Upgrade

Let’s talk about Upgrade, the 2018 sci-fi action flick directed by Leigh Whannell. This one kind of snuck under the radar but deserves way more love for what it pulls off with a pretty modest budget. The premise is simple: in a near-future world dripping with gadgets and self-driving cars, a mechanic named Grey has his world upended after a brutal attack leaves him paralyzed and desperate for answers. Some tech-billionaire offers him an experimental AI chip implant called STEM that can control his body. Cue the revenge plot, but with a serious Black Mirror vibe.

I really appreciate how lean and mean this movie is right from the jump. Clocking in at about 100 minutes, there’s no wasted space. Scenes move with an urgency that actually works in its favor. Too often, lower budget sci-fi movies either over-explain their world or skimp entirely, but Upgrade keeps things tight. You get just enough world-building through visual cues — the sterile labs, neon-lit cityscapes, and jarringly normal suburban homes — all selling the future as an extension of our messed-up present.

Logan Marshall-Green, who leads as Grey, is surprisingly compelling. The guy has this bruised, hangdog charisma that anchors the film. After his character gets the chip, his body language completely changes, mostly due to the way STEM operates him like a puppet during fight sequences. The choreography here is wild — robotic and precise, but with this bizarre fluidity. There’s a standoff in a kitchen pretty early on that feels brutal and awkwardly funny at the same time. The visual storytelling really leans into the horror of losing agency over your own body.

Speaking of those fight scenes: they’re genuinely creative and stand out in a sea of generic on-screen brawls. Whannell uses this gyroscopic camera trick that sticks to Grey’s movements, making each blow feel harder and every twist somehow more disorienting. It’s a practical effect, not CGI overload, and it pays off with some of the most memorable action I’ve seen in a while. The movie never lets you forget there is an alien mind running the show.

But, full disclosure, the script doesn’t always do the film’s ideas justice. The emotional beats are kind of half-baked; the trauma Grey endures is mostly played out in early scenes, then gets traded in for plot momentum. I wanted a bit more reckoning with what it actually means to have your autonomy stripped away. There are hints at big techno-ethics questions — free will, AI consciousness — but the script seems more interested in zippy pacing than slowing down for depth. It’s not a dealbreaker, but this easily could have been a more haunting film with a little more patience.

Another rough edge: most of the supporting cast doesn’t get a ton to do. Betty Gabriel, who plays the detective chasing Grey, is a standout — she brings some world-weary gravitas, kind of like a more cynical version of Jodie Foster in Contact. But the tech-villain types are mostly stock characters, all cold cheekbones and ambiguous motivations. As for the tech billionaire who sponsors Grey’s upgrade, he feels undercooked, more like a plot device than a real antagonist.

Cinematography is one of Upgrade’s secret weapons. Stefan Duscio gives the movie this glossy-yet-grimy look, which works for the blend of cyberpunk and grindhouse violence. There is an eye for visual humor too — the divide between Grey’s old-school ways and the world’s new hyper-connected reality creates some subtle, clever sight gags. The gadgets all feel plausible, which is more than I can say for some larger-budget peers.

By the time the credits roll, you’ve gotten a blast of pulpy action, a dose of paranoia worthy of a Philip K. Dick nightmare, and a surprisingly bleak ending that leaves you a little queasy. It’s stylish, ruthless, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Upgrade probably won’t change your life, but it’s a sharp punch of sci-fi that sticks with you longer than expected.