A film about The Order, a white supremacist group led by Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult) may not initially appear to be on screenwriter Zach Baylin’s list of screenplays he wrote, but he begs to differ. Most recently known for King Richard, The Crow, and Bob Marley: One Love, Baylin declares that many of his unproduced scripts “were in the vein of The Order.”
He’s always been interested in noir and crime films. “I loved the 70s and 80s Sidney Lumet films,” he reflects. Baylin is especially influenced by films like The French Connection, Prince of the City and City Hall because they are incredibly accurate about the worlds that they depict.
Zach Baylin watched movies like Cape Fear, Basic Instinct and JFK during his formative years to contour his cinematic tastes. “I’ve always been drawn to twisted morality tales,” he mentions.
When I started writing and I wanted to write movies that I thought David Fincher would make
The Rise Of The Private Militia Movement
Around 2016, Baylin and producer Bryan Haas explored the prevalence of domestic terrorist groups in America. “We became interested in Timothy McVeigh in terms of radicalization in America and anti-government sentiment. In doing some research into McVeigh, Brian and I found the story of Bob Matthews,” notes Baylin.
McVeigh was part of a group of anti-government white supremacists that robbed banks in the early 80s to finance their operations. Baylin visited the memorial site of the Oklahoma bombings which McVeigh orchestrated. In the memorial museum, there’s a copy of the Turner Diaries – a blueprint for The Order.
Zach Baylin. Photo by Kate Susman
“Bryan and I felt that this story was incredibly relevant, but also had the bones to be a classic 70s crime thriller that had a really incredible investigative arm as well as a group that was pulling off substantial heists.”
The Order is adapted from the 1989 non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt.
Despite the highly-inflamed nature of America’s current political landscape, Baylin doesn’t want this “to be an obstacle for people to get into the movie and understand what we wanted them to experience.”
Australian director Justin Kurzel brought his vision from the 2011 true story film The Snowtown Murders to the project. “He had the right approach to try and honestly show the communities that are affected by these things and the people who end up participating in these events. He wants to shine a lens on it and not try and create maniacal villains out of these people, but to try and understand them.”
Terry Husk (Jude Law) is the FBI agent leading the case. “The Order has a western genre element to it, and we wanted to portray the law enforcement side of the story incredibly accurately. We want to show the flaws they had as they chased these disenfranchised young men who were pulled into the thrall of a charismatic cult-like leader with insidious ideas.”
[More: Zach Baylin Talks ‘King Richard’]
What Motivated Bob Mathews?
Bob Mathews was raised a Mormon and became increasingly disillusioned by the cultural direction America was taking. The Order is ostensibly a character journey rather than an a treatise on rise of white supremacy.
Zach Baylin shares that “the script took a lot of different paths to where it ended up in the final version.”
“There was an early draft that spent the whole first act of the film on Bob’s side of things, preceding his radicalization. It led up to his first criminal acts. Bob had a father who was a more moderate person and tried to restrain Bob’s more hateful instincts. He lived with him on his property for the last few years of his life until he died.” Following the death of his father, Bob could finally begin “the mission he was called towards.”
Bob initially had familial and communal restraints on his dark impulses until he distanced himself from them. After his father’s death, he “was feeling like he was no longer tethered to any other sort of humanity.” Bob also exploited the sense of bonding, acceptance, being heard and revered, he brought to his followers.
He was charismatic and seemingly altruistic and offers his followers a community and someone to blame.
It was imperative that Zach Baylin created empathy for such a vitriolic character. “As filmmakers we tried to honestly portray what happened and how Bob pulls towards some kind of community himself.”
“We talked about this with Nick [Hoult]. Bob was someone who wanted that sort of adoration and wanted to be put on a pedestal. It’s the humanity of wanting to be loved and connected with, you could identify with,” notes Baylin.
Bob has a likeable and affable personality that gives the audience permission to sit in those worlds with him
Director Justin Kurzel and Zach Baylin built Husk’s character with more layers than simply a weathered cop solving crimes with limited resources. “We would talk about how can we depict this FBI investigator and feel the weight of the cases that he’s worked and the heaviness of that career.” Terry Husk had constant nosebleeds and other health scares to depict the stresses of his job. “He had been put out the pasture a little bit and we try to see him take on a task that might be beyond him now.”
Both Terry and Bob are trying to build a future for their family in a country that may not even exist anymore. The latent pressure has taken its emotional toll on both of them.
Terry Husk (Jude Law) Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
Adapting The Silent Brotherhood
Producer Bryan Haas and Zach Baylin decided on the format of The Order early on in the process.
“Our entry point into the story was this group who pulled off the biggest armored car heist in US history at the time. The leader dies in a standoff with the US government.” Knowing the end allowed the filmmakers to build the set pieces which formed the “spine” of the movie.
“We read extensively about a handful of investigators in the Pacific Northwest who had taken these tendrils of those cases and pulled together this much bigger conspiracy that the group was using as their blueprint.”
Clearly defining the criminal and investigative tracks of the story allowed Baylin to firmly structure the story.
The screenwriter’s early drafts clocked in at 180 pages, so there was much editing to be done – mainly clarifying characters and the world-building. The shooting draft came in at under 110 pages.
Final Thoughts
The Order certainly provides potent food for thought to its audience. It shines a light on the face of white supremacy today using an historical incident.
We’re in an incredibly precarious moment, both here in America and all over the world
But ultimately, the filmmakers wanted to make an entertaining movie that stands on its own.
“We asked how far can you push the boundaries of these genre movies and make something that feels grounded, propulsive, and exciting, but also find the room to have these character moments that feel nuanced and unexpected.”
“I would like the audience to be excited, but also a bit scared about the dangers of things that happened then and could happen again now,” concludes Baylin.
