AllMovie

Sure nuclear missiles may cause unprecedented destruction and devastation, but in this documentary by filmmaker Kevin Toolis, ex-CIA agent Robert Baer examines the reasons why the common car bomb is perhaps the most effective weapon in modern warfare. His eventful life portrayed in the Oscar-winning 2005 political thriller (in which he was played by George Clooney no less), Baer is a man who knows a thing or two about bombs. And while folks all around the world rightly shudder to think of what might happen should nuclear materials somehow fall into the hands of terrorists, their chances of being injured or killed in a car-bomb attack are far greater than their chances of ever perishing from a dirty bomb or city-destroying nuclear warhead. From Oklahoma to Ireland, and the Middle East to the city of London, the common car bomb has shaped conflicts all across the globe. Now, by examining harrowing footage of car bomb attacks and interviewing a number of car bombers themselves, Baer attempts to highlight why all that's needed to destabilize a superpower in the 21st Century is a junky old car and a trunk full of explosives.