Second Sight Films, out now

‘Grey, I need your permission to operate independently.’ 

Deliberately dodging the big studios and their huge budgets so he could have more creative control, Leigh Whannell – one half of the pair who gave us SAW and Insidious, with James Wan – brought out the near-future thriller Upgrade last year to much acclaim. It’s now getting a special edition release on Blu-ray, which is great news for fans of this neat SF-actioner.

When he’s involved in a car accident in the wrong part of town, Grey (Logan Marshall-Green, from The Invitation and Spider-Man: Homecoming) is crippled and forced to witness his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) being murdered by street thugs right in front of him. Now a quadriplegic and suicidal, he’s offered the chance of a new life by rich tech-whizz Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), who pops something called a STEM into the base of his neck: a computer that allows Grey to move around again. But that’s not all, when STEM begins talking to Grey and even helps him to identify his wife’s killers – like a kind of mini-version of KITT from Knight Rider inside his head – the fun really begins.

Tracking the thugs down, who turn out to be highly-trained soldiers that have been ‘upgraded’ and now have guns in their arms, Grey soon discovers that by relinquishing control of his body to STEM he can fight them on their own terms. But who is actually in control? And why was Asha murdered in the first place? To find out, you’re just going to have to watch the movie.

Wearing its influences on its sleeve, which Whannell lists during a lengthy interview in the extras section and include the likes of Robocop and Cronenberg’s early body horror movies such as Scanners, it’s hardly surprising that this one feels nostalgic. At the same time, it’s also incredibly fresh, because there’s not really anything like it around. Whannell didn’t want to set Upgrade too far in the future, and make it like Blade Runner – not least because it would have been too expensive – but what that does is give it is a realism and grittiness which might be lacking if he’d looked too far ahead. Indeed, they discovered while they were making the movie that the technology in this was actually being developed in real life.

The writer-director also wanted it to have a Film Noir feel, which was why he wrote it in Chicago, where he walked around at night-time getting inspiration (though the movie actually wound up being shot in Melbourne, Australia, which does a very good job of standing in). But as well as the terrific plot, complete with SAW-esque twist at the end, there are excellent performances – not least from Marshall-Green, who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite modern actors in the genre. And then there are the action set pieces, including a car chase and the unique way Grey fights (you’ll find out more about this in another featurette where fight choreographer Chris Weir talks about how he and Whannell imagined a computer might handle combat).

There isn’t a director’s cut of the movie here, because it was purposely edited by Andy Canny (the subject of another featurette) to be very tight and is already in a version the director is more than happy with. You do however get an awesome commentary from Whannell, plus other featurettes in the form of conversations with Aussie producer Kylie Du Fresne of Goalpost Pictures – who was very excited to be working with Blumhouse – and cinematographer Stefan Duscio, who originally met Whannell on The Mule back in 2013 and found they had lots in common, including a love of The Terminator and Looper. Thought-provoking, but also a wild ride, this film deserved all the audience awards it won and deserves a place in every genre fan’s collection.

‘You now have full control again.’   10/10                    

Paul Kane

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