Wildfire 7 – Film Review

There is a very small subgenre in the disaster movie world where a prisoner seems to end up part of a wildfire agency and has to fight a fire. Wildfire 7 brings this story to its made-for-TV script and then adds in some additional juicy melodrama. Nell, our leading lady, has her estranged daughter and relations in the forest on fire as part of a camping trip. Will this be a happy reunion or will you tire of the news footage used to cover up its small budget first? The choice is yours…

The disasters faced

Forest fires, old people with barbeque grills, a whole lot of tinfoil, an uncle who clearly hates life and doesn’t want to be a part of anyone’s and an odd penchant for shouting very closely into your work colleagues’ face to assert dominance.

The story

Nell is in prison for manslaughter (“it was self defence”) and in order to try and get out as soon as possible, she joins a fire fighting programme to prevent and contain forest fires. It is here she meets Yeager, her boss who only knows how to shout aggressively at everyone in the face, look generally beefy and stare angrily at everyone as if he isn’t quite sure if he wants to punch or kiss them. Nell and Yeager do not see eye to eye but under Yeager’s intense pressure, Nell excels and when she saves his life from being hit on the head by a fire engines side mirror (oh yes), Nell gets to move on through other units, reducing her sentence as she goes but also becoming a pro at her job too.

We move forward four years and she is asked to join Wildfire 7, whose previous boss had died in a fire. She takes the job as it moves her closer to her family who haven’t returned any of her letters. Little does she know, evil grandmother has been intercepting them and her daughter Sophie’s letters back to her. Oh dear. Nell’s new team comprises of the friendly Doc, the angry lad’s girl Jo Jo, the stereotypically quiet Native American Red and surprise, surprise… Yeager! Yeager seems to have been demoted due to his bad attitude but he doesn’t want to be ordered around by Nell either.

Still, they can’t bicker for too long as our forest fire kicks off. Unfortunately, it is on the same day her daughter Sophie is camping with her friend, her dad Scott and Uncle Nick. Uncle Nick is frankly one of the worst humans in disaster movie history. He is set up to be a villain but quickly turns into a moany, desperate, scared and pathetic shadow of a man. However, as they see the smoke and flames they end up off the beaten track and need rescuing. Thankfully this is when Wildfire 7 parachute in! Can the Wildfire 7 team save civilians and stay alive themselves? Will Nell find her daughter and rescue her. Will Sophie even want her back? More importantly, will anyone punch Uncle Nick?

Why is it worth watching?

Filmed for release in 2002, TV disaster movies had little budget to work with and so they invented crazy convoluted storylines to keep viewers entertained. Wildfire 7 follows this trick with hammy acting, some gratuitous slow motion camera work and an air of feel good drama about it. Whilst the acting isn’t terrible, some of the performances feel quite wooden and comical. Nell never feels like she’s truly in charge. Jo Jo is comically over the top in rough street ways. Yeager just shouts and stares at everyone. They come across like comic book characters and it creates an unusual tone to the film.

For a film that’s only just over 90 minutes, there is also a lot of padding. Stock footage is repeated, news reporters comment on the same things over and over and various onlookers say extremely silly things. A lady in a fire watch tower is called Mother, and everyone refers to her as Mother during tactical fire conversations. Then there is a grandmother who spends 95% of her screentime looking out of a window unable to pull off a worried look for extended periods of time. She looks like she needs some Gaviscon instead and I found it quite comical.

I may jest, but Wilfire 7 did entertain me. The opening 20 minutes were actually genuinely interesting as you follow Nell through her fire training. You can see her learning the trade and as a viewer, you are making mental notes of things that will likely come back around as relevant later. The film set up a good disaster to take place, even if what does happen is not quite the scale of carnage as you’d hope for.

The effects

Most of the fire shots are archive footage and have a very different grain quality to them. Whilst some of the shots are impressive (and real) they don’t really marry up with what’s going on. Wildfire 7 uses a mixture of early, low budget CGI and practical fire. Whilst the practical effects work well, the early CGI is largely awful – especially in the climactic escape sequence across a felled tree. To show heat haze, the entire screen in wavy and our characters do not blend into the environment at all. It is an odd effect.

The characters

Whilst I’ve explained most of the characters already, I do want to shout Wildfire 7 out for having two teenage girls who don’t suck. They are actually quite brave and well-adjusted – far more so than Uncle Nick who frankly has a death wish. Also, a shout out for Mother who embodies that “I’ve lived here all my life, I ain’t leaving” vibe to perfection. What is odd is that on IMDB the movie is timed for 1h 40mins, but my copy is only 1h 34mins long. Several characters like a married couple and a park ranger are introduced but then just vanish without ever doing anything and I feel like their arcs may have been chopped out of the film. The ranger gets high cast billing but all his scenes have him say things like “ITS FIRE SEASON BE SAFE!” and that’s it. A bit on the nose but there we go…

Favourite quote

Son I’ve been watching over these wild lands 27 years and I’ve not missed a day yet! I’m not about to give up that record. Little smoke don’t scare Mother!

Mother boasts about her work attendance record mid disaster…

Three memorable moments

• The log balance beam is the big disaster moment and it is a near direct copy of When Time Ran Out.
• Mother just generally being a stubborn ox in each scene she is in.
• Yeager being a bossy boots only to then immediately trip over and bust his ankle.

The obligatory weird moment

Wildfire 7 doesn’t have too many weird moments and it plays things sincerely. However, when I saw the credits role, they saved the best laugh for the cast. Mother is played by Rheta Hutton, but she credited simply as “Rheta With An ‘H'”. She did this for two other tv movies and an episode on Smallvile but the rest of her credits are simply her name. Clearly, there’s a story and joke here and I’d be curious to know what it is!

The drinking game

Someone talking too closely to someone else… like right up in their face for no reason.

Conclusion

Sincere, well meaning but with little budget and some odd casting and script choices, Wildfire 7 isn’t a film I’d immediately recommend but it is very inoffensive too. It fits nicely into that gentle Sunday afternoon disaster movie zone where no one dies, everyone is happy at the end and you feel like the disaster was the best thing that happened to everyone. For those that prefer a wholesome, family friendly disaster.

Rating: 2.5 / 5 – OK

If you enjoyed Wildfire 7, then you might also like:

• Nature Unleashed: Fire – another low budget forest fire disaster movie with more action and less heart.
• Only The Brave – Based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of elite firefighters facing a historic wildfire.
• Fire – Irwin Allen’s made for TV 70’s classic gets better with age.