Run time: 129 mins

Paul Greengrass brings his signature urgency and realism to this gripping account of survival set against the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history.

The Lost Bus centres on a desperate escape led by a small-town bus driver and a schoolteacher, responsible for shepherding 22 children through an inferno that consumes everything in its path.

Matthew McConaughey delivers one of his most grounded performances as Kevin, a man caught between personal worry and moral duty, while America Ferrera is equally compelling as Mary, the teacher whose steadiness keeps chaos at bay. Together, they form the heart of Greengrass’s breathless real-time narrative, bolstered by vivid sound design and seamless blends of archival footage that make the terror feel painfully authentic.

Like with his 2006 film United 93, Greengrass finds humanity in crisis, focusing not on spectacle but on ordinary people pushed to extraordinary limits. It is harrowing, tense, and profoundly humane. It’s a tribute to those who survived, a reminder of the human cost of disaster and the courage that emerges when there is no other choice.