Bullet Points: Transit 17
I have never been much of a “zombie movie” enthusiast. It took me more than 34 years to check out Return of the Living Dead… a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, but a prime example of how removed I have been from the zombie themed sub-genre.
But every now and again, a review opportunity presents itself that affords me the opportunity to step outside of my wheelhouse and sample something a bit different. That was the case with 2019’s Transit 17…
- The Premise: The year is 2026… Europe has been devastated by a virus that has turned a huge portion of the population into zombies. The government has stepped in and is rounding up the non-infected and throwing them in quarantine, while at the same time exterminating the infected. But there are some who are holding on to some hope that they can live a normal life again… they are The Resistance. Tex (Guy Bleyaert) is a grizzled military veteran who is tasked with taking a team of Resistance soldiers on a mission that can change the future. Tex’s superiors have learned that there’s a teenage girl who may hold the key to a possible vaccine for the horrible virus… you see she was bit by one of the zombies, but instead of turning into a zombie like everyone else that has been bitten, her wound is actually healing. It is up to Tex and his team to pick up the girl and get her to a submarine transport to the UK.
- The Team: Tex has four members on his team…. There’s tough as nails Brad (Lee Charles, Final Score) the idealistic Daniel who is all about the cause and making a better world, the intimidating Eve (Zara Phythian, Outlawed) and last but not least Deena, who didn’t really seem to add much to the team, but that could be because she is the first to go after the team’s armored transport (affectionately known as The Pig) breaks down and the team is forced to spend the night in an abandoned building where Deena is bit by a zombie and Tex is forced to put her out of her misery.
- The Problems: Things do not run smoothly for Tex and his team… I’ve already mentioned The Pig breaking down… a recurring problem on this mission… I should also mention that Deena is not the only team member Tex loses along the way… and all of this happening with zombies to deal with and government agents, who want to shut the resistance down. Tex is perpetually between a rock and a hard place the entire movie.
- The Last 15: Transit 17 definitely saved its best for last, as the final 15 minutes of the movie things really start to pick up… there’s an unexpected car chase, followed up by the appearance of a government helicopter looking to give the movie an unhappy ending, plus Tex finally gets fired up, which was a great change of pace from the sad sack vibe he gave off for most of the movie. Although Tex’s sadness made his character believable. Living in this world and seeing the things that Tex has had to deal with… who could blame him for being a sad sack.
My one major complaint with Transit 17 is it felt pedestrian at times… the middle of the movie needed a “holy shit” moment or two to take things to the next level. For example, the fight between Brad and the government Commander could have been so much more and could have provided one of those moments.
Here’s the moment where I throw it to the Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Silvio Simac plays the Commander of the government troops that make life miserable for Tex and his crew, but eventually has a Boba Fett like demise. You may remember the muscled Silvio from Black Mask 2: City of Masks, Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing, Transporter 3 or the non-exclusive interview I conducted with him a while back during his Knights of the Damned press tour.
- Motivation: At one point in the movie, a group known as The Free Fighters is called in to action to take out an antenna that is sending out a jamming signal. While The Free Fighters are friendly with The Resistance they don’t help them because they believe in the cause… they do it for food, beer and cigarettes.
- Keyboard Warriors: Tex and company have Rene “a guy in the chair” and Snow “a gal in the chair” providing tech support and intel along the way. At one point Rene has the idea to hack into a Russian satellite to help them keep tabs on where Tex and the team are, when Snow challenges that Rene won’t be able to do it, Rene goes all He-Man on her and proclaims he is the “master of the universe behind the keyboard”.
- Triple Duty: Guy Bleyaert didn’t just play Tex, he was also the writer and director of Transit 17.
