“PATRIOTS DAY” (2016): A THRILLER FILM ABOUT BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING

It is an American crime drama-thriller film about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent terrorist manhunt. 

Directed by Peter Bergand written by Berg, Matt Cook, and Joshua Zetumer, the film is based on the book Boston Strong by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge. 

It stars Mark Wahlberg (he has a post in my blog), J. K. Simmons (he has just a post in my blog), John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, and Michelle Monaghan.

Principal photography began on March 29, 2016, in New York City, and also filmed in Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

On April 15, 2013, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonate two bombs during the Boston Marathon, causing widespread panic. A young couple, Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky, are injured and taken to separate hospitals, where they are both required to have their legs amputated; the family man Steve Woolfenden is also injured and separated from his young son, Leo, who is rescued by the police and taken to a safe location.

FBI agent Richard DesLauriers is assigned to investigate the bombings in collaboration with Boston police commissioner Ed Davis and Watertown police sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese, while Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders searches for evidence and helps people that have been injured or separated from their loved ones in the chaos, including Patrick and Jessica as well as Steven and Leo. FBI analysts review footage of the bombing and identify Dzhokhar and Tamerlan as suspects, but DesLauriers is reluctant to release their pictures to the public without further evidence. His hand is forced when the pictures are leaked to the press, while Pugliese's men begin conducting door-to-door searches for the pair.

Attempting to lie low, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan kill officer Sean Collier in a failed attempt to steal his sidearm and then carjack student Dun Meng, telling him of their plans to conduct another bombing in New York City. Just as Dzhokhar enters the Shell Gas station convenience store, Meng quickly escapes the car and runs to the Mobil Gas Station so that he can call the police; the brothers flee in the stolen car. Saunders arrives at the scene, learns of the brothers' plan and is given the stolen car's GPS tracking number, leading police to the pair which leads to an armed confrontation. The ensuing shootout where the brothers use both firearms and pipebombs, sees several officers injured and/or killed. Tamerlan is wounded by the flanking Jeffrey Pugliese. Tamerlan orders Dzhokhar to run to New York City to continue the rampage while he makes a last stand. Unfortunately, as Tamerlan is subdued by the police, Dzhokhar runs over his brother in his flight, killing him as he escapes in the chaos.

Meanwhile, Tamerlan's wife Katherine Russell and Dzhokhar's college friends are detained by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team and questioned by the High-Value Interrogation Group. Katherine refuses to disclose any knowledge of her husband's illegal activities, while Dzhokhar's friends appear oblivious to his plans, despite having earlier found bomb components in his possessions. A local man named David Henneberry later finds Dzhokhar hiding under the sheets of his boat and calls the police. Dzhokhar is quickly surrounded and arrested after a brief standoff, as Saunders and his colleagues celebrate. The Boston police are invited to attend a Boston Red Sox game, where David Ortiz thanks them for their heroism and telling them to "stay strong".

Dzhokhar was convicted on thirty counts and sentenced to death by lethal injection and is currently awaiting for his appeal in federal prison; his three college friends were arrested for obstructing the bombing investigation and authorities are continuing to seek information regarding Russell's possible involvement of the bombings.