WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. – The hilarious real-life actor from the Pacific Northwest is the focus of the new movie “The Order,” starring Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult. While Hollywood portrays some of the incidents, the true story of domestic terrorism in the region remains far more terrifying.
The movie was inspired by the FBI’s investigation into an Aryan splinter group led by Bob Matthews that ran rampant from California to Seattle, with the goal of funding a race war and overthrowing the government.
The film about the Neo-Nazi group, known as The Order, begins on the Washington-Idaho border and ends with a fire in December 1984 on Whidbey Island. Jude Law plays FBI agent Terry Husk, a character based on Special Agent Wayne Manis, who led the investigation.
Manis lives in Idaho and spoke to FOX 13 Seattle. Overall, he was impressed with the film, noting the fakes, heists, shootings and plots presented in the movie were very realistic, although some scenes were interesting.
Manis shared that he came to Whidbey Island four decades ago after following Matthews and his crew for months. According to Manis, white elites were interned there writing war declarations and planning a robbery at Brinks Headquarters in San Francisco.
The group was staying at three different houses in the Greenbank area, unknown to most of the locals. Eventually, the FBI forced the surrender of some of the gang, but Matthews, inside a cabin on Smuggler’s Cove Road, refused to fight.
“Immediately he opened a gun through the window directly in my face and the bullets were hitting the trees around me,” Manis recalls. “We put a fire in the house on the ground floor of the house to light it so we could see. This fire had ignited the fire and the fire got hotter and hotter.”
Despite scare tactics and pleas from his friends, Matthews remained inside the burning house. He died there.
Manis’ daughter, Christa Hazel, was only 10 years old at the time.
“Dad called and said there was a gun, we would hear about it on the news,” he said. Watching the film reminded him of that turbulent time.
Hazel sees parallels between then and now. He believes that violence exists today but it looks different, pointing to the rise of internet radicalization and the growing tensions in politics.
Manis agreed: “This film helps us see how big domestic terrorism can be.
He hopes the film will serve as a reminder and start a conversation.
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