We’ve already had a number of teasers and trailers for Atomic Blonde, and it’s safe to say that it’s one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer. With Academy Award winner Charlize Theron in the lead role, the action-mystery-thriller adapts the 2012 graphic novel series The Coldest City (by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart), and sets the Mad Max: Fury Road star in an espionage-revenge narrative under the direction of John Wick’s David Leitch. The latest teaser, however, takes that anticipation to the next level.
It’s a glorious thing of beauty, this fight sequence, because it communicates to the audience both that the director is under no illusions about what he’s doing, and the star is having a whole lot of fun with it. We need no context for this teaser, because everything we need to know can be found within the subtext.
Charlize Theron’s character, Lorraine Broughton, is cornered in an apartment. Knowing what’s about to happen, she turns on the stereo and increases the volume of George Michael’s “Father Figure.” Then, as her would-be assailants breach the property, she lays waste to them with a heavy rope and even heavier fighting skills. As “Father Figure” continues to provide the soundtrack for this beatdown, Lorraine brings the battle further into the kitchen, and uses saucepans and kitchen appliances to render her attackers unconscious, before using one of them as an anchor to allow her to exit through the window.
There’s something for everyone in this scene. Fans of John Wick’s particular brand of action will appreciate the execution of this set piece while the presence of Charlize Theron appeals to both men and women. But the subtle use of setting and sound specifically means that this scene will connect with anyone who enjoys seeing a complex female character access her rage on the big screen.
We don’t need to see anything else to know that Lorraine’s problems are caused by her male superiors within the spying community. This is a Hollywood movie, after all, and the majority of roles will be filled by men (including James McAvoy, John Goodman, Toby Jones and Eddie Marsan) – despite the female lead. Every one of her attackers in this scene is male. She plays “Father Figure” as she brutally defeats them, finishing them off with extreme violence in the kitchen – a place where generations past would have told her she belongs.
But, if we were left in any doubt, it’s the way in which Lorraine uses the fact that she’s attached her rope to the neck of a man to make her escape – leaping from the balcony, and condemning that male attacker to a slower execution, in order to facilitate her own survival. Make no mistake – Lorraine Broughton is an individual with whom one should not trifle, and we can all revel in her glorious action when Atomic Blonde arrives in theatres on August 11th.
