The Order (2024) is an action thriller inspired by actual events that took place in the early to mid-1980s. Jude Law and Jurnee Smollett play FBI agents, Terry Husk and Joanne Carney. Actor Nicholas Hoult plays real life domestic terrorist Bob Mathews.
Here’s the premise: A series of bank robberies and armored car heists frightened communities in the Pacific Northwest. A lone FBI agent believes that the crimes were not the work of financially motivated criminals, but rather a group of dangerous domestic terrorists.
Usually, I watch and then review movies and TV shows for teachable moments about FBI programs, policies, and procedures. However, since I’ve had the honor of interviewing Wayne Manis, one of the FBI case agents of this true crime investigation, I reached out to him for his thoughts about the movie.
Wayne Manis entered on duty at the FBI in January 1966. He is an old school G-man who served in the Newark and New Orleans Divisions before transferring to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Resident Agency (RA) out of the Salt Lake City Division. Even though the movie’s producers and screenwriters did not consult with him, Special Agent Terry Husk, the main character in The Order, is a composite of Wayne and other agents who investigated the violent neo-Nazi white supremacist terrorist group.
Wayne learned that to prepare for his role, actor Jude Law read his book, The Street Agent. The memoir features several chapters about the case, including the dramatic moment when Wayne and SWAT members attempted to arrest The Order’s leader Bob Matthew, exchanged machine gun fire with him at a distance of less than 20 yards, and after Matthews refused to surrender, witnessed his fiery demise.
Wayne has attended three private screenings of the film. He told me he enjoyed watching the movie, but admitted he rated it as average primarily because of creative changes made to the real story. He felt that the filmmakers omitted many important moments and didn’t do justice to his colleague and friend, Kootenai Idaho, undersheriff Larry Broadbent, whose insights about Bob Matthews and affiliated groups were invaluable to Wayne when he first started his investigation. The sheriff was changed to a naïve young deputy who was killed off in the movie. “It felt empty, like they erased Larry’s contributions.” Wayne also didn’t like that the Terry Hust character was portrayed as a heavy drinker, who used profanity “like a wild man.”
I asked Wayne if the movie offered any teachable moments about the FBI. He answered, “Yes. The Order showed the dedication and commitment of the FBI agents and their law enforcement partners to stop this violent gang. That Terry Husk character had no quit in him.” He noted those are characteristics reflected in a lot of agents he has known.
Because of his strong personal connection to the actual events, he acknowledged that his opinion might be biased, but he still summarized the movie as “good,” even with its creative compromises.
To learn more about Wayne and his amazing Bureau career, listen to his FBI Retired Case File Review episode 159: Wayne Manis – The Order, White Supremacist Group
Manis also recently sat for an interviewed with a local TV news station about the case and violent showdown. Watch the video clip here.
According to the FBI website, the threats posed by domestic violent extremism groups like The Order are on the rise in recent years. The number of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigations of suspected domestic violent extremists has more than doubled since the spring of 2020.
The Department of Justice arrested and charged more than 725 individuals who took part in the U. S. Capitol assault on January 6, 2021. Read more here: The Domestic Terrorism Threat One Year After January 6. (NOTE: On January 20, a presidential pardon freed defendants who took part in the siege.)
To learn more about FBI extremist investigations active in the 1970s and 1980s, and the FBI’s efforts to combat domestic terrorism today, listen to these FBI Retired Case File Review episodes:
345: Tom Burg – Laser Weaponry Conspiracy
172: Weysan Dun – Posse Comitatus, Nebraska Cult Murders
213: Tom O’Connor – Domestic Terrorism, Racially Motivated and Antigovernment Extremists
