Summary
Nearly a decade after the movie first hit theaters,Hardcore Henryhas found new fans in the artists at Corridor Crew. The 2015 action movie revolved around the titular character as he fought his way through endless hordes of enemies in the hopes of rescuing his scientist wife who revived him with cybernetic prosthetics that gave him an advantage over them all. Produced byWanted’s Timu Bekmambetovand directed byNobody’s Ilya Naishuller in his feature debut, the movie garnered mixed reviews from critics, though its first-person perspective format was met with rave reviews.
During the most recent episode ofCorridor Crew’s “VFX Artists React”, Niko, Jordan and Wren took a look back atHardcore Henry.
In the segment, as seen above, the group of VFX artists are immediately thrilled at getting to revisit the movie’s highway chase sequence, praising the seamless blend of CGI and practical effects used for the explosive scene. The trio go on to praise how the movie captured its first-person perspective, and lament the fact that it’s the “first of its kind, and last of its kind”.
The Action Genre Is Missing Out Not Replicating Hardcore Henry
Though not the first of its kind, as the found footage genre often takes a similar perspective, and 1947’sLady in the Lakewas the first movie to do so,Hardcore Henryhas largely been the only action movie to utilize a fully first-person view for its runtime.The Karl Urban-starring 2005Doommoviedid have a first-person sequence as a callback to its namesake game franchise, which proved to be one of the few highlights for critics and audiences. The only other major instance of a movie being shot entirely from a first-person perspective was the 2012 Elijah Wood-led remake of the divisive horror cult classicManiac.
GivenHardcore Henrywas not a critical darlingand underperformed at the box office, Naishuller has ruled out the possibility of a sequel in the past. But while there may not be a direct follow-up to the 2015 movie, the action genre as a whole does seem to be missing out on a major opportunity by not replicating its format.Hardcore Henrywas only produced on a $2 million production budget, and with many other action movies proving to be hits on smaller budgets, like Dev Patel’sMonkey Manand Naishuller’sNobody, the timing is right for the experiment to be tried again.
Harcore Henry’s box office struggles came from STXfilms spending $10 million on global acquisition and marketing.
Beyond just the way Naishuller put together the format, though, the action genre could also learn fromHardcore Henryby improving on the issues critics had with the movie, primarily being its underwhelming story and characters. Playing out like a video game, the 2015 movie put more of its focus on crafting the thrilling action. But, if to provide a richer narrative and characters the audience can deeper connect to, the first-person perspective could be the best way to reinvent the genre in a world in which virtual reality is becoming more prominent.
Hardcore Henry
Cast
Hardcore Henry is a 2015 action movie filmed entirely from a first-person perspective. The audience witnesses the story though the eyes of the titular cyborg Henry, who embarks on a quest through the streets of Moscow to save his wife from a powerful warlord and recover his identity after his memory is wiped.
