Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England and High-Rise – five films that are all provocative, haunting and a little bit crazy in their own unique way. The common thread coursing through each of those features is, of course, British auteur Ben Wheatley, who returns later this year with the ferocious Free Fire.
Directing from a script he wrote alongside Amy Jump, Wheatley’s latest (greatest?) creative venture imagines a scenario in which a shady arms deal goes south – and fast. Housed up in a decrepit warehouse in 1970s Boston, the two gangs are comprised of Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Kong: Skull Island star Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Noah Taylor, Sam Riley, Michael Smiley and Jack Reynor, though it isn’t long before the bullets fly and the bodies fall.
Set to Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” – how very apropos – today’s new, international trailer is an exciting tease of what’s to come that simultaneously draws the battle lines, all the while keeping the film’s major story beats under wraps. That’s not to say those battle lines are set in stone though, with one budding arms dealer yelling, “I forgot who’s side I’m on!” All in all, Free Fire looks to be a star-studded throwback to action movies of old, and following its premiere at last year’s TIFF, our own Matt Donato found Wheatley’s latest to be “a relentless genre assault of bullets, laughs and personality, like a pseudo action movie that cranks intensity to 11 and rips off the knob.” Color us very, very intrigued.
Currently in attendance at SXSW 2017, Free Fire is expected to light up theaters on April 21st. For now, you can leave your early impressions of Ben Wheatley’s wildly over-the-top shootout, below.
