Austin Film Festival Movie Review: ‘Bolt from the Blue’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Page Tudyk Gomez and Kevin Michael Martin as Mia and Lucas in Jack Martin’s BOLT FROM THE BLUE.

It is definitely safe to say, that there is an air of doom surrounding our world, and it makes sense as to why. After all, war continues to rage over issues that seem unsolvable and there is unrest in our nations regarding what tomorrow should look like thanks to a generational divide, and of course… there’s a real fear about what the landscape of the planet is going to look like in the next fifty years. For we may well be the first species to discover that our actions and our push to create a busy world and a grand economy, has put the planet in real climate trouble. Through our carbon footprints and the fossil fuels we use and well… there’s a terrifying fight over that too. Since there are some who want to side with the money and the corporations to maintain stock prices, while there are others who simply don’t believe the science and that leaves us wondering what will be and it doesn’t seem good.
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Because as we combat one another, we are not combatting the problem at hand. But what we often forget during these trying times, is that not all the news is bad. Because all we focus upon and hear about is the worst of the worst, not the people who are rushing toward the danger to save lives, nor do we hear much about the people that are working hard to be the ones to solve our biggest problems. But perhaps we should, for that might change our outlook and energize us to believe in something more, in a better tomorrow, and it just so happens that a brand-new movie that recently screened at the Austin Film Festival, makes a point of offering that hope. By giving us a story that features the plight of someone trying to do more than sit back and wait for endless debate to solve the problem, and that makes Bolt from the Blue quite the important film. 

One that introduces us to an overworked engineer named Mia who is desperate to make her mark on the engineering world and eager to perhaps solve some of mankind’s problems. But the structure of her company, and its misogyny, keeps her working overtime to accomplish nothing. Which is why she is more than happy to take an assignment to check out something unique in Alaska. For a man named Lucas Fletcher has posed to her company, the possibility of capturing and harnessing the power of lightning. An idea so refreshing that she is tasked with stealing it if indeed it works. But her arrival in the wilderness of Alaska, and her time with Lucas changes her outlook on her life and her career. For Lucas carries within him a powerful energy, the kind that speaks to a man willing to sacrifice everything in the name of science and the greater good, and she’s ready to listen to his ideas and feed off of his energy to see if by chance… he’s onto something that will indeed change the world.

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Which is a plot that really does ponder upon the wonder of ingenuity and of the unsung heroes that are out there right now, trying to enact change. For in many ways, Lucas represents the good people who invented the new trash collection systems that are being deployed in our oceans, or the person that is working day and night to find a renewable source of energy and that really does remind us… that not all is lost. Because of the fact that people like Lucas exist and are fighting tooth and nail for their cause and the breakthrough they want to desperately find. Which brings about, an uplifting story to say the least. One that prompts you to root for Lucas and Mia as they fight back against those who tear them down and offer them doubt, and that is a wondrous element to find a story that touches upon climate change, and the wonder of this movie doesn’t end there.
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Because this is also a movie that works hard to speak to our very soul. In the respect that this is a film that outright tasks us… to be more like Lucas. To reject the dogma of doubt and of doubters and chase a dream, and grab hold of it tightly. Because the film poses the idea, that part of the problem in our world, and why we are so stagnant, is that we are no longer a world of dreamers. We’ve fallen into routine and comfort and stick with status quo because of the strange roadblocks we’ve put up, regarding ingenuity. But if we reject that, and chase the impossible… our spirits will soar, our minds will open up and the possibilities… will be endless. Which only adds to the majesty of this film, one that really does leave you feeling better about your day, about tomorrow and your own desires and wants in this world when it has come to a close.

Thanks to a unique and brilliant script from writer/director Jack Martin. Who rejects much of the convention that a story like this would normally feature to really hammer home that our biggest obstacles in this life are doubt and the noise that others create. And well, while some will undoubtedly say that is too saccharine a plot and too fluffy a message, they’re wrong. For it is in fact, the right plot, and the right message, at the right time, one that gives us hope when we desperately need it. Which truly does make this an important watch, for this is that rare film that not only asks us to go for it but reminds us that the world isn’t all bad and we need to look to the good during these trying times. Because that is what will help us process the bad and call us to action, to use ingenuity and hope to change the world for the better and keep the wonder of the human condition alive for ages on end.

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