Kill Switch is the brainchild of VFX Supervisor-turned-director Tim Smit, whose first-person POV short film What’s in the Box? took the internet by storm to the tune of 2.6 million views back in 2009. Now it’s been expanded into a feature starring Dan Stevens, Skyfall‘s Berenice Marlohe, and a host of sci-fi tropes and styles—and man, does it look good.
Stevens plays a pilot who has to save his family (and the world) after the launch of machine that creates unlimited energy goes horribly awry. For some reason, Steven Seagal is nowhere to be found.
It would be unfair to say Kill Switch is cribbing Hardcore Henry‘s POV style because Smit’s short film came first, but we’re definitely put into the driver’s seat while blowing things up and making sure things don’t get blown up.
There’s also a giant beam of light shooting into the sky, a portal to another dimension, the you’re-our-best-hope midnight military escort last seen in Arrival, a dash of Edge of Tomorrow‘s time travel video game sensibility, and a gloss of Skyline‘s low budget vision of the future.
The original short film (and this trailer) was all action, so the real test for Kill Switch will be whether it can build beyond all of this familiarity to create a fun, compelling story. Stevens and Marlohe’s charm should go a long way, although it will be fascinating to see how the movie shifts us between perspectives.
Of course the real star of the trailer is the visuals. Trains falling out of the sky, future cops flying in drones, and neighborhood battles that take down entire buildings. At the very least, it looks like an exhilarating ride.
Image: Saban Films
