Upgrade
2018 · Directed by Leigh Whannell
Original language: English
- action
- thriller
- science fiction
The story
A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhance his body. Now able to walk, Grey finds that he also has superhuman strength and agility — skills he uses to seek revenge against the thugs who destroyed his life.
What it’s like
Hard-edged and cold, lit mostly by fluorescent hospital glare, sodium-orange streets and the blue-white screens of a near-future Australia where everything has a cold digital sheen. Leigh Whannell shoots in tight, controlled frames with a lot of handheld close work during the fights, so the violence feels physical and close rather than choreographed for distance, and the camera lingers on the mechanics of Grey's body as the implant takes over. The score is a pulsing synth and industrial electronic throb that drops out abruptly for silences. The vibe is grim, sleek unease with a streak of pulpy revenge, and the pacing is lean and escalating, built on bursts of action between long stretches of cold procedure and surveillance. The violence is frequent and graphic: brutal beatings, gunfire, bloody injuries and gore that lands hard and unflinching, with some sudden deaths and a grim tone throughout. It is not a gentle watch. It suits a late-night viewing with the lights off and a taste for dark, kinetic genre work, and it's for people who enjoy tech-noir thrillers about bodies pushed past their limits.
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