The Lost Bus scared the crap out of me! It’s based on a true story about a group of kids being evacuated to safety in a school bus during a California wildfire. The fire, the smoke, and the danger all felt absolutely immediate and real.

The Lost Bus kept my heart racing. I told myself again and again that if they made a movie about this story, obviously the children on the bus made it to safety. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a movie.

That didn’t help a lot.

The movie lasts over two hours. The first 30 minutes or so are a long examination of what a loser the bus driver Kevin (Matthew McConaughey) is and how messed up his life is. His boss Ruby (Ashlie Atkinson) is on his case because he can’t even be a bus driver right. His teenage son Shaun (Levi McConaughey) seems to hate him and his mother Sherry (Kay McConaughey) is not well.

That’s a lot of McConaugheys in one movie, so maybe the first part was meant to give the fam some exposure. (Wow, I sound cynical.)

Once the fire is raging and Fire Chief Martinez (Yul Vazquez) issues an evacuation order for the town of Paradise, the movie finally swings into action. Keven is the only free and empty bus in the part of town where kids need to be taken to safety and their parents. He goes to the school where he picks up 22 kids and a teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera).

Getting from one place to another when 27,000 people are trying to get out of town and emergency vehicles are everywhere is no easy task. The roads are clogged, the fire is coming closer and closer, the kids are terrified. Mary Ludwig and Kevin are pretty dang scared themselves.

Traffic is gridlocked so Kevin takes some unusual routes to try to find a way out of the fire. Nobody knows where they are. The terror feels so real as they try to find an escape. Kudos to the team that made everything look so genuine. You could almost smell the smoke and feel the heat. Paul Greengrass directed this nerve wracking film.

The real fire the movie tells about began when a PG&E power line hook fell on dry ground during high winds. The Camp fire became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, with PG&E pleading guilty to charges of starting the fire. Climate change isn’t helping the wildfire situation and there are more and more uncontrollable wildfires every year.

If you like a good edge of your seat thriller, The Lost Bus provides that, but not much more. You can see it streaming on Apple TV+.