Franck Gastambide
Fred
Overview
When an explosion at an oil well threatens hundreds of lives, a crack team is called upon to make a deadly desert crossing with nitroglycerine in tow.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
4 min readThe Weight of Nothing
I’ve seen this trick before. A film opens with a close-up of nitroglycerin sloshing in a metal canister, the camera lingering just long enough to make you feel the weight of the liquid, the fragility of the container, the sheer terror of what happens if it spills. The 2024 The Wages of Fear does this too, and for a moment, I thought maybe—just maybe—it would work.
But the tension doesn’t build. It just sits there, like a prop on a shelf, waiting for someone to pick it up and do something with it. Julien Leclercq’s remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 masterpiece is a film that knows the moves but has forgotten the dance.
The original Wages of Fear is a slow, suffocating nightmare, a story about men trapped by circumstance, their desperation palpable in every bead of sweat, every white-knuckled grip on the wheel. Leclercq’s version, by contrast, is all motion and no meaning. It’s a chase movie without a chase, a thriller without thrills.
The stakes are high, the clock is ticking, and the roads are treacherous. On paper, it’s a pressure cooker of tension. On screen, it’s a series of action set pieces strung together by a plot that feels more like a video game mission than a human drama.
The characters are thin, their motivations sketched in broad strokes. Fred and Alex are brothers, but their relationship never feels lived-in. They bicker, they fight, they reconcile—all in the service of moving the plot forward, not because the film has any real interest in who they are.
The action sequences are where The Wages of Fear should shine, but they’re oddly weightless. Leclercq stages a few decent car chases and shootouts, but they lack the visceral impact of the original’s slow-burn dread. In Clouzot’s film, the tension comes from the knowledge that one wrong move—one bump in the road, one misjudged turn—could mean instant death.
Here, the nitroglycerin canisters jiggle ominously in the back of the truck, but the effect is more repetitive than suspenseful. The film seems to think that showing us the liquid sloshing is enough, as if the mere sight of it will make our hearts race. It doesn’t.
As Movie Nation noted, "Leclercq’s remake of an 'all time classic' thriller feels wrong-footed, right from the start."
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsNetflix’s High-Stakes Remake: The Making of The Wages of Fear (2024)
Netflix’s The Wages of Fear (2024) is a white-knuckle ride from the first frame—a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 Palme d’Or-winning thriller, itself adapted from Georges Arnaud’s 1950 novel. This time, director Julien Leclercq (Ganglands) cranks up the tension with a modern cast and a ticking clock: four drivers, two trucks, 24 hours, and enough nitroglycerine to level a desert town. latestnetflix.com's take is that but how did this French action thriller come together?Here’s what we know about the making of the film.
A Classic Reimagined for the Streaming Era
Leclercq’s version stays true to the original’s premise: a desperate crew must transport volatile explosives across treacherous terrain to prevent a catastrophic explosion. The 2024 update swaps the 1950s setting for a contemporary, high-octane thriller, with Leclercq co-writing the script alongside Ganglands collaborator Hamid Hlioua 
. The film’s release on Netflix in March 2024 suggests a bid to capture the same global audience that flocked to Extraction and The Gray Man—though whether it matches their scale remains to be seen.
The cast is stacked with French heavyweights. Franck Gastambide (Taxi 5) and Alban Lenoir (BAC Nord) lead the ensemble, joined by Ana Girardot (The Returned) and rapper-turned-actor Sofiane Zermani (Les Amandiers). The supporting roles include Astrid Whettnall, Bakary Diombera, and Alka Matewa, rounding out a crew of outsiders forced into a suicide mission 
. While the original film was a slow-burn character study, Leclercq’s version leans into adrenaline, with the Netflix Tudum preview promising "lethal threats" at every turn .
Behind the Scenes: Rumors and Challenges
Details about the production are scarce, but a few tidbits have surfaced:
- Shooting Locations: The 1953 film was shot in the harsh landscapes of Venezuela, but the 2024 remake reportedly filmed in Morocco, a common stand-in for desert settings in modern action films. No official confirmation exists, but industry chatter suggests the crew faced extreme conditions—fitting for a story about survival [rumor, unconfirmed].
- Stunt Work: Given the film’s premise, high-risk driving sequences were likely a major challenge. The original’s iconic truck scenes required meticulous planning; the remake would have demanded similar precision, possibly with a mix of practical effects and CGI .
- Tone Shift: Leclercq’s previous work, Ganglands, is a gritty crime thriller, and early buzz suggests The Wages of Fear follows suit. The Netflix Tudum description emphasizes "high-intensity" action, hinting at a faster pace than Clouzot’s methodical original .
Why Remake a Classic?
Remaking The Wages of Fear is a bold move. Clouzot’s film is a masterclass in suspense, often cited as one of the greatest thrillers ever made. The 2024 version isn’t the first attempt—a 1977 American remake, Sorcerer, directed by William Friedkin, is itself a cult classic. So why try again?
The answer likely lies in streaming’s appetite for high-stakes, bingeable action. Netflix has a history of reviving classic properties (The Old Guard, Bright), and The Wages of Fear fits the mold: a simple premise with built-in tension, a star-studded cast, and a built-in audience of cinephiles. Whether it succeeds will depend on whether Leclercq can balance homage with fresh thrills.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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