn Vanessa Stacey

Alternative Titles

解救风暴, Out of the Blue - 22 Stunden Angst, משום מקום, 24 Horas de Fúria, Гром среди ясного неба, 아웃 오브 블루, 一日狂徒

Genres

Drama Crime

Theatrical

12 Oct 2006

14 Mar 2008

Germany16

Germany

14 Mar 2008

Theatrical16

USA

12 Oct 2006

Theatrical

103 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by shookone ★★½

unagitated and unpretentious re-narration with a focus on the authenticity. at the best when it's at the most silent (the burning house sequences especially). most of the time Out of the Blue is very dutiful and plain though, trying to avoid any mistakes, psychologizations or provocations - somewhat understandable when depicting a collective national trauma. however that self-imposed corset creates obvious limitations hindering to become something bigger, an own voice.
Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🇵🇸 ★★★★½ 3

The World Is More Than Enough 2: Back To The 30 Countries (5/30 - New Zealand)
Out Of The Blue is a stunning retelling of 1990's Aramoana Massacre in which 13 people were murdered by a lone gunman who had gone on an indiscriminate killing spree.
There is so much to admire in this film. As I've said lots of times before, and I will probably say it many times in the future, I don't mind creative rejigging of real-life events if it is done to make a more entertaining film. However, if a film can somehow make itself as close to the truth as possible at the same time as being an enthralling film then it deserves to be…
Review by williamfaeleith ★★★½ 2

Well-made and respectful dramatisation of the 1990 Aramoana massacre near Dunedin in New Zealand, when a disturbed lone gunman killed 13 local people, including several children.
The film was made on location in the town where it happened and contrasts the beauty of the local area with the ugliness of the actions of the unhinged madman. It builds up an atmosphere of impending doom as we see the ordinary day to day existence of the people whose lives were about to be suddenly ended or irretrievably broken by the tragic events.
Good as it is, you do wonder whether films portraying these kind of events should be made as dramas or left to the documentarians.
Review by Jonathan White ★★★★ 5

Part of Lise’s annual 30 Countries Challenge / March Around the World
Film #2 - New Zealand ( this years feature country )
When the silicon chip inside his head gets switched to overload
Like Villeneuve’s Polytechnique that came two years later, Out of the Blue is a brutal watch. Also like Polytechnique, the psyche of the murderer isn’t examined; it’s at the most, observed. While I think this is the best way for the film to examine the killer, but it leads to some of the most anger inducing moments for me regarding the characters around the killer who do the same … moments where red flags were flying, yet, nothing was done.
I’m kind of two minds about…
Review by Steph_h ★★★★

A lone gunman tears thru a small town in new zealand..
its very straight forward but works so well I really felt the tension in this one.. its also a true story, very sad .. I just kept screaming on the inside SHOOT THAT ASSHOLE! he is fucking merciless and its brutal. Apprently after this incident they changed the gun laws in new zealand as well. It was also very cool seeing a young Karl Urban ( I just finished rewatching season 1 of the boys). the rest of the cast to me is unrecognizable but perhaps that added to the realness of this this.. One older woman in particular it was just heart breaking to see her side of this...
Review by Ole Holgersen ★★★★ 9

The most unpleasant movie I've ever seen. I'm literally shattered. Thanks to the precise retelling and straightforward direction of Robert Sarkies, which ultimate goal seem to be to accurately chronologize the killing spree and honor those who died and fought bravely, the film makes the massacre seem almost too real... Horrible. Truly horrible.
Review by Thomas Ringdal ★★★★ 4

30 Countries #5
What this film gets so right, is making a blow by blow document of the actual events, without fleshing the story out with needless, unwarranted, and fictional drama that still manages to totally captivate me.
Added bonus for leapfrogging the Hollywood mire that consists of making out that all the vitctims are extremely happy, in love, blissfull, you name it, until the tragedy strikes. They're just normal people, some behaving badly, other behaving normal, and, one that belonged in a mental institution, but unfortunately hindsight is not a wonderful thing at all.
That little township on the NZ seaside was absolutely gorgeous btw.
Review by Roy Martin RR ★★★★

Out of the Blue is a perfect title for the film. Even though I knew what was going to happen it just happened straight out of the blue. This film is based upon the true happenings on the Aramoana massacre that occurred 13 November, 1990. A very quiet little place on the seaside of Aramoana, New Zealand. 13 people (Not including the shooter) in all ages died that day. A film with such sensitive themes is something that must be some of the more challenging and difficult movies to make. You have to handle them with such care and just make about everything right, and there's no doubt, director Robert Sarkies did just that.
It's extremely easy to hate the…
Review by Matthew Buchanan ★★★★★ 7

A chilling, artful and sensitive recreation of one of New Zealand’s most notorious acts of violence. I’m fascinated by depictions of historical events and the degree to which a reconstructed reality must be balanced with artifice, character moments and narrative drive. Sarkies delivers here what I understand from written accounts to be an achingly accurate portrayal of an unknowable evil.
Review by Matt ★★★★

Harrowing and unnervingly brutal, the juxtaposition between Aramoana's beautiful serenity and the despicable evil carried out by a deranged coward is as striking as it gets.
This is a dramatisation of one of New Zealand's darkest days and while it could have gone down the sensationalist route like some other depictions of similar atrocities, Out of the Blue takes the considerably more sensitive approach as the victims and survivors are given a hugely dignified salute. The killer is however given a lot of focus too, far more than he ever deserved.
Review by Lise ★★★★ 2

March Around the World - Film 2 - New Zealand
It's always the saddest of days when these types of events occur. It ain't no picnic watching films about them either. But there is something about these 'mass shootings' films that makes (some of us) want to watch. Why? To understand why it happened? That's never going to happen, mainly because we could give a rats ass about why some idiot decided to kill people; I mean we don't want to go into his (yes, it's most always a 'his') head because we could not care less about him and his motives. And yet... we watch to try to understand something. We want to know how it can happen. We…
Review by Jedidiah Rose ★★★★

Watching Out of the Blue for me is a closer to home experience than I bargained for when I sought it out for a viewing this evening, yeah it's New Zealand and yeah it's a story from 1990 and as such this period is reflected in the production, the clothing styles, the cars etc but that just makes it even more familiarly British to my eyes somewhat, and as I watched the film this evening it made me think of the small town I'm from in South Wales in the Anglo motherland of the UK, I looked at the terrified faces of the people in the film all wonderfully and harrowingly authentically played out by a cast doing great work,…

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Where to watch

Out of the Blue

Synopsis

The true story of a small town massacre

Cast

Director

Producers

Original Writers

Casting

Editor

Cinematography

Production Design

Art Direction

Stunts

Composer

Costume Design

Studios

Countries

Language

Alternative Titles

Genres

Releases by Date

Theatrical

12 Oct 2006

14 Mar 2008

Releases by Country

Germany

14 Mar 2008

USA

12 Oct 2006

Popular reviews

Where to watch

Out of the Blue

Synopsis

The true story of a small town massacre

Cast

Director Director

Producers Producers

Original Writers Original Writers

Casting Casting

Editor Editor

Cinematography Cinematography

Production Design Production Design

Art Direction Art Direction

Stunts Stunts

Composer Composer

Costume Design Costume Design

Studios

Countries

Language

Alternative Titles

Genres

Theatrical

12 Oct 2006

14 Mar 2008

Germany

14 Mar 2008

USA

12 Oct 2006

Popular reviews

Director

Producers

Original Writers

Casting

Editor

Cinematography

Production Design

Art Direction

Stunts

Composer

Costume Design