Josh Brolin, Miles Teller and Jeff Bridges are the heroic Granite Mountain Hotshots in a new trailer for Only the Brave. Tron: Legacy and Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski is behind the camera for Sony's drama based on the exploits of Prescott, Arizona's elite firefighting team.
The real-life Granite Mountain Hotshots were a special unit of the Prescott Fire Department sent out to battle dangerous wildfires. In 2013, lightning ignited a massive fire near Yarnell, Arizona and the Granite Mountain Hotshots headed in to fight the life-threatening blaze. Tragically, 19 of the unit's 20 members died in the conflagration, the deadliest incident for U.S firefighters since 9/11.
Related: Joseph Kosinski is Directing Top Gun 2
The second trailer for Only the Brave (formerly known as Granite Mountain) from Sony Pictures Entertainment highlights the camaraderie and heroism of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, cowboys who battle wildfires instead of bad guys. "Witness the incredible team who showed the world the meaning of heroism," reads the tagline while dramatic images and music pound past, setting up the movie's clearly straight-forward and unabashed celebration of courage in the face of unspeakable danger.
If any single shot sums up what the movie is selling, it's a grimy, very-non-Thanos Brolin gritting his teeth in the face of the massive wildfire and growling, "Come and get it." Bridges also shows up, doing what Jeff Bridges does best: being more grizzled than anyone on the planet not named Robert Duvall. Teller is the young pup of the cast, playing Brendan "Donut" McDonough, the only member of the Granite Mountain Hotshots to survive the Yarnell Fire. McDonough served as a consultant on the movie, which was written by Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer based on a GQ article by Sean Flynn.
If what you want is meat-and-potatoes masculine heroism served up with a minimum of fuss, Only the Brave looks like it will be the movie for you. The feminine side of the story is represented by Jennifer Connolly and Andie MacDowell, who appear to fill the standard roles of the dutiful wives waiting and worrying at home while their men are out saving the town from being consumed by flames.
Movies about manly firefighters represent a small and specific sub-genre of action-hero film. John Wayne once-upon-a-time tackled the role of a super-macho oil well firefighter in the classic Hellfighters. Not to be outdone by The Duke, Steve McQueen played a firefighter battling a skyscraper blaze in the disaster movie staple The Towering Inferno. Ron Howard famously brought a new level of realism to the cinematic depiction of firefighting with his 1991 movie Backdraft starring Kurt Russell, Robert De Niro and William Baldwin. Only the Brave will try to take its place on the short-but-distinguished list of memorable movies celebrating the courage of men who run into the fire while everyone else runs away.
NEXT: 2017 Fall Movie Preview - The 20 Films To See
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment