Action 2.0
Director Leigh Whannell on the building blocks of futuristic sci-fi film Upgrade
LEIGH WHANNELL HAS switched genres. The Australian filmmaker became known for his horrors with the likes of Saw and Insidious; his latest effort, Upgrade, is more like a gory revenge thriller spliced with a Black Mirror episode, telling the story of Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-green) who, after an attack that leaves him disabled and his wife dead, has his motor functions returned and souped-up thanks to a nifty microchip known as Stem. Here, Whannell explains how he did it.
1 FIND YOUR STORY
Whannell started with an image that popped into his head: a quadriplegic man walking with the aid of futuristic technology. “I didn’t want to make a robot movie, because I’ve seen that done,” he explains. “What I was interested in was the singularity — the point at which tech is inside us. I had created a revenge story that would allow Stem to aid Grey in this search for his wife’s killers. It starts out with that structure — and then you find out that that’s not what it’s really about.”
2 DON’T DENY YOUR PAST
Despite working in a new genre, Whannell discovered that he could utilise his previous skillset. “I don’t know that I was consciously going for the horror rhythms, but unconsciously they’re built into me,” he laughs. “There’s a natural build to horror, where you’re headed for moments of catharsis, explosions of violence or assaultive cinema techniques. Maybe that metronome is built into me. You tease and tease [the audience] — and hit them with a sledgehammer.”
3 UNDERSTAND YOUR INSPIRATIONS
Fitting firmly into a genre tradition, Whannell says he drew from a “kind of a stew of influences that were swimming around in my head”, rather than anything directly channelled. But he cites The Terminator, Robocop and Scanners as key touchpoints, plus “early Cronenberg stuff, even something like Tetsuo. I’ve always liked that idea of tech melding with flesh, and that cyberpunk arena”.
4 LOCK DOWN THE MOVEMENTS
With Stem frequently taking control of Grey’s body, his movements are often a curious blend of jerky, stop-motionesque poses and fluid fighting styles, which Whannell needed to get right. “I didn’t know how I’d pull it off on a realistic level,” he says. “The stunt team, the cinematographer, Logan, and I were this cross-discipline gang, each taking care of our own corner.” During several fight scenes, the camera locks onto Logan’s motions in
a dizzying fashion. “Making a film is like cooking — you have all these ingredients and it’s not only important what you use, it’s how much.”
BE PREPARED FOR THE REACTIONS 5
Judgement has already come down from critics in America, and Whannell was bemused by some of the reluctant praise. “After I read some of the ‘good’ reviews for the film, my cheek was stinging from the number of backhanded compliments. ‘Yeah, it’s dumb and derivative, but you should see it!’ I thought it was original... no? Just a Robocop rip-off, then?” UPGRADE IS IN CINEMAS FROM 31 AUGUST