Robbery, epic city-wide car chases, massive explosions, gritty dialogue punctuated by gunfire. The trailer for Michael Bay’s new action film Ambulance ticks all the boxes in the hard-bitten action handbook and indicate the director might, after years of giant fighting robot movies, be back in the groove that made him a star.
Fans have been quick to notice the return to form and have taken to Twitter to celebrate what just may turn out to be a renaissance for the director that hearkens back to the Bad Boys franchise and The Rock and appears to be far more visceral than Bay’s CGI heavy offerings of the 2010s. The first trailer in October had fans excited, and the new trailer that debuted during the Super Bowl seems to have kicked over the anthill yet again.
Ambulance stars Spider-Man: Far From Home star Jake Gyllenhaal and Watchmen‘s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Abdul-Mateen II portrays Will Sharp, a decorated veteran in desperate need of funds to cover his ailing wife’s medical costs. When he asks his adoptive brother Danny, played by Gyllenhaal, for help, he finds himself roped into a $32 million dollar bank heist.
According to the film’s website, when the operation goes south, “the desperate brothers hijack an ambulance with a wounded cop clinging to life and ace EMT Cam Thompson (Eiza González) onboard. In a high-speed pursuit that never stops, Will and Danny must evade a massive, city-wide law enforcement response, keep their hostages alive, and somehow try not to kill each other, all while executing the most insane escape L.A. has ever seen.”
If the film proves to be a hit, it will help restore Bay’s standing as an action movie savant after a more than five-year slump that saw the director helm three commercially and critically disappointing efforts in a row. Bay’s last turn in the director’s chair, for Neflix’s 6 Underground, was supposed to generate a new franchise for the streaming service, but the project was shelved after mixed to mediocre reviews. Bay was attached to Ambulance in Nov. 2021 following several years’ worth of development shuffling.
Ambulance is based on the 2005 Danish film Ambulancen by Laurits Munch-Petersen and Lars Andreas Pedersen. The screenplay is adapted by Chris Fedak, known for co-creating Fox’s Prodigal Son series. New Republic Pictures and Project X are producing. It will hit theaters on April 8 and begin streaming on Peacock 45 days following its theatrical release.