Tunisia victim's family slams horror movie American Assassin for echoing 2015 terror attack

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A Hollywood movie featuring a terrorist gun massacre on a beach has been condemned by relatives of victims of the Islamic State attack in Tunisia.

The trailer for action thriller American Assassin shows tourists fleeing for their lives as two men open fire with assault rifles at a packed resort.

The scene has disturbing echoes of IS fanatic Seifeddine Rezgui slaughtering 38 sunbathing tourists – including four Scots – with a Kalashnikov in June 2015.

Jim McQuire, 66, from Cumbernauld, died alongside his wife Ann, 63, at the beachside resort.

His sister Mary Flockhart hit out at movie makers CBS Films for the disturbing scenes, saying they will leave survivors and their families traumatised.

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Mary said: “It’s too early and too raw to put something like this out there.

“I think this wil be terrible for some survivors as they’re still suffering.

“We lost someone and it still hurts a great deal. But when people who were there see this, it’ll feel worse. It’ll be horrifying for them.

“It’s in bad taste. It’s not a documentary, it’s entertainment and for making money.

“It will put a lot of people straight back into the nightmare. “

The film, directed by Michael Cuesta and produced by Lionsgate and CBS Films, will be released in the UK on September 15. It stars Dylan O’Brien as CIA black
ops recruit Mitch Rapp, who carries out covert counter-terrorist operations.

Birdman actor Michael Keaton plays Rapp’s instructor Stan Hurley.

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In a flashback sequence in the two-and-a-half-minute trailer, Rapp is seen proposing to his bikini-clad girlfriend Katrina on an idyllic golden beach.

Seconds after they hug and he takes her photo, two gunmen open fire. Sunbathers scream as they leap off loungers in panic and run for their lives while a gunman wearing red shorts fires a volley of shots.

Tourists sitting at a beach bar duck for cover and others scramble along the beach in a bid to escape. A second gunman is seen on the beach dressed in sunglasses, a baseball cap and a black shirt.

The trailer includes scenes of Mitch training to avenge his fiancee’s death.

The film is based on the 2010 New York Times bestseller by Vince Flynn. He died in 2013, aged 43.

Despite the parallels between the beach scene and the Sousse terror attack, producers Lionsgate Films denied there was any similarity.

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A spokeswoman said: “The sequence in American Assassin was filmed in Thailand, takes place in Ibiza and has no basis in any real events. As with the rest of the film, it is entirely fictional.”

The novel’s original plot does not feature the beach terror scene.

It instead centred on the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, with the main character seeking revenge after his girlfriend died on Pan Am Flight 103. The author dedicated the novel to the victims and their relatives but there was an outcry from some of the families when it was published.

Mary, 67, from Cumbernauld, added: “A beach scene wasn’t in the book so it looks like they’ve put it in for shock effect.

“We weren’t there but I am still affected by what happened. I’m sure this film will shock people and I wish the film company hadn’t done it.”

Killer Rezgui also shot dead Billy and Lisa Graham, from Bankfoot, near Perth. The couple were celebrating Lisa’s 50th birthday at the resort.

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The McQuires were gunned down near the pool at the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel as they tried to flee.

Ann died at the scene. Jim was shot in the pelvis. He was conscious and Mary said she has felt tortured since discovering during an inquest into the attack how long it took for emergency services to arrive at the scene. She added: “It was claimed Jim waited 15 or 20 minutes for proper medical attention but he actually lay on the hotel steps for 45 minutes after he was shot.

“That stays with me. He knew where he was, he was conscious and he knew that Ann had died.

“I now know there were two men who saw him move and tried to go down to him and help him but they had to leave when the shooter came back.”

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Mary discovered Aberdeen-based nurse Carol Harrison came out of hiding to try to help her dying brother. The pair had an emotional meeting during which Carol relived Jim’s final moments.

Mary added: “Carol was still traumatised. I took a family picture of Jim in my handbag with me to show her so that she could see him in happier times and replace the image of him lying wounded in her head.”

Tragically, Jim died of a cardiac arrest en route to a medical clinic.

His brother-in-law Charlie added: “We don’t know if Jim would have survived but there’s a possibility that if something had been done he would still be here.”

Charlie said his wife is too traumatised to consider going on a beach holiday
and added: “We loved going to the Mediterranean but after what happened, Mary just wouldn’t go.”

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He said that while they had expected a documentary on the massacre to come out, American Assassin had no connection to the atrocity.

He added: “People are still affected by what they saw in Sousse that day. I think the scene from this film will have a profound impact on anybody who was there.”

A film about a family caught in the 2004 Thai tsunami starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts came out in 2012.

Some critics suggested The Impossible, based on the true story of survivors, overlooked the majority of victims and was “overdramatic” and “whitewashed”.

More than 200,000 people were estimated to have been killed, only a small proportion of them European.

But British survivor Simon Jenkins said the 2012 film was “beautifully accurate” and reflected his own experience.

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