Women of Action: Gina Carano – Scorched Earth
Watching the new release Scorched Earth on VUDU the other day and I realized that I hadn’t seen a post-apocalyptic movie blaming the situation on climate change in a little while. Maybe I’ve been off my post-apocalyptic movie watching game recently, but it feels like viral epidemics and alien invasions are the new norm for why the world turns to shit. Not so with Scorched Earth. It is clearly stated in the overly long narration that we finally screwed up enough and created some sort of “Cloudfall”. I’m not sure what kind of science there is to back it up but it’s bad enough that simply breathing the air without some sort of silver-lined mask will give you the black lung in a matter of hours. That’s not even mentioning the scarcity of water and food and all that… it’s easy to see that the outlook is not good.
Enter Attica Gage. A name that sounds like it came out of a Streetfighter game played by a woman who could probably fight in a Streetfighter game. Gina Carano plays the bounty hunter from the territory of New Montana and it’s clear from the outset that she’s an all business kind of lady. The film opens with a cool homage to Django with her dragging a coffin through the desert but instead of carrying a massive Gatling gun in it she has a body. Making a good living is tough in this world so collecting bounties on “fossil abusers” is an easy way for Gage to get out her aggressions while also collecting water tablets and powdered silver as payment. It’s a cruel world.
The film follows as Gage infiltrates a town full of bandits led by Thomas Jackson (Ryan Robbins). She’s a bounty hunter and Jackson has a sizeable sum on his head so it makes sense. As the movie progresses, Gage learns of an attempt by Jackson and his men to seize some pilgrims in order to work a silver mine that he discovered. It’s the perfect setup for Gage to bring in her mentor Doc, played by the always charming John Hannah (The Mummy, Spartacus).
Carano is good as Gage but mainly in the parts of the movie where she’s forced into action. The slower the movie goes and the more they go on about the silver masks and the environment the harder it was to care. I think Carano’s role could have been improved greatly if she were able to work more with John Hannah throughout. Their interactions at the beginning and the end of the film are far and away the best scenes of the movie. Gina does very little ass-kicking in this as well. A surprise given the fact that there were so many asses that needed kicking. They did, however, manage to sneak in a scene of her jumping away from an explosion!
