“A fake world is a lot more comfortable than the real one.”
Set in a not too distant future, Upgrade is the story of Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), an old fashioned, blue collar guy in a world of advanced technology that is deeply integrated into the everyday lives of the world’s inhabitants. After a brutal mugging leaves Grey paralyzed and his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) dead, tech billionaire and Grey’s former client of Eron (Harrison Gilbertson) soon offers him a chance to test out an experimental cure for his paralysis, an artificial intelligence implant called STEM. After receiving the implant and regaining his ability to walk, Grey sets out to find the men that killed his wife and changed his life forever, but finds that STEM comes with unexpected issues that could add to the problems he has already faced.
While it is an action packed, sci-fi film, Upgrade also contains thematic depth heavily focused on sparking debate and thought on the increasingly important role that technology plays in our world. Grey raises this question in a manner more applicable to our current reality when we are first introduced to STEM in Eron’s lab, stating that where Aaron and Asha see progress in the creation of STEM, he sees technology that will put ten men out of work. While this film takes the idea of machine replacing man to its most extreme, the question of the place of humanity in an age of rapid technological advancement is still worth considering on a more grounded level in current reality. Social media and technology are of increasing importance in our society, with social media shaping news narratives, being used to ferment social uprisings, and becoming an important brand strategy for products and corporations alike. One stroll down a sidewalk in any city in the western world, you will encounter people ensconced in their smartphones, playing games, texting, checking their news feeds and timelines, connected to the globe but simultaneously oblivious to the world that surrounds them, or is walking straight toward them.
Homo sapiens are social animals, contact with others of our species is integral to our mental well-being. Rates of depression and loneliness are increasing worldwide despite the fact that we are more connected to each other than humanity has ever been. As people lose themselves in their online personas on Twitter and Facebook or shop for anything item they need or want without leaving their bed or ever needing to even glance at another person, at what point is our humanity lost or abandoned in favor of an unfulfilling electronic connection that we become extensions of rather than them being extensions of ourselves? Upgrade explores this question over the course of the film largely as Grey slowly loses control of himself to STEM, but even in small moments prior. One scene in particular occurs when Grey returns home from the hospital following Asha’s murder. Their in-home AI asks Grey if it should prepare for her arrival, an impersonal and cold question that while routine for a piece of technology, lacks the emotional intelligence that would result from interaction with another human. Like our own technology, the gifts that STEM puts at Grey’s fingertips are alluring at first, offering him quick access to increased strength and intelligence he had not had at his disposal prior. However, this quickly becomes a Faustian bargain, where what is lost vastly outweighs what is gained; humanity and free will for advancement. This allegory for our current societal happenings is very well executed in the film and makes it a more engaging film than just another sci-fi action flick. The lack of a happy conclusion to the question of where advanced technology may lead is a satisfying one that will spark more conversation and debate than if the film had ended wrapped in a neat little bow.
In addition to its prescient social commentary, Upgrade features technical achievements that elevate it as a film.The ambient, futuristic electronic score help to accentuate the futuristic setting of the film, helping viewers to feel immersed in a world that is at once familiar but something from a future we have yet to witness. Director Leigh Wannell’s choice in music creates the perfect ambiance for a futuristic sci-fi film. Wannell also makes some bold choices in camera work for the action scenes that may prove to be more of divisive element. As STEM takes total control over Grey’s body in order to offer enhanced fighting skills and reflexes, the camera shooting the conflict moves and cuts rapidly, in a manner that mimics more robotic movement. This technique is very reminiscent of the shaky, quick cam style utilized and popularized by the Bourne franchise following its first successful film, a point of contention in action film circles for how influential it became. While the unfocused, hard to follow style would usually be a negative, it’s usage in this film made more sense due to how robotic it appeared and how that aligned with the entire premise. Upgrade must also be lauded for quality effects work on a film only budgeted between $3-5 million dollars, with the advanced technological weapons and bits of CGI appearing to be way more expensive than they most likely were.
Upgrade is a film that is becoming an increasing rarity; an action and science fiction film that eschews two hours of non-stop action, quippy jokes, and cool-looking CGI, and instead attempts to weave in a theme exploring topical issues and questions regarding the world around us interwoven into the action and visuals that draw the average moviegoer to the theater in the first place. This ambition to present some semblance of thematic depth can be attributed a lot in part to the film’s low budget, but the aspiration to present something more is still laudatory. The reality of the lower money at the film’s disposal also works to make the level of quality of its visual effects more noteworthy. Leading actor Logan Marshall-Green turns in a great performance as Grey Trace, convincingly portraying a man holding onto an older worldview in a reality that is quickly passing him by, to a grieving widower, to a human being confused and trying to understand a piece of technology that is quickly consuming him. Building on his standout performance in 2016’s The Invitation, Marshall-Green is slowly building an impressive resume for himself that makes it clear he is more than a Tom Hardy lookalike. Betty Gabriel also makes the most of her most recent onscreen appearance following her head-turning performance in Get Out as Detective Cortez, a dogged investigator torn between trying to help Grey come to terms with what happened to him and his wife while also following her instincts as he becomes further connected to the deaths of those responsible for the crime committed against his family. Upgrade is definitely a film worthy of your time and money, a testament to the existence of quality fare outside the major blockbuster offerings of big-named studios. Support for the quality work of independent studios will ensure the overall health of multiplexes across the country. “Deserves” is a complex concept when it comes to consumer products, but Upgrade feels like it deserves support in theaters.
Image: OTL Releasing
