Hardcore Henry


Hardcore Henry is a 2015 Russian-American science fiction action film written and directed by Ilya Naishuller, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Naishuller, Inga Vainshtein Smith, and Ekaterina Kononenko. Will Stewart provided additional writing for the film.
It stars Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, and Tim Roth. The film was released theatrically in the United States by STXfilms on April 8, 2016, received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $16.8 million worldwide.

Plot

A man wakes inside a laboratory on an airship. A scientist, Estelle, tells him his name is Henry, she is his wife, and that he has been revived from an accident that left him amnesiac and mute. She replaces his missing limbs with cybernetic prostheses, but mercenaries led by the psychokinetic Akan raid the ship before she can replace Henry's voice. Akan claims all of Estelle's research is his corporate property. He kills Estelle's scientists, but Henry and Estelle flee in an escape pod, landing in Moscow. The mercenaries follow and abduct Estelle.
Henry is rescued by a stranger named Jimmy, who informs him that his cybernetic limbs are running out of power, which will kill him if he cannot recharge. Jimmy is killed by corrupt police paid by Akan, but Henry escapes. He is joined by Jimmy—somehow not dead, now an alcoholic bum—who informs him that one of Akan's associates, Slick Dimitry, has a charging pump which Henry needs to recharge. The two are attacked, and again Jimmy is killed. Henry escapes, and hunts Dimitry through Moscow before capturing him. Just as Dimitry promises him information, he is killed by a sniper. Henry removes the pump and receives a call from Jimmy, who directs Henry to a brothel.
Henry meets two more distinct versions of Jimmy who replace his pump. The brothel is attacked by Akan's forces. Akan taunts Henry about Estelle, who is being transported by an armored convoy, before ejecting Henry from the brothel. Outside, Henry encounters another Jimmy, who transports him to Akan's convoy. Henry finds Estelle—and Akan, who kills him and buries him in the woods.
Jimmy finds and revives Henry, only to be shelled by a tank. After killing the tank crew and fending off a helicopter, Henry finds another Jimmy, who leads him to an abandoned hotel, where Jimmy is headquartered in a hidden laboratory. Here, the original Jimmy—a quadriplegic scientist—reveals that he is seeking revenge against Akan, who crippled him after his own cyborg super-soldiers failed. The other Jimmys are clones that he can control.
Jimmy realizes that Henry has been unknowingly broadcasting his location to Akan, with a strike force closing in, and the clones attack Henry. Fending off Jimmy, Henry convinces him to help. Henry and the clones fight their way out, killing Akan's forces by collapsing the laboratory on them.
Jimmy and Henry drive to Akan's headquarters. They fight their way into an elevator, but Jimmy is mortally wounded. Before dying, Jimmy thanks Henry for being a friend, and removes a memory blocker, gradually restoring Henry's memories. Henry fights his way to the highest floor, where he is greeted by Akan and an army of cyborg super-soldiers with Henry's memories. The soldiers chase Henry to the roof.
Henry wipes out the entire army. Akan arrives and severely wounds Henry. Shortly after, Estelle arrives as well. It is revealed that Estelle was actually Akan's wife. Everything that happened was an elaborate ruse to field-test their ability to manipulate cyborg soldiers into doing anything to "rescue" their "wife".
Akan and Estelle leave in helicopters, leaving Henry for dead. Henry blacks out, but a memory of his father revives him. Henry reaches Akan and he uses his eyeball wire to decapitate him. He jumps onto the helicopter, presenting Akan's head. Estelle screams and shoots Henry, begging to know how he did it all. Henry uses a splatter of blood to write "E.Z.", as he blocks a bullet from hitting him, directing it back towards Estelle, flying right into her chest, causing her to stumble out of the helicopter, hanging on for her life. She begs Henry to look into his heart, and Henry slams the door on her fingers, causing her to scream, as she falls to her death.

Cast

Henry was originally played by Russian stuntman/camera operator Sergey Valyaev, but the camera rig used in production eventually caused him severe neck pain. The role was given to Andrei Dementiev. Dementiev suffered neck pain as well, in addition to losing a tooth after being accidentally struck by a stuntman. In scenes where Danila Kozlovskiy and Sharlto Copley talked directly to Henry, Valyaev and Dementiev wore shades to prevent the actors from looking at them instead of the camera. In a few scenes, Henry was played by Naishuller himself. Several stuntmen portrayed Henry between scenes—in all, more than ten actors shared the role.
Bodybuilding champion Alexey Karas appeared as a muscular cyborg.

Production

Hardcore Henry was filmed with GoPro cameras mounted on a specially made mask designed by Sergey Valyaev, deemed the "Adventure Mask", and stabilization systems that used either electronics or magnets, created by the movie's director of photography, Vsevolod Kaptur. Many prototypes of the mask were used to film the movie. Between the electronics and the magnet stabilization systems, Naishuller chose the magnets, as he felt that it resembled natural head movement. The recordings from the GoPro cameras were edited to cut the hundreds of shots together into one continuous film.
Blender, open-source software, was used for providing most of the visual effects for the film.
The concept for the film came from the "Bad Motherfucker" and "The Stampede" music videos, which Naishuller made with Valyaev for his band, Biting Elbows. These were also shot with a GoPro from the first-person perspective. The movie was partially funded with Indiegogo.

Release

The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2015. The film became one of the highest-profile at the festival, and led to a bidding war between Lionsgate, Universal, and STX Entertainment. Ultimately, STX acquired worldwide rights to Hardcore, including a wide release commitment, for $10 million, becoming the studio's first festival acquisition. It was retitled Hardcore Henry for its international release. At the festival, the film won the Grolsch People's Choice Midnight Madness Award. The film was released on April 8, 2016, by STX. On July 26, 2016, Hardcore Henry was released on Blu-ray and DVD.

Reception

Box office

Hardcore Henry has grossed $9.3 million in North America and $5.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $14.3 million, against a budget of $2 million.
In the United States and Canada, pre-release tracking suggested the film would gross $7–10 million from 3,015 theaters in its opening weekend, trailing fellow newcomer The Boss but besting fellow newcomer Demolition. It grossed $380,000 from its early Thursday screenings and $2 million on its first day. It went on to gross $5.1 million in its opening weekend, finishing 5th at the box office. After two weeks, the film was pulled from 2,496 theaters which was the second largest third weekend theater drop of all-time, behind Meet Dave.

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film had an approval rating of 50%, based on 142 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Hardcore Henry seems poised to reinvent the action flick, but without a story or characters worth caring about, its first-person gimmick quickly loses its thrill." Metacritic gives the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
In Russia, the film received positive reviews. According to Russian aggregator Kritikanstvo, Hardcore Henry was rated 7.9/10 on average by Russian critics, and received only one negative review.
Max Nicholson of IGN rated the film 8.6/10 stating "Two parts FPS, one part platformer and a pinch of HowToBasic, director Ilya Naishuller's Hardcore Henry is a recipe for non-stop, ludicrous fun. While the film's actual story is nigh existent, it's sure to please gamers and action junkies alike with its inventive set pieces and mind-boggling action" and "Hardcore Henry lives up to the title with non-stop, off-the-wall action and a love for all things video games".

Possible sequel

Both writer/director Ilya Naishuller and Sharlto Copley said in an interview to TechRadar that they will be willing to make a sequel. Naishuller said:
However, later on Naishuller tweeted that a "sequel is very unlikely, but never say never to a spiritual sequel"