HOTEL MUMBAI Trailer

A real-life terrorist attack is recreated in harrowing detail in Hotel Mumbai, the feature debut of director Anthony Maras.

In 2008, Mumbai was beset by a group of men shooting and setting off bombs throughout the city, including at the legendary Taj Hotel. With clientele ranging from diplomats to wealthy travelers, the hotel was a high-profile target for the attackers, who shockingly were able to keep up their rampage for four days. Staff and guests banded together to survive, which is where Hotel Mumbai places its focus.

Recreating the chaos without slipping into opportunistic thrills will be a tricky task for first-time feature director Anthony Maras, who also co-wrote the script with John Collee (Master and Commander). What they choose as the focal point will be key, as they must find a reason for revisiting this attack outside of pure entertainment.

This trailer makes you think they’ll be focusing on family, with both Dev Patel and Armie Hammer being introduced with young wives and children. This also creates conflicting goals, though, as Patel just needs to get out of the hotel to reach his family while Hammer must find his scattered relations before fleeing to safety.

In a way, this is a distillation of the different motivations of hotel staff and guests, and that conflict should be enough to create thematic undercurrents to the horrifying violence. Or at least I hope so, otherwise this could veer into some pretty exploitative scenarios.

Hotel Mumbai is directed by Anthony Maras and stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, and Nazanin Boniadi. It will be released in the US on March 29th, 2019 and in the UK on May 3rd, 2019. For international release dates, click here.

How do think this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller will turn out? Let us know in the comments!