Hardcore Henry

Hardcore Henry

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ilya Naishuller
Produced by
Written by Ilya Naishuller
Starring
Music by Dasha Charusha
Cinematography
  • Sergey Valyaev
  • Andrey Dementiev
  • Pasha Kapinos
  • Vsevolod Kaptur
  • Fedor Lyass
Edited by Steve Mirkovich
Production
company
Distributed by STX Entertainment
Release dates
  • September 12, 2015 (2015-09-12) (TIFF)
  • April 8, 2016 (2016-04-08) (United States)
Running time
 96 minutes[1]
Country
  • Russia
  • United States
Language English
Budget $2 million[2]
Box office $11.3 million[3]

Hardcore Henry (also known simply as Hardcore)[4] is a 2015 Russian-American science fiction action film written and directed by Ilya Naishuller and produced by Timur Bekmambetov. The film is shot almost entirely from a first-person perspective, through the protagonist's eyes. It stars Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett and Tim Roth. The film was released theatrically by STX Entertainment on April 8, 2016.

Plot

Henry recalls being bullied as a child before waking up in a tank of water inside a laboratory on an airship, missing his left arm and left leg. A scientist, Estelle (Haley Bennett), replaces his missing limbs with cybernetic ones. She tells Henry that she is his wife, and that he has been revived from an unidentified horrific accident that left him suffering from amnesia and a loss of speech. Just as Henry is about to undergo more procedures, a group of mercenaries led by the telekinetic Akan (Danila Kozlovsky) raid the ship, killing Estelle's fellow scientists. Henry and Estelle flee the ship in an escape pod and land in Moscow, but they are ambushed on the ground by Akan's mercenaries and Estelle is abducted.

Henry is rescued from the mercenaries by a mysterious man, Jimmy (Sharlto Copley), who informs him that his robotic parts are running out of power and that he will die if he cannot recharge. Jimmy is almost immediately killed by corrupt cops bought out by Akan, and Henry is forced to fight his way through both cops and mercenaries, sneaking onto a bus to evade them. He is shortly joined by Jimmy - no worse for the wear, and disguised as an alcoholic, odorous bum - who informs him that one of Akan's associates, named Slick Dimitry, has a charging pump implanted in his heart, which Henry can use to recharge. Shortly thereafter, Jimmy is killed by a flamethrower-wielding goon, and Henry flees and sneaks into Dimitry's complex. Henry chases Dimitry throughout the city before incapacitating him; just as Dimitry promises him more information, Dimitry is killed by a sniper. Henry removes the pump and receives a call from Jimmy, who directs Henry to a brothel.

Henry heads to the brothel and meets two more versions of Jimmy - a coke-addicted lothario with an afro, and a painfully shy, awkward geek in a vest. The two Jimmys replace the pump, but the brothel is attacked by Akan's forces. Henry manages to fight through the mercenaries, but encounters Akan, who taunts Henry by saying his wife is being hauled away in an armored convoy, and hurls him - literally - out of the brothel.

Outside, Henry encounters Jimmy - this time, a marijuana-addicted, navel-gazing hippie/biker - who gives him a ride in his motorcycle sidecar and brings him to Akan's convoy. After a firefight, Henry finds Estelle in the truck leading the convoy; before he can rescue her, Akan arrives and prepares to strike Estelle with a baseball bat. Henry steps in, "volunteering" to take her place, and is struck unconscious.

Jimmy revives Henry in the woods, before being killed by a tank shell. Henry kills the crew manning the tank, as well as most of the men in an attacking helicopter, before falling off the helicopter and landing in a tree. He follows another of Jimmy's signals to an abandoned hotel, where he finds the original Jimmy upstairs. Jimmy reveals that Akan created Henry's cyborg abilities, and that he worked on the first stages of Akan's cyborg-soldier project, which turned out to be a failed batch of lobotomized super-soldiers unable to do anything but mindlessly swing at the air. Akan "rewarded" him with snapping his spine - he is now a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair. He reveals the other Jimmys are dormant clones of himself his mind can inhabit, which he created to regain mobility and indulge in vices; he demonstrates this by performing a song and dance number with all of his clones. All the copies of Jimmy attack Henry after Jimmy realizes that Henry has unknowingly been broadcasting his location to Akan. Henry disables all his clones - the original Jimmy begs to be killed, fearing everything is lost, but is convinced to bring the fight to Akan. Henry and Jimmy - now a stereotypical British WW2 officer - fight their way out of the complex, killing the mercenaries' leader by dropping the laboratory on him via plastic explosives.

Jimmy and Henry drive to Akan's headquarters, a massive skyscraper. They fight their way into an elevator, but Jimmy is mortally wounded. Before dying, Jimmy thanks Henry for being the closest thing he ever had to a friend. Henry fights his way to Akan's office, where he is greeted by a video of Akan revealing that an army of cyborg super-soldiers are being fed Henry's memories of the event so far, up to escaping with Estelle from the ship. The first soldier to wake up attacks Henry, but Henry kills him and replaces his battery with the soldier's. The rest of the army awaken and chase Henry up to the roof of the building.

On the roof, Henry battles and kills the entire army. He then attacks Akan, who knocks Henry out again with his telekinetic abilities. When he wakes up, Akan reveals that Estelle was his wife all along, and she had been lying to Henry the entire time - she and Akan had been planning to lure Henry to Akan's headquarters so he could be tested, replicated, and mass-produced. With his memories, the clones will all remember waking up like he did in the laboratory - with a wife, being attacked - and will be manipulated into doing anything to "get" her back - such as committing terrorist attacks for Akan, who plots to take over the world with this new army.

Henry blacks out after another barrage of attacks, but is energized by a memory of his father (Tim Roth), who encouraged him to fight back against the gang of childhood bullies seen in the intro. Henry fights Akan and decapitates him with his cybernetic eyestalk. He jumps up onto a helicopter in which Estelle is trying to escape, presenting her with the head of Akan. An enraged Estelle asks Henry how "he could do this" - Henry responds with writing 'EZ' in his own blood. She shoots at Henry, but the bullet ricochets off his cybernetic hand and wounds her; she stumbles out of the helicopter and is left hanging by her fingertips. Estelle pleads with Henry to save her, but Henry slams the door on her fingers, sending her falling to her death.

As the credits roll, a message from Jimmy is heard, asking Henry to do "one last thing".

Cast

Henry was originally played by Russian extreme-operator[5] Sergey Valyaev,[6] but the camera rig used in production eventually caused severe pains in his neck. The role was given to Andrei Dementiev (who also played Slick Dmitry), who practiced parkour as well. Dementiev himself suffered neck pains, and in one scene, where a stuntman had to hit him in the face, he lost a tooth.[7] In the scenes, where Danila Kozlovskiy and Sharlto Copley approached closely to Henry's face, Valyaev and Dementiev closed their eyes with shades, trying not to distract the actors with their mimics (as far as their faces were off the frame, they had not watch after their emotions). In a few scenes, Henry was played by Naishuller himself, as well as several stuntmen, more than ten people in total.[8]

Production

GoPro Hero 3

Hardcore Henry was filmed with GoPro cameras held in front of the stunt man's face with a special unique mask for POV-shooting,[6] designed by Sergey Valyaev — Adventure mask,[9] and also the original magnet image stabilization system, made by director of photography of the movie, Vsevolod Kaptur.[9] Between the electronic and the magnet stabilization systems, Naishuller chose the magnets, as he felt that it resembled natural head movement.[7][10][11] The film from the GoPro cameras was edited to cut the hundreds of shots together into one continuous film.[12]

The concept for the film came from the "Bad Motherfucker" and "The Stampede" clips which Naishuller made with Valyaev for his band, Biting Elbows, and were also shot with a GoPro from the first-person perspective.[11] The movie was partially funded with IndieGoGo.[13]

Release

The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2015.[14][15] The film became one of the highest-profile at the festival, and led to a bidding war between Lionsgate, Universal, and STX Entertainment. Ultimately, STX acquired worldwide rights to Hardcore, including a wide release commitment, for $10 million, becoming the studio's first festival acquisition.[16] It was retitled Hardcore Henry for its international release.[17] At the festival, the film won the Grolsch People's Choice Midnight Madness Award.[18] The film was released on April 8, 2016, by STX.[19]

Reception

Box office

As of May 1, 2016, Hardcore Henry has grossed $9.2 million in North America and $2.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $11.3 million, against a budget of $2 million.[3]

In the United States and Canada, pre-release tracking suggested the film would gross $7–10 million from 3,015 theaters in its opening weekend, trailing fellow newcomer The Boss ($20–24 million projection) and beating fellow newcomer Demolition ($2–3 million projection).[20] It grossed $380,000 from its early Thursday screenings and $2 million on its first day. It went on to gross $5.1 million in its opening weekend, finishing 5th at the box office.[21] After grossing just $1.4 million in its second weekend (a 71.7% drop), the film was pulled from 2,496 theaters, which was the second largest third weekend theater drop of all-time behind Meet Dave (2,523 in 2008).[22]

Critical response

Hardcore Henry received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 49%, based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Hardcore Henry seems poised to reinvent the action flick, but without a story or characters worth caring about, its first-person gimmick quickly loses its thrill."[23] Metacritic gives the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.[21]

In Russia, the film received positive reviews. According to Russian aggregator Kritikanstvo, Hardcore Henry was rated 7.8/10 on average by Russian critics (based on 38 reviews), and received only one negative review.[25]

References

  1. ↑ "HARDCORE HENRY (18)". British Board of Film Classification. March 29, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  2. ↑ Nechayev, Andréi. "Ilya Naishuller: Moscow setting of ‘Hardcore Henry’ will thrill viewers". Russia Beyond the Headlines. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Hardcore Henry (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  4. ↑ "'Hardcore: The Movie Official Site'". Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  5. ↑ "Сергей Валяев: Трейсер, который стал голливудским оператором и продюсером". FurFur. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  6. 1 2 "How Hardcore Henry’s POV shots were made". fxguide. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  7. 1 2 Субботний «Рамблер». Операторы "Хардкора"о травмах, цензуре и молчании главного героя
  8. ↑ ""Hardcore Henry" camera operator reveals the secrets of extreme shooting of the first First-person action movie in history". tvkinoradio.ru. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  9. 1 2 "Hardcore Henry" camera operator reveals the secrets of extreme shooting of the first First-person action movie in history."Hardcore Henry" camera operator reveals the secrets of extreme shooting of the first First-person action movie in history.
  10. ↑ Richard Nieva, "This action movie was shot almost entirely with a GoPro," CNET, March 15, 2016.
  11. 1 2 Bryan Bishop, "The making of Hardcore Henry, the craziest first-person action movie you’ll ever see," The Verge, March 16, 2016.
  12. ↑ http://www.vfxlegion.com/x-portfolio/hardcore-henry-2016/
  13. ↑ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hardcore-the-first-ever-action-pov-feature-film#/
  14. ↑ "'Hardcore': TIFF Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  15. ↑ "Watch The Trailer For TIFF's First-Person Sci-Fi Actioner". Blogs.indiewire.com. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  16. ↑ "STX Entertainment Closing Deal For ‘Hardcore’: $10 Million And Wide Release Commitment –Toronto". Deadline. 2015-09-18. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  17. ↑ Mia Galuppo, "'Hardcore Henry' Gets U.S. Release Date," The Hollywood Reporter, January 13, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Toronto International Film Festival Announces 2015 Award Winners" (PDF) (Press release). TIFF. 2015-09-20. Retrieved 2015-09-21.
  19. ↑ Busch, Anita (2016-01-13). "STX’s ‘Hardcore’ Set As ‘Hardcore Henry’ For Release On April 8". Deadline. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  20. ↑ "Melissa McCarthy Will Try To ‘Boss’ Around ‘BvS’ At Box Office; Will ‘Hardcore Henry’ Sway Audiences? — Preview". deadline.com.
  21. 1 2 "‘Batman V. Superman’ Likely To Cross $300M Early Next Week; ‘The Boss’ Cashing In $21M Paycheck – B.O. Update". deadline.com.
  22. ↑ "'Jungle Book' Repeats, 'Huntsman' Falls On His Axe and 'Zootopia' Tops $900M Worldwide". BoxOfficeMojo.com.
  23. ↑ "Hardcore Henry". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Hardcore Henry". Metacritic. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
  25. ↑ Рецензии на фильм Хардкор / Hardcore Henry (2016), отзывы

External links

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