As well as his famed penchant for blowing sh*t up in the most spectacular possible fashion, another hallmark of Michael Bay’s career has seen him take actors that you wouldn’t typically imagine as action heroes and place them front and center in a pyrotechnic extravaganza.
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence were sitcom stars when Bad Boys was released, Nicolas Cage was the eccentric darling of independent cinema when he signed on to The Rock, Ben Affleck was an Academy Award-winning writer fresh off Best Picture victor Shakespeare in Love when Armageddon arrived, Ewan McGregor headlined The Island, John Krasinski took top billing in 13 Hours, and now Bay is looking to repeat the trick with Jake Gyllenhaal in Ambulance.
A remake of the 2005 Danish movie of the same name, Gyllenhaal co-stars with the fast-rising Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza Gonzales in the pic. Desperately in need of $231,000, Abdul-Mateen II’s character goes to an old friend (played by Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s Gyllenhaal) for help, who instead convinces him that a $32 million heist would be a much better idea.
The footage reportedly features your typical blend of swooping camera shots, highly stylized action choreography, rapid editing, and, of course, an explosion or two. Everything we’ve come to expect from Bay over the last quarter of a century. A behind-the-scenes video taken during production showed the director almost getting wiped out by a flying vehicle while operating a dolly, and based on that clip alone, we can assume that Bay will continue to favor practical effects as much as possible.
Ambulance will mark the director’s first theatrical release in the five years since Transformers: The Last Knight, and it’s coming to the big screen on February 18th of next year.
