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Published 13:57 10 Oct 2025 BST
Updated 13:57 10 Oct 2025 BST

The Lost Bus, the acclaimed new Apple TV+ action thriller movie, is climbing up the streaming charts following its release last week.
Directed by Paul Greengrass (the Bourne franchise, Captain Phillips), who co-wrote the script alongside Brad Ingelsby (Mare of Easttown, Task), the film is inspired by true events involving Kevin McKay (played by Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club), a bus driver, and Mary Ludwig (played by Oscar-nominee America Ferrera, Barbie), a school teacher.
This was when the pair, then strangers at the time, transported 22 young students to safety in the midst of the 2018 Camp Fire in California, one of America’s deadliest wildfires.
Released on Apple TV+ on Friday, 3 October, the movie has earned rave reviews, with it currently holding an 85% critics score and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film's performances, its portrait of ordinary people's bravery amidst terrifying circumstances, and its recreation of the destructive inferno have been singled out for praise.
You can check out a sample of some of these glowing write-ups below:
Daily Telegraph (UK): "As well as a return to the style of Captain Phillips, The Lost Bus proves to be Greengrass’s finest film since: a story of human resilience in the direst of straits, with an unflinchingly human focus."
Mark Kermode: "As with all Paul Greengrass' films, it has the grit of real life."
The Observer (UK): "Rather than a danger in human form, the peril here comes from the natural world. Even by Greengrass’s usual visceral standards, this makes The Lost Bus a sickeningly tense experience."
USA Today: "McConaughey, as a nervy reluctant hero, steers the searing, intense narrative about normal people living through the most hellish of circumstances."
Variety: "The Lost Bus resembles several other Greengrass films in that it’s also slim on character, but succeeds in plunging audiences into the action -- which, in this case, means trying to steer an unwieldy vehicle through hell itself."
The Lost Bus is currently at the top of the Apple TV+ movie chart.
It also placed in the number three spot on the service JustWatch's Top 10 movie streaming chart for Ireland this week, coming in just behind Cillian Murphy's Netflix drama Steve and Prime Video's action comedy throwback Play Dirty.
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The Lost Bus is streaming on Apple TV+ now.
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