The Unthinkable 2018

Alex [Christoffer Nordenrot] lives in a small village in 2005 with his mother Klara [Ulrika Bäckström] and his cold, distant father Björn [Jesper Barkselius]. The strain in his home is heavy, and when Klara finally leaves, Alex’s closest friend Anna [Lisa Henni] moves away to Stockholm, and Alex ends up moving in with his uncle. The family fracture sets a long shadow over his childhood, but it also plants a memory of music and friendship that will pull him back years later.

A decade passes, and Alex has become a celebrated musician in Stockholm. During Midsummer, the city is rattled by a string of blasts—one of them killing his mother, a blow that rattles his fame and rattles his conscience. In the wake of the tragedy, Alex parts ways with his manager and returns to his old village with a single purpose: to buy the church piano that he and Anna once played together. It’s there that he crosses paths with Anna again, now back in the village and seemingly settled, though he learns that she has a husband, Kim [Krister Kern], and a daughter, Elin [Lo Lexfors]. The reunion is tense; Alex’s pride flares and he leaves in anger, unsettled by the life Anna has built without him.

As the attacks on Sweden grow worse and the military is mobilized, chaos ripples through everyday life. People crash their cars in the rain, and the country’s communications falter. Anna’s mother, a government [Minister] [Carina Perenkranz], manages to escape Stockholm and heads into the countryside as the situation spirals toward a full-blown crisis. In the village, Anna and her family become part of a tense, makeshift sheltering effort, and the nation braces for what comes next.

Meanwhile, Björn—who remains at a transformer station that powers the region—fights to repel a band of armed attackers. He shoots and defends the station just as helicopters and swarm of birds fall from the sky, a strange omen of the contamination in the rain. Civilians flock to the bomb shelter within the station, and among them are Anna and Alex, who is badly injured and unconscious for a stretch. The tension climbs as fear and loyalty collide inside the concrete walls.

When Anna leaves to search for Elin, Alex wakes and confronts his father with the truth he’s kept inside: Klara is dead. Anna returns shortly after with her daughter, revealing that her husband and many others were killed by helicopters, though Kim is alive. As helicopters close in on the power station, the civilians make a decisive move toward the village church, hoping to meet the military they’ve contacted by radio. The battle front expands, and the enemy launches a brutal strike that claims the life of Anna’s mother, the Minister. In a final, desperate confrontation, Alex crashes a car into an approaching helicopter, destroying it, while Björn sacrifices himself by crashing his own plane into another helicopter. His death saves Alex, Anna, and Elin, a selfless act that seals his family’s fate in a blaze of metal and memory.

Inside the damaged, burning church, Alex tells Anna that Kim is still alive and then returns to the piano to play one last tune. The music becomes a fragile thread that keeps him tethered to reality as chemical weapons rain down, erasing memories. He plays until the memory fades, and Anna is carried away by Kim. The credits roll with a stark montage: about 800,000 Swedes lose their memory, and the final images hint at Russia’s possible involvement in the attacks, with Vladimir Putin briefly appearing on the screen.

This story threads together a village’s quiet years with a modern nightmare, underscoring how love, memory, and music endure even as catastrophe reshapes a country. The film maintains a steady, grounded tone while layering personal grief with a broader, national crisis, inviting viewers to consider how individuals cling to hope and to each other when everyone’s world is upended.