Bullet Points: Upgrade
Vigilante movies are not hard to come by. The vigilante makes for a perfect anti-hero. The plot to a typical vigilante movie involves the vigilante avenging the death of a loved one. Since the majority of the world has had a family or a significant other or a friend at some point in their life, it is easy for an audience to shine a sympathetic light on the vigilante. The vigilante’s actions in a vigilante movie are also cause for some introspective reflection for the viewers… how far would you be willing to go if something horrible happened to someone you loved?
A completely original vigilante movie is probably not even a possibility at this point in film history, but 2018’s Upgrade took the tried and true vigilante tale and put a scifi spin on it creating one of the most unique vigilante movies I had ever seen.
- Old School Meets New School: Upgrade takes place in the not to distant future in a world where technology rules all. But “technophobe” Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green, Spider-Man: Homecoming) still finds himself clinging to the classics… like listening to vinyl while he restores a classic Pontiac Firebird. Grey’s wife Asha (Melanie Vellajo) is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Asha Trace works for a tech company and drives around in her computer operated car. Grey convinces Asha to come with him while he drops off the finished Firebird to its owner… the eccentric tech whiz Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson, Need for Speed).
- Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Eron Keen lives on the beach, actually is home is under the beach. Inside, Eron has things like his own cloud and his most prized possession… STEM. STEM is a computer chip that Eron Keen has invented that he promises will change the world… ironically the world it will change most is that of skeptical Grey Trace, but I am getting ahead of myself. After the delivery of the Firebird is complete, Asha and Grey get in Asha’s computerized car (Asha had the car follow her and her husband to Keen’s home so they’d have a ride back) and the married couple is about to take advantage of the fact that the car drives itself and have some futuristic car sex when Grey realizes the car is taking them to a rough part of town…
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: …Grey and Asha try to manually override the car, but to no avail. The car ends up flipping over right in the middle of skid row. Four enhanced bad guys (they have guns surgically implanted in their forearms) led by a nasty fellow named Fisk (Benedict Hardie) open up the car and take Asha out… Grey, who was thrown into the windshield during the crash, crawls out to help his wife. Instead he ends up seeing her murdered and then he is shot for his own trouble. The gunshot does not kill Grey but it does paralyze him. With the woman he loved now dead and looking at spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair, Grey wants to end it all… but that’s when Eron Keen and STEM step in.
- Miracle of Modern Science: Eron Keen offers Grey Trace a second shot at a normal life when he pitches the idea of surgically implanting STEM inside Grey. It is believed that STEM will allow Grey to have use of his limbs again, which was all Grey needed to hear and the reason he agreed to be the guinea pig in this experimental surgery. A surgery he has to keep confidential, so the rest of the world will still believe that Grey is quadriplegic. What Grey did not expect is that STEM would become a voice in his head and Grey and STEM would have the ability to have conversations. At first Grey thinks he is losing his mind, but STEM eases Grey’s fears and actually helps him as he goes through the police evidence that has been supplied to him by Detective Cortez, the detective working his wife’s murder case.
- A Vigilante is Born: With STEM’s help, Grey is able to track down the four men who were responsible for the death of his wife… and not only does STEM lead Grey to the bad guys, STEM takes control of Grey’s body and delivers some gory and brutal beatings. But once the four technologically enhanced bad guys are eliminated the real villain is revealed. Grey also has to contend with Detective Cortez (Betty Gabriel, The Purge: Election Year), who believes that quadriplegic Grey has something to do with the vigilante killings, despite the fact that he has the perfect alibi.
Upgrade felt like a vigilante movie that came straight out of The Twilight Zone. The fresh approach was enhanced with some exemplary performances by Logan Marshall-Green as the conflicted hero, Betty Gabriel as a cop who goes with her gut no matter how ridiculous her theory may be and Harrison Gilbertson who was positively creepy.
I found myself sucked in by the story that Upgrade was telling and the action and the violence contained in the film proved to be more of a bonus. And speaking of bonuses, here are a few Bonus Bullet Points…
- You Always Remember Your First Time: After taking another man’s life for the first time, Gray goes into a state of shock and soon finds himself throwing up in the guy’s kitchen sink. This reminded me of Paul Kersey’s reaction to his first kill in the original Death Wish.
- Rejected Burger King Slogan: “Have it your way cock snot!”
- AKA: The working title for the film was Stem.
- Two Timer: Upgrade was written and directed by Leigh Wannell. This was Wannell’s second film as a director, his first was Insidious: Chapter 3 (a movie he also wrote).
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a guy sneeze someone to death, then this is the movie for you.
