Today, the world leaders in the creation of militants are Americans. Russian cinema, which only a few decades ago began to master this genre, is not yet easy to create films worthy to compete with American blockbusters. However, recently the Russian fantastic action movie "Hardcore" was released. The 2015 film was intended to be a unique project worthy of representing the Russian Federation in the world film market. However, did the picture achieve its goal?
2015 Hardcore movie
This project was the debut work of the young Russian director Ilya Naishuller.
In 2013, Ilya shot a video for the band Biting Elbows using a GoPro camera. This video quickly gained popularity on the Internet and interested Timur Bekmambetov. Through social networks, he contacted Ilya and offered to shoot a full-length film in a similar style.
Encouraged by the proposal of the master of cinema, Naishuller wrote a script that Bekmambetov liked, and he began to produce the project.
Although the producer himself did not interfere in the filming process, giving the young director the opportunity to shoot himself, it was his name that attracted the attention of sponsors, so it is often said that this is Timur Bekmambetov's film .
"Hardcore" was shot in the first person, so it is very similar to a computer game a la Doom, Stalker, etc.
The budget of the picture was 2 million dollars. At the box office, the tape managed to collect seven times more. However, the Americans recognized Hardcore Henry (under that name he went to the USA) as a failed picture, because it failed to recapture 10 million, for which they bought the rental rights from the Russians.
The plot of the movie "Hardcore"
Someone Henry, with whose eyes the audience sees the whole picture, comes to himself in a laboratory.
He does not remember anything about his past. However, the woman caring for him says that her name is Estelle and they were previously married. After his death, she transported him to Russia (only here experiments are allowed to revive the dead flesh) and with the help of money, one Akan was able to resurrect.
The hero lacks most of the organs, including the arm, leg, and part of the face. All this has been replaced by high-tech prostheses, but Estelle has not yet managed to install a voice module, so Henry cannot speak.
While the wife is trying to bring her cyborg husband to normal, Akan bursts into the laboratory. He turns out to be a maniac, dreaming of conquering the world. It was for this that he financed the work of Estelle, so that she would help him create an army of obedient cyborgs from the corpses of soldiers.
Akan cracked down on lab workers, but Estelle and Henry managed to escape. Later they were found by Akan soldiers and kidnapped by a woman. They, considering it dead, throw the main character.
However, the cyborg manages to escape. Now his only desire is to save Estelle, but how? Suddenly, Henry finds a certain Jimmy. It turns out that he also worked for Akan, until he broke his spine. The man managed to escape and create biorobots. Unlike the cyborgs developed by Estelle, they have no consciousness, but are completely made up of human flesh. With the help of equipment, a paralyzed Jimmy infuses them and is able to live many lives at once, like a full-fledged person. In this case, the disabled person is obsessed with revenge on Akana, for which he wants to use Henry.
Together with Jimmy, the hero manages to track the shelter of a maniac, however, the inventor and all his hypostases perish in the process.
Finding Akan, the hero finds out that he was just an experiment. In addition, Estelle is not his wife, she just used this lie to check what he was ready for her. Now, having convinced every Akan super-soldier that she is his wife, this woman can actually command this army.
Having set cyborgs on Henry, Estelle and Akan celebrate victory. But the hero recalls his present past, and this gives him strength. He deals with super-soldiers and people who deceived him.
At the end of the Hardcore movie, the protagonist receives a message from Jimmy, who is already dead, who says he has a job for Henry.
main characters
In the center of the plot is an unknown man named Henry, randomly selected for the experiment by Estelle and Akan. Due to the fact that he has blocked real memories, he himself is not able to understand who he really is. Not yet fully understood, Henry rushes to save his beloved. For her sake, he repeatedly risks his life and kills an army of enemies. However, defeating all the enemies, the hero remains alone, and how he will continue to live is not clear, because everyone who could help him died, and his battery is not infinite.
Estelle at first creates the impression of a brave and faithful wife, ready for the sake of love even to raise her husband from the dead. It is this concern that makes the protagonist act. However, in the finale it turns out that Estelle is truly a faithful wife, but not Henry. The dynamic plot of the Hardcore tape does not allow a deeper understanding of the heroine's motivation. After all, it remains unclear to the end: she did all this only out of pure love for Akan, because of the passion of the scientist or because of the desire for world domination.
Jimmy is the most controversial character. He was able to overcome the injury. His artificial bodies allowed him to live a full life, only desire for revenge played a fatal role. Contacting Henry, he planned to use it for his own purposes, but Akan outwitted him. It is at the moment of mortal danger that the noble character traits of the hero appear: he sacrifices himself to help a friend, whom Henry became for him.
Akan is the main antagonist of the movie Hardcore. The 2015 film shows the viewer a traditional maniac with a thirst for world domination. This hero was not born like everyone else. In addition to the absence of melanin (he is an albino), Akan is able to kill others with the help of telekinesis. Perhaps it was these features that influenced the formation of the idea to rule the world. This hero is the classic embodiment of the psychotype of Nietzsche's superman.
Particular attention should be paid to Henry's father. This is the only real memory of the hero. At the beginning of the picture, it seems that he was a cruel sadist, humiliating his son. And only at the end it turns out that this man himself experienced the mockery of his parent in childhood, but managed to remain human, and did not relate to his son at all, but helped and supported him. Father became for Henry the straw that helped him hold on when everyone betrayed him and left him.
The genre and problems of motion pictures
"Hardcore" is so far the only full-length tape completely shot in the first person. That is why it is very difficult to determine its genre. The creators of the project claim that "Hardcore" is an action movie, a fantasy.
Despite the rather simple single-layer plot, very reminiscent of a video game, Hardcore raises several important issues. First of all, this, of course, is the question of the humanity of conducting experiments to revive dead people, as well as creating artificial cyborgs using someone else's consciousness.
In addition, the painting veiled criticizes the desire for revenge. After all, that same Jimmy could live happily. However, he died in search of a way to avenge Akana.
A lot of time in the tape is devoted to the topic of love. Knowing how powerful this driving force is, Akan and Estelle decide to use it to control an army of soldiers. That's just Henry's hatred is stronger, and he is cracking down on Estelle's zombie lovers.
Who played Henry
After the release of the film, many were interested in the question of who played Henry in the film "Hardcore". The film (the actors playing this role, remained behind the scenes) does not give a clear answer to this question.
However, the project director Ilya Naishuller said that the image of Henry was created by a whole team of actors and stuntmen. Most scenes involved Andrei Dementiev (also appeared in the picture as Dmitry Khitry) and Sergey Valyaev. In separate scenes, Henry played himself Ilya. And during the chases, shootings and dangerous stunts of the protagonist experienced stuntmen played.
Danila Kozlovsky as the main villain of Hardcore
All professional artists like to play villains, because it is in such roles that you can truly show your skill.
The now popular Russian actor Danila Kozlovsky (“We Are From the Future”, “Status: Free”, “Friday”), known to the audience for its roles of heroes and businessmen, has long dreamed of playing a villain. That is why, with pleasure, Danila Kozlovsky agreed to become an albino Akan.
"Hardcore" was a real test for this artist, because for the role he had to wear a wig, thick lenses and several layers of makeup. However, Danila managed to cheer, and although you can’t call his character charming, Akan is completely different from those noble handsome men who are usually played by Danila Kozlovsky.
“Hardcore”, by the way, is not the first project in the career of an artist that entered the international market. Previously, Danila starred in the film of the American director Mark Waters "Academy of Vampires," in which he played a vampire.
Hayley Bennett as the protagonist's lover
The cast of the tape was international.
So, the role of Estelle was invited to the American actress Haley Bennett. "Hardcore" was the first Russian-made movie in which she starred.
In 2016, with the starring role, the Western movie The Magnificent Seven, the detective drama The Girl on the Train, and the romantic comedy The Rules Do Not Apply were released.
Other project actors
Another foreigner who participated in the project was an artist of South African origin, Sharlto Copley (“Team-A”, “Maleficent”).
He played poor Jimmy and all his personalities, thanks to which the audience liked Hardcore (film).
Actors others simply envied Charlto, who had the opportunity to create many diverse images. It is worth noting that his game was recognized as the best in the picture.
Also played in the tape: Ravshan Kurkova (“Capercaillie in the movie”, “Moms”), Kirill Serebrennikov (“The killer’s diary”, “Apprentice”), Tim Roth (“Lie to me”, “The Abominable Eight”) and others.
"Hardcore" (film): reviews of film critics
This project has earned completely different reviews. For example, the jury of the Canadian TIFF Film Festival praised Hardcore. The film received the most flattering reviews from Canadians and earned a spectator award. In addition, the American company STX Entertainment found the project promising and acquired rental rights.
As for the Rotten Tomatoes site, it gave Hardcore 48%, which is a pretty good result for a foreign movie. Metacritic delivered 5.1 out of 10 possible.
As for the foreign press, it met the Hardcore in different ways. The film received positive reviews from Forbes, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. But Popular Mechanics and The Guardian negatively commented on the project, calling it fresh, but tiring.
In Russia, the picture was better met. So, “Kinopoisk” put the tape 7.196 out of 10, and film.ru - 7 out of 10.
Spectator reviews
Spectators met quite optimistically "Hardcore". The film received positive reviews on most forums and movie sites. They praised the freshness of the idea, the original embodiment, as well as the acting game of Kozlovsky and Copley.
Some criticized the overly simple plot. However, other viewers in their reviews justified this shortcoming by the genre of motion pictures. So, “Hardcore” is almost unanimously recognized as a computer game style a la “first-person shooter”, where the main character needs to complete a series of missions with the help of his friend’s tips for a limited period of time.
Negative reviews deserved a mat, half-naked girls in the picture and cheap scenery, since this, according to viewers, creates the impression of Russia as a country of devastation, crime and prostitution.
Many viewers seriously believe that "Hardcore" will become the progenitor of a whole genre of feature films shot in the first person.
Entertaining facts
- The start of filming "Hardcore" was delayed due to Danila Kozlovsky, who was busy in other projects.
- The characters of the picture speak among themselves in Russian and English.
- Foreign actors were duplicated. So, Estelle spoke in the voice of Anna Chipovskaya (Pure Art), which had previously starred with Danila Kozlovsky in Spy. And Jimmy was duplicated by Peter Ivashchenko.
- All events of the picture take place over one day.
- The film was first shown at the TIFF festival in 2015. It was released in Russian distribution in April 2016.
Despite the rather controversial reviews, “Hardcore”, without a doubt, has become a unique phenomenon in world cinema. Despite a lot of shortcomings, this tape proved that Russian directors are capable of shooting good action films, but for this they need decent funding.