Silverton Siege is a wonderful movie filled with action, tension and a powerful message on equality and how stepping on others just because they have a different skin color can only bring sadness and pain. Seeing a group of freedom fighters trying to do what they think is the best for the people they are fighting is quite exciting and makes the movie one of the most solid Netflix films of the year so far.
Our freedom fighters in the movie are Calvin, Terra and Aldo, the trio has chemistry, and they trust each other. They have been through the gauntlet together more than once. In the film, it is implied that Calvin and Terra are killed at the end of it and Aldo gets killed by Terra towards the middle of the movie. It is tragic and sad, but so were the events that inspired the movie.
The road from getting their mission to failing it and getting trapped inside the back where most of the action occurs is a wild one. Director Madla Dube does the best he can, and he proves that he might be ready to graduate to bigger projects after this movie. Let’s see what happens to our protagonists in full detail.
‘Silverton Siege’ Ending, Explained: What Happened To The Protagonists?
At the beginning of the movie we are informed by Calvin, doing a bit of narration, that he is part of an organization that tries to fight the white regime that has implemented the apartheid throughout South Africa. The mission of the team is to disrupt government facilities throughout the capital, Pretoria. However, they have a rule. There must be no civilian casualties during the mission.
That is how the team composed of Calvin, the leader, Terra, the female of the group, Aldo, and Masego, Terra’s boyfriend get ready to disrupt one of these facilities. There is a problem though. The police are already waiting at the place. The police were preparing an ambush on Calvin and his team, but Calvin instincts warned him that something was wrong. They tried to escape through the streets of Pretoria, but failed.
Masego is killed during their escape, and Terra laments the death of her lover. Calvin and his team seek refuge, and they find it inside a back, where a number of clients have been doing their daily busy work as usual. The peace is disrupted, but Calvin promises the brand-new hostages that this isn’t a robbery, and that if they remain calm, everybody will be safe.
The police surrounds the bank, and they begin communications in order to start a negotiation. Calvin asks for a helicopter in order to escape, and the police provided it. Sadly, the pilot that was supposed to pilot the chopper was also there to sabotage the escape. Aldo’s instinct kick in and they manage to go back to the bank with the pilot as the newest hostage.
This is when things become even worse. The pilot is very aggressive and Calvin ends up fighting against him. Terra interrogates the pilot. She wants to know who is the mole, who betrayed them to the police, but the pilot won’t talk. Outside the police identified that one of the hostages, the bank’s manager, named Christine, is the daughter of a minister of the government. They want her out.
Calvin asks for food and drink and in return the police ask for two hostages, one being Christine. However, she doesn’t want to go out. The hostages begin to see Calvin’s struggle as just and helped him throughout his demonstrations to the police, where they ask for Nelson Mandela to be released from prison. If the police do that. They will surrender.
The police get a letter from the prime minister ordering Mandela release, but Calvin isn’t sure. Langerman the negotiator enters so see if everyone is alright inside the bank. There is when Terra discovers that Aldo was the traitor and kills him. Christine tries to go out and speak to Calvin and Terra, but she’s killed by a sniper. With no more options, Calvin releases the hostages, the police will get inside, and he doesn’t want more dead people.
The police get inside, and a shooting takes place. Calvin and Terra fight back and as they run out of bullets they come out, and we hear the sound of machine guns as the screen turns to black.
Do They Manage To Release Mandela in Silverton Siege?
Sadly, Calvin and his team fail to release Nelson Mandela from prison, both in the movie and in real life. Nelson Mandela wouldn’t be released from prison, but for ten years into the future. After his release from prison, Nelson Mandela would become the first black president of South Africa.
During the bank incident, the police never had the intention of releasing Nelson Mandela. However, unnoticed to the police and the government, the event would ignite the political movement that would eventually have Nelson Mandela released from prison. The lives of the people who sacrifice themselves during the bank incident became martyrs to the country’s reform that would the apartheid system abolished.
So, we can say that while Calvin, and Terra didn’t manage their objective in a short term, on the long run their work here was vital for the change of their country into better one. A country where the color of your skin doesn’t invalidate you from being treated like a human.
