21 BRIDGES
21 BrIDgES I Chadwick Boseman hunts cop killers across an isolated Manhattan in a Russo-produced action-thriller…
Chadwick Boseman is trapped in Manhattan.
What to do, after directing the biggest film of all time? If you’re the Russo brothers, hot off Avengers: Endgame, you pay it forward. The first feature from the Russos’ studio AGBO Films, post-MCU, 21 Bridges is a Manhattan-set manhunt movie made by, and starring, superhero royalty. “[21 Bridges] was an opportunity to try and create Chadwick Boseman’s first great role post-Black Panther,” says director Brian Kirk. “He took the movie to a place I had hoped for, but could never presume.”
Boseman stars as veteran ’tec Andre Davis, a man “shaped by circumstance”, according to Kirk. Davis specialises in hunting cop killers, motivated by the fact his own police-officer father was murdered on duty when Andre was a child. So, when eight officers are gunned down in a shootout with two
highly trained crims (Taylor Kitsch and Stephan James), Andre’s brought in to bring them down, whatever the cost.
Describing the film as being “in the tradition of classic New York crime thrillers”, Kirk saw something unique in Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan’s script, which explores the relationship between the hunter and the hunted. “Andre’s a guy with a code. He’s killed a bunch of people, but never without a just cause,” says Kirk, a TV director best known for his work on Game Of Thrones and Luther. “He comes to realise that, actually, he’s a hunter who wants to save his prey, when everyone else wants blood. His journey is really from a desire for revenge to a desire for justice. And it becomes about what he’s prepared to put on the line himself to get that justice.”
Naturally, there’s more to the film’s inciting massacre than meets the eye, but Kirk and co resisted the urge to
paint the film’s fugitive duo as misunderstood victims. “The opening robbery is presented in a brutal fashion that allows us to experience the reaction that Andre experiences initially, which is: anger and revulsion. It creates the possibility of confusing justice with retribution,” says Kirk. “And then we wanted to discover the difference between the robbers, so that they’re not this homogenous evil. They’re different people driven by different things. And also, there’s common ground between Andre and at least one of those men that complicates the story.”
Further complicating the story is the presence of Sienna Miller’s Detective Frankie Burns – a narcotics officer also assigned to the manhunt when a mountain of cocaine is found at the crime scene. “In a strange way, it’s almost like an arranged marriage,” Kirk laughs of the initially frosty dynamic between Davis and Burns. Working with real ex-NYPD officers, Boseman and Miller not only went through extensive weapons training, they learnt what goes through an officer’s head during a dangerous manhunt. “It’s an enormous act of trust to put your life in the hands of a stranger,” Kirk says. “And what they discover about each other is that, firstly, they’re very good at what they do. And secondly, they do have each other’s backs, because they will not get through the night alone.”
Shot on location over eight weeks of twilight shoots, the film unfolds across one long night where Davis’ first move is to close all 21 bridges in and out of Manhattan, cutting the island city off from the rest of the country. “I thought there was a wonderful conceptual purity to that idea,” says Kirk. “It was an incredibly simple and bold idea.”
There’s a tragic real-world precedent for such drastic measures – the bridges and tunnels to Manhattan were closed for a full day after the 9/11 terror attacks. And while Kirk is quick to clarify “that’s not something that we leant into in any way in the movie, because that’s a real-world tragedy that would be wrong for us to exploit,” it does help inform the ferocity of the NYPD’s response in the film. “In terms of the story, this would be the biggest loss of NYPD life since 9/11. Actually, a lot of our guys played key roles during that tragedy. It was pretty authentic.”
Written on spec by Mervis more than five years ago, the film was previously known as 17 Bridges until Kirk came onboard and checked his online map provider of choice. “I said, ‘Why are there only 17 in the script?’” Kirk recalls. “And he was like, ‘Well, when I was writing it, this one was closed, this was under construction, and I wasn’t sure about the foot bridge…’ Well, they’re open now, so that’s why it’s called 21 Bridges!”
The title wasn’t the only thing that changed over the years. “The screenplay moved enormously from the thing that was called 17 Bridges and was a redemption story, to 21 Bridges,” Kirk claims. “There always was the shooting at the start. There always was the lockdown of the island. But everyone who came to the party – from Joe and Anthony [Russo] to Chadwick, Sienna and J.K. [Simmons] – all brought their own thing to it. Taylor Kitsch actually had one of the most amazingly smart contributions that changed the middle of the movie quite significantly.”
Kirk had a hand in bringing one of contemporary TV’s iconic detectives to the screen – Idris Elba’s Luther. Other than a trendy trenchcoat, does Kirk see anything in common between Davis and London’s finest? “Hopefully, Andre will kind of acquire the iconic heft that Idris brought to Luther. I’m pretty sure he will,” Kirk says. “They share a natural outsider quality. But in a way, Luther came fully formed. This is the moment when the real Andre is discovered, when he discovers himself, and realises that truth and justice require a continuous process of discovery, rather than any fixed code.” JF
ETA | 22 NOVEMBER / 21 BRIDGES OPENS NEXT MONTH.
‘anDre’s a guy with a CoDe. he’s KilleD people... never without a Just Cause’ BRiAn KiRK