Nearly a decade after the movie first hit theaters, Hardcore Henry has found new fans in the artists at Corridor Crew. The 2015 action movie revolved around the titular character as he fought his way through endless hordes of enemies in the hopes of rescuing his scientist wife who revived him with cybernetic prosthetics that gave him an advantage over them all. Produced by Wanted‘s Timu Bekmambetov and directed by Nobody‘s Ilya Naishuller in his feature debut, the movie garnered mixed reviews from critics, though its first-person perspective format was met with rave reviews.

During the most recent episode of Corridor Crew‘s “VFX Artists React”, Niko, Jordan and Wren took a look back at Hardcore Henry.

In the segment, as seen above, the group of VFX artists are immediately thrilled at getting to revisit the movie’s highway chase sequence, praising the seamless blend of CGI and practical effects used for the explosive scene. The trio go on to praise how the movie captured its first-person perspective, and lament the fact that it’s the “first of its kind, and last of its kind“.

The Action Genre Is Missing Out Not Replicating Hardcore Henry

Though not the first of its kind, as the found footage genre often takes a similar perspective, and 1947’s Lady in the Lake was the first movie to do so, Hardcore Henry has largely been the only action movie to utilize a fully first-person view for its runtime. The Karl Urban-starring 2005 Doom movie did have a first-person sequence as a callback to its namesake game franchise, which proved to be one of the few highlights for critics and audiences. The only other major instance of a movie being shot entirely from a first-person perspective was the 2012 Elijah Wood-led remake of the divisive horror cult classic Maniac.

Given Hardcore Henry was not a critical darling and underperformed at the box office, Naishuller has ruled out the possibility of a sequel in the past. But while there may not be a direct follow-up to the 2015 movie, the action genre as a whole does seem to be missing out on a major opportunity by not replicating its format. Hardcore Henry was only produced on a $2 million production budget, and with many other action movies proving to be hits on smaller budgets, like Dev Patel’s Monkey Man and Naishuller’s Nobody, the timing is right for the experiment to be tried again.

Beyond just the way Naishuller put together the format, though, the action genre could also learn from Hardcore Henry by improving on the issues critics had with the movie, primarily being its underwhelming story and characters. Playing out like a video game, the 2015 movie put more of its focus on crafting the thrilling action. But, if to provide a richer narrative and characters the audience can deeper connect to, the first-person perspective could be the best way to reinvent the genre in a world in which virtual reality is becoming more prominent.

Source: Corridor Crew