One Shot

If you still had doubts that Scott Adkins (The Debt Collector) is the reigning champ of action cinema right now take a gander at One Shot and then get back to me.  Holy shit what a fun and exciting film.

At first I was worried because the beginning has a cheap amateur feel.  The setup of Navy SEALS and a CIA operative butting heads with other secretive US government spooks to transfer a terrorist prisoner isn’t particularly interesting.  It’s generic military crap that a zillion other movies use as a baseline for tension.  However, when a large force of insurgents armed to the teeth breaks into the compound it’s all out war.  They want the prisoner in question and it’s up to Adkins and co. to prevent that from happening by both fighting the enemy head on in firefights, sneaking around covertly dispatching victims and desperately trying to get the antenna up and running again so they can call for backup.

The main gimmick of this sucker is that it all appears to be done in one long shot.  It wasn’t but it becomes so engrossing it doesn’t matter (plus these motherfuckers ain’t crazy like those who made Russian Ark).  The closest equivalent that I (and I think most people) have seen is 1917, a seemingly single take war picture.  One Shot is sort of like a much rougher version.  The camera doesn’t glide nearly as elegantly so you definitely notice the movements more.  This is particularly obvious in the non-action scenes where the filmmakers don’t know what to do with the camera so they end up swiveling in a circle around the actors or swinging back and forth between whoever has the next line of dialogue.  They never lock the camera down.  For three quarters of the film this works though because there’s so much chaos with constant scrapes and shouting matches that you do get successfully emersed in the dire situation.  The rawness and limitation of committing to a one shot approach works incredibly well here.

And with the combination of a continuous shot and little relief from the onslaught certain deaths hit hard.  Most are your usual stormtrooper type with faceless guys being gunned or knifed down and you don’t really think about it.  But there are a couple of non-military administrative folks that work at the black site who get executed and it’s kinda disturbing.  And earlier one of Adkins’ team lies severely injured on a table after the initial attack slowly dying with his brothers in arms unable to help him.  They can only do their best to comfort him during his last moments.  The camera doesn’t cut away because it can’t making this scene especially heart wrenching.

One curious thing is the acting.  At the start it’s not very good adding to the preliminary shitty production feel.  But then, like every other aspect of this picture, it turns a corner when the attack begins.  Everyone switches on pro mode and gives it their all showing determination, frustration, agony, madness, fear, desperation, etc.  Even Adkins sports a much more successful American accent here than the trashy quasi southern one he did in Ip Man 4.  Although out of everyone the stand out is Waleed Elgadi (The 355) who plays the prisoner being transferred.  He does an amazing job all the way through as someone who’s been tortured, at the end of his rope and has been jerked around so much he doesn’t know who or what to believe anymore.  I would love to see Elgadi in bigger films and get more recognition.

This is a smartly made film.  They knew to keep the location in one contained area (a secret US black site somewhere), the scenario is simple (protect the prisoner), they plotted out the action and non-action scenes well so there would be proper breaks, good people were hired to pull this shit off and there’s a clever twist towards the end.  It’s just so impressive what these guys were able to accomplish on a tiny ass budget (compared to a major Hollywood flick).

You do have to accept certain views the movie throws at you however.  There’s an acknowledgment that these black sites are, maybe not good, but at least necessary.  The title has a double meaning beyond the technical standpoint that this target prisoner is our one shot at preventing a possible imminent terrorist attack on DC.  If he dies potentially hundreds or thousands of innocent people will as well.  Even though the movie makes an argument against torturing people for information the water gets muddied when whoops!  That’s a spoiler.  Look, I’d be lying if I said this ruined the film for me.  The rest of what’s presented is so enjoyable that I was able to compartmentalize this stuff.

So while I wouldn’t say this is the best action picture of the last however many years it’s a helluva good one.  And I don’t normally go for technical gimmickry or heavy military set pieces like this so that’s saying something.  There’s a ferocity to the experience that’s undeniably gripping.  I haven’t even mentioned the scene where the main villain summons one of his foot soldiers over and they both seem to know what’s up but we don’t yet.  They take a walk together in silence with some other members joining until finally someone pulls out a suicide vest.  They form a circle and do a ritual chant before continuing to walk towards their intended target.  The bomber is visibly upset and can barely hold it together but is also determined because he knows what he has to do and jeezy creezy.  Such an intense fucking scene.

Definitely not for everyone.  But if it sounds like it’s in your wheelhouse take the plunge, it’s exhilarating.