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A lot of us are probably going to see the "Homestead" movie in the next few days or have already.
SPOILERS INSIDE- you've been warned.
As implied in the name, a "homestead" is the main feature of the story after an attack happens on the US.
Quite a bit of the plot line, characters, etc. was wooden. I honestly think perhaps the producers or someone involved in the film/also a show evidently reads various survival forums. It was heavy with the differences in various "types" for lack of a better word of styles of preparation. And just like the old Doomsday Preppers show, the "types" tended towards specific lines of preparation that also practically excluded other lines of preparation.
For example the more homesteading types, were absolutely worthless in a mock FOF scenario, even though they had a 4 to 1 advantage against the Tactibros.
On the flip side, the Tactibros were all about guns and guarding and talking milspec- the main Tactibro was the guy that played Branch in Longmire and in the first 30 minutes his dialogue was getting highly annoying with the milspeak. I mean crap we all use abbreviations sometimes that are useful- SOPs for example, but no one talks in nothing but that. Thankfully it toned down a bit.
Being as Angel studios did the film, you are expecting some messages and they certainly happen. And this brings out the age old question of helping others post SHTF.
Quite a bit of that could have been helped by the main homestead guy clearly doing things a bit differently. Big showy type overdone house in a "look at me" location next to a main road. Not exactly planning ahead of time for bad times. Adding a gate after the fact doesn't change that. Tons of hills right around and considering the size of the almost castle size main house, certainly the means were there to build into one of the hills and/or maybe in a slightly less "grandeur for all to see" location.
Also a huge house screams "we got it made", whether now or in bad times. Amerikans have been playing the comparison game and the "must be nice" nonsense attitude has been prevalent for years. That needs to be planned for, whether for just now or also for SHTF. Is the small house hidden back in the woods or the large castle like structure with one guy and two clearly non violent women going to be the better target? One is assured to have things you need, the other guy might be just as hard up as you- and where TH is his place anyways??
Location was an F minus- they stood out way too much.
Leadership was fairly non existent in the hodgepodge group that was thrown together. They tried to show a cooperative leadership style between Tactibro leader and Homestead owner, but they both were subverting themselves here and there. And homestead owner wife was worst of all. Not a lot of cohesion. Would not have went down so nicely.
Security- despite the Tactibro crew, it sure seemed as "security" was a cluster most of the time. The last to arrive newcomer "shooter" crew didn't know property lines, didn't really have an ROE in place, etc. Best they did IMO was begin to train the "prepper" contingent in tactics.
Why weren't these things done ahead of time? Six or so tough guys, all but one having NO FAMILY getting let in to a semi established group after the fact? No there won't be any problems with that.
In considering people for groups, it's often important to look at not just what the one person brings, but what the family brings to the table. After all, this isn't "Red Dawn" with a bunch of unattached teenagers running off. People will have families. You often graded people based not just on the one person, but also on the family. Everyone might be excited that a nurse is going the group (+1) but maybe his family aren't "into this" and the wife is actively fighting against it (-2) and he's got two kids that are out of control (-2). Remember, your getting the entire family, not just the nurse. How good a nurse is he? How much do you need him? How many problems WILL his out of control kids and out of it wife cause?
Bugging out in a Tesla?? What could possibly go wrong!
Until you have seen that a time or six over decades, you don't think about it. People put on "masks" and will act right at picnics, BBQs, social gatherings, etc. You can't expect that same under stress. Get them out working, get them out hiking, get them out camping and observe them- the backyard BBQ BS test is just that- BS.
What I did like about the movie that hasn't been shown a lot in a lot of prepper "fiction" stories was the local zoning a-hole setting himself up as commissar.
The homestead owner has a Mr. Belvedere butler type guy (yeah that rich..) for the castle. Although he supposed is involved in all the "homestead" activities he clearly seems clueless about anything happening, etc. Grimaces at seeing ammo cans in the back of Tactibros vehicle. Later when the zoning commissioner aka wanna be Commissar shows up at the gate- and walks past the tent city of people LIVING outside the gate- Mr. Belvedere brings the guy into the castle like structure and he ends up down at the "armory." So here is the budding communist zoning asshole escorted into a room full of weapons and ammo by the #2 person on the homestead...
And Homestead owner walks in and handles the situation all wrong, setting the stage for problems later which do indeed come.
However it's interesting that they added in problems with local "officials" like that, doubtful many have considered that.
The movie does a horrible job of showing the passage of time. There is an engagement with hunters. Later there are issues because of that (PTSD) but it's not clear if one day, two weeks or three months have passed. Near the end of the movie they finally paste a thing on the screen giving you a clue to the passage of time. I believe that was an after the fact add on, someone probably noticed and questioned how much time had passed.
We saw it yesterday in a small south GA town and we thought we would be the only ones in there. Near the start time two older couples come in. One of the ladies later was in the bathroom with my wife and commented "my husband said I thought we had a nice setup till I saw that place.." LOL. Grandma, you probably have a FINE setup and most importantly it's probably less known about not being a castle on a hill LOL. But it was interesting that she just randomly offered that.
Go see the movie and post what you think. What do they do right, what needed work.
It's an interesting thought process if nothing else๐
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