Compelling sci-fi dystopias are few and far between in movies these days, which is why it might be surprising that one of the best is hiding inside an underappreciated action movie from 2018. Upgrade, which arrived on Netflix this week, is full of bone-crunching, genuinely funny action, but it’s also secretly a fantastic thriller with an excellent sci-fi world hiding beneath the surface.
The movie follows Grey (Logan Marshall-Green), a mechanic living in a not-too-distant future. Early in the film, Grey’s wife gets murdered in a seemingly random mugging that leaves him paralyzed, but he finds an opportunity for revenge thanks to an experimental cybernetic implant, called STEM, that allows him to walk again. But that implant seems to have a mind of its own, and talks to him almost constantly.
This dynamic between STEM and Grey (voiced by Simon Maiden) gives Upgrade a surprisingly welcome dose of comedy that most action movies or thrillers don’t make time for. Because STEM can’t read Grey’s mind, Grey has to say everything he wants to tell STEM out loud, leading to hilarious fight scenes that leaves bad guys (who are also getting their asses kicked) completely baffled. It’s all the fun of Tom Hardy’s Venom, without the constraints of comic book characters holding anything back, and with the added comedy of a cold emotionless machine processing helping make the violent decisions quicker.
The fights themselves are also an excellent blend of silly and brutal that keeps them fun. Because Grey doesn’t really have a natural talent for fighting, he has to let STEM take over his body for brawls. As such, every fight is as robotic as you’d expect from a microchip learning to pilot a person. Arm and leg movements are staccato and instant, with barely any bending or smoothness to them at all. Punches are blocked without thought and delivered even more swiftly, and gunshots land with the perfect precision of an algorithm that’s worked it all out ahead of time.
What really sells
Fighting
Action
Citi
Cyberpunk
Inside
fun
Tom Hardy