LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: In the 1980s, a neo-Nazi violent militia recruited and operated in the remote scenic landscape of Northern Idaho. They were plotting an uprising against the government and terrorizing the Pacific Northwest.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Throw out your gun and come out with your hands up.
FADEL: Fire bombing a movie theater, robbing banks and armored vehicles, killing an outspoken liberal Jewish radio talk show host. That story is being told in a new thriller named after that group, "The Order."
JUDE LAW: I knew very little about this movement...
FADEL: That's actor Jude Law.
LAW: ...And obviously saw the potential in not just starting a conversation and reflecting on this as a period piece but also its relevance now.
FADEL: He plays a veteran FBI agent trying to slow down but instead becoming obsessed with hunting down this group. Screenwriter Zach Baylin based the film on the book "The Silent Brotherhood." As he adapted this story for film, he researched other acts of domestic terrorism, too, including the 1995 bombing, where Timothy McVeigh parked a truck bomb in front of the federal building in downtown Oklahoma City.
ZACH BAYLIN: When you go to the bombing memorial, one of the first displays is this book called "The Turner Diaries," which McVeigh found some of the inspiration for his act in that book. He had been a bit of an acolyte of this guy, Bob Mathews, who also built his group on the back of having read "The Turner Diaries."
FADEL: Bob Mathews founded and led The Order, and he took the name of his violent group directly from the 1978 novel, "The Turner Diaries," where a group of white supremacists attack the Capitol, kill Congress members and staffers all in an effort to overthrow the government. In our conversation, Baylin describes a turning point moment in the film based on true events.
BAYLIN: There was a point where Bob Mathews attended a National Alliance Convention and gave this huge speech that ended up kind of putting him on the map of white supremacy.
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NICHOLAS HOULT: (As Bob Mathews) Will you sit back and allow the nation that our forefathers discovered, conquered and died for be eradicated, or will you stand up like men and fight to survive?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (As characters) Yeah. White power.
BAYLIN: And as I was writing it, I know that around that time, Charlottesville had happened and the Unite the Right rally, and a lot of the ways in which Bob Mathews promoted his idea of racism and antisemitism as being something that shouldn't be hidden behind hoods anymore and could just be out in the open and normalized, you know, I think were things that we were seeing at that time.
LAW: Yeah. We knew going in that we were dealing with a subject matter that was full of toxicity, and a Zach said, Nick Hoult who plays Bob Mathews was the person who really had to go there.
FADEL: How hard was it, Jude, I mean, you play an FBI agent named Terry Husk. If you could just describe your character and his role.
LAW: So, Zach, I think, made a really smart decision early on that the special agent I play not be based directly on any of the agents who crack this case. Husk became an amalgam, and of course, what happens is, he lands in a place where the biggest case of his life is in front of him. He also became a sort of counter to Bob Mathews in that, you know, he's equally as driven and stubborn and motivated for his cause. It's something that our director Justin Kurzel does very, very well is he looks at people and unpacks them and understands them in comparison with each other and how and why maybe people act the way they do.
FADEL: Zach, did you read "The Turner Diaries" when you were writing this screenplay?
BAYLIN: Yeah. I did read it, and It's written almost as this children's adventure story that this group decided to put in practice, which all just seems so out of sorts.
FADEL: And it's written under a pseudonym by the leader of a white nationalist group. And when it's first introduced in the film, actually, to your character, Jude, it's described as a kid's book.
LAW: That's right. Yeah. Bleeding it through the piece was key. We didn't want it to be too much of a sort of breadcrumb moment, but similar to the agents, it was ultimately the clue that got them ahead of the group. There's also an extraordinary moment that came out of the work we were all doing as a team when Nick Hoult playing Bob Mathews reads it to his son like a kind of bedtime tale.
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HOULT: (As Bob Mathews) See the picture?
HUXLEY FISHER: (As Clinton Mathews) Yeah.
HOULT: (As Bob Mathews) That's Earl Turner.
HUXLEY: (As Clinton Mathews) OK.
HOULT: (As Bob Mathews) He's hiking up through the mountains there. He's trying to get out of the cities.
FADEL: There was a couple moments where the influence over the kids became noticeable. We see Bob Mathews, the founder of The Order, teaching his young son who looks like he's maybe 5...
BAYLIN: Yeah.
FADEL: ...Training him to shoot a gun. Is this based on something that really happened?
BAYLIN: Yeah. Most of the scenes are very accurate. So, you know, that - a big part of what Bob provided for this group was a home and a community, and that also doubled as this very insdious training facility for his army. And I think something that we all looked at as sort of a backbone of the film was this idea of community and that both the law enforcement as well as the criminals that were perpetrating these crimes, in their own ways, were both trying to build the future for their families and their communities in the way that they wanted America to be represented.
FADEL: Yeah. People talk about who America is for, who should be protected, who shouldn't be protected. I mean, that is at the center of this film, an essential question of 2024 when it's coming out.
LAW: Absolutely.
FADEL: This question is for both of you. What drew you to this story? I'll start with you, Zach, and then Jude.
BAYLIN: I was very interested in trying to understand the resurgence of this kind of ideology in America in the last, you know, 10 years.
LAW: For me, I read this thrilling script. Then the more we worked on it as a team, this extraordinary character arose, and I didn't feel like I'd ever really played anyone like him before. And obviously, at its heart, was a subject that I thought was relevant.
FADEL: Actor and producer Jude Law and screenwriter Zach Baylin speaking to us about their new film, "The Order" on Friday.
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