The Lost Bus is Terrifyingly Real Account of Paradise Wildfires

Earlier this year, I vividly recall looking outside my bedroom window to multiple billowed clouds of orange smoke. Smoke coming left and right from the now infamous fires that ravaged the Palisades, Altadena and many more SoCal locations leaving residents homeless and devastated.   Although, my home and family were spared, recalling the stress that came along with no less than three evacuation orders now feels like a cruel fever dream. I thought I had recovered from the emotional rawness of those months until now.

Based on real events that transpired during the deadliest fire in California history in November 2018, this heart-pounding docudrama from Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass chronicles another dry and windy day in Paradise, California that rapidly transformed Northern California into an inferno.

Fires spreading with huge plumes of smoke filling the horizon, School bus driver Kevin McCay (McConaughey) gets a call requesting help for 23 children stranded at Ponderosa Elementary School. As the disaster escalates, McCay is painfully aware navigating toward the school could prove fatal, but a sense of responsibility, along with memories of personal loss, send him hurling into harm’s way.

Adapted from Lizzie Johnson’s non-fiction book, Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, The Lost Bus is high-tension, high-stakes storytelling, recreating the chaos and panic of the Camp Fire with fevered pacing, dynamic camera work, and vivid detail. Greengrass manages to make you feel like you are on that bus experiencing this harrowing moment in real time, all the while wondering if the inhabitants of this bus will make it out whole.

McConaughey and America Ferrera are dynamic as the teacher and bus driver who bring a bus of children back to safety despite their own personal consequences.  Although, there are some moments that could have used some tightening up or just omitted altogether, this film is truly terrifying and a blatant reminder to always have your affairs in order.  Disasters of this nature happen all the time, but it is in the details of how we are prepared to handle them that can make the difference between life and death

Having recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, “The Lost Bus” will debut in select theaters on September 19, 2025, before premiering globally on Apple TV+ Friday, October 3, 2025.