The trailer of Imperium opens with the Nazi swastika burning in a field, and suddenly the screen suddenly shifts focus to Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe who is almost unrecognizable with a shaved head and a gaunt face. Based on true events, Imperium is the story of an undercover FBI agent Nate Foster, pretending to be a neo-Nazi sympathizer in order to infiltrate the white supremacists’ terrorist group.
Directed by Daniel Ragussis and bearing the tagline “Defend your nation, become your enemy,” Imperium is based on a story by Michael German, a former FBI agent. The trailer shows Nate Foster putting up a brave face in the company of the terrorist group while struggling with his own conscience after witnessing many of the group’s activities. With a ‘dirty bomb’ being manufactured by them, Nate prophesies a series of bad comings in the near future. His fears don’t stop there. The group has its eyes on him and Nate worries about the consequences of getting caught.
Coupled with a dramatic background score, the trailer leaves one guessing as to what lies in Nate’s future as an informant. Having graduated from a child actor to a versatile one, featuring in films of all genres and playing all kinds of roles ranging from – a child wizard, to a Beat poet, to a farting corpse – Radcliffe looks very convincing in the current role in the two-minute and eleven-second trailer. The words, “For evil to triumph, it only takes good men to do nothing” uttered by Radcliffe’s character, sums up what one could expect from this political thriller.
In supporting roles are Toni Collette of The Sixth Sense fame, Pulitzer winner Tracy Letts, and Sam Trammell from television series True Blood. The film is scheduled to release on 19 August.