Hi, this is Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic, and I'm here with the Slate Spoiler Special on Unknown, the new thriller starring Liam Neeson.

Joining me here in the Slate's studio is Mr. John Swansberg.

Hello, John.

Hello.

Who is Slate's culture editor and a frequent spoiler companion, and who, at the very last minute, I was very happy you agreed to come see Unknown with me and spoil it.

Yeah, well, I was a great invitation to get. I was excited to see it.

I was excited that you were excited because it's not a good time of year for movies.

No. good in this sort of mediocre yet highly enjoyable way. I just, I had some kind of feeling that this might be a little bit like taken.

And I wouldn't say that it's quite as enjoyable as taken, but it was pretty great, no?

Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

Okay, great is maybe pushing it.

But it was a fun night at the movies.

Let's not bleach the word great of its meeting.

But it was, it was fun. I think you say this in your review, but it's sort of like born light, Jason, or born identity light. And indeed, the plot is sort of in broad strokes very similar to the plot of the born identity in that Liam Neeson sort of, well, I guess we have to give away a lot to explain how it's the similarities. But should we do it.

Yeah, I think we should start summarizing and start spoiling.

And I should also add that this turned out to be the ideal kind of candidate for a spoiler special because there's a huge twist.

Yeah, there's a totally huge twist.

And there's a lot of plot this would be the place where you have that conversation that you have coming out of a movie where you say, but how could the guy have known about the thing on the

train before that? And this is exactly that kind of movie. It's definitely that kind of movie. And in fact,

I think there are certain things in this movie that are not only unexplained, but there are a little

cheap. There are some tricks at the beginning of the movie that are, I think, meant to make you think one thing when, in fact, the truth is something else.

And I think we should maybe talk about those, too.

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