Hardcore Henry

Hardcore Henry (known simply as Hardcore in some countries) 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 is notable for being shot entirely from a first-person perspective: the viewer is literally inserted into the titular role of Henry, and thus sees all the action scenes play out from his perspective. You can see the trailer here to get an idea of how the film actually looks.

The film begins with Henry waking up in a laboratory with his scientist wife replacing one of his legs and arms with cybernetic prosthetics. He also has amnesia, and doesn't recall anything. Before his voice module can be calibrated, the laboratory is stormed by a man named Ankat, who has telekinetic powers, and a squad of mercenaries. Henry barely escapes with his life before being intercepted by a man named Jimmy, who seems to know more than he lets on and seems to be dressed differently every time Henry meets him. ..

The action, as you might expect, is the primary gimmick of the film, since the characters and overall narrative are all vehicles for actions scenes to occur - fortunately, thanks to some wonderfully cheesy performances, the downtime between gunfights is still very entertaining.

The film was released on Blu-Ray in 2016, and received mixed reviews from critics (although Russian viewers like it). Naishuller has said he has some ideas for a sequel but nothing has actually materialized, likely due to the film's very poor box office performance.


 * Amnesiac Hero: Henry.
 * Badass: Henry, Antak, and Jimmy.
 * Body Surf: Jimmy, as a way to escape his wheelchair. Initially the viewer is likely to think he survived the first couple attempts on his life, or that some form of cloning may be involved, but when Henry visits his lab and sees the crippled man himself, he learns the truth.  Jimmy was grievously wounded by Antak when he failed to deliver on a goal and left for dead - he spent his newly found free time observing Antak's research, waiting for the right time to seek revenge.
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday:
 * Corrupt Bureaucrat: In the brothel sequence, Henry stumbles a Russian official pleading for his life to Ankat, stating he has a family. Ankat asks him if the prostitute in his bed is his wife.  The man replies "well . . ." before getting his head cut in half by a serving tray.
 * "Don't mind her, Henry. She's mourning her late husband."
 * Deadly Rotary Fan: Appears briefly during the final action scene.
 * Empty Shell: Antak's super soldiers before they undergo the
 * Faux Affably Evil: Antak.
 * Flashback Echo: The film opens with Henry as a kid being bullied by some neighbourhood kids who broke one of his toys. At the film's end,   To drive the point home, the viewer is treated of a flashback of Henry's father asking him a simple question: are you gonna swallow the blood in your mouth and lie there, or are you gonna spit it out and go spill theirs?
 * Fetish: One of the side characters in the brothel sequence apparently booked a private room with four women in order to . . . have them hoist him up and pretend to be riding a human motorcycle.
 * Fun with Subtitles: After escaping the brothel, Jimmy and Henry are confronted by some Action Girls who berate them in Russian for making a mess of things. Jimmy tries to calm them down, only for their subtitles to literally overwrite what he's trying to say.
 * Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: "Listen, there are some stereotypes about men who like musicals, so let me just make this clear: I am straight as an arrow."
 * Apparently the hours of vicarious sex and cocaine highs weren't a strong enough indicator . ..
 * Hookers and Blow: One of Jimmy's body doubles lives and dies this way.
 * Mind Over Matter: Antak's powers. The way he acts, it's implied to be augmentation rather than a natural gift, but it's never thoroughly explained (not that it needs to be, of course).
 * The Reveal: {{spoiler|Henry wasn't unique, he was just another one of Antak's experimental goons, and possibly a corpse before the events of the movie. He had a real life before that, though as a presumably pretty normal man.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Basically the entire movie.
 * Stiff Upper Lip: Jimmy's extremely British body, who dresses like he walked straight out of WWII. One of the film's more famous sequences involves him and Henry descending through an abandoned ex-Soviet building while protecting Jimmy's original body.
 * Pinball Projectile: The movie ends with {{spoiler|Harry's false wife}} attempting to shoot him, only for Henry to deflect the bullet with one of his metallic body parts. It bounces around the interior of the helicopter the two are in before lodging itself in her rib cage.
 * Psychic Nosebleed: Antak does this when overexerting himself a couple times.
 * Wicked Cultured: Antak does his best to appear this way, although he's a bit too violent to truly live up to the archetype.
 * "Every year in Russia, around 100,000 baseball bats are sold, and at most 50 balls. Gives you an idea of a great Russian pastime."
 * Wilhelm Scream: From a mercenary who takes a grenade the wrong way.

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