It
is sort of like cloning for the sake of organ harvesting, but on a cosmic
scale. Through the magic of theoretical physics, Alterplex Corp have created a
parallel universe, expressly so we can extract energy from it to power our
world. The so-called “Echo” would be a reflection of our universe, but supposedly
without any organic life forms. Instead, they succeeded too well, generating a
perfect duplicate, including all the people. Thanks to an eco-terrorist attack,
the creation process did not run as smoothly as planned. In fact, both universes
are in danger imploding in Tim Smit’s Kill
Switch (trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
Kill Switch is about as close
to a first-person shooter video game as a film can get while still keeping some
kind of plot. Former NASA pilot and egghead physicist Will Porter was hired by
Alterplex to pilot a pod to the Echo and turn on the energy extractor.
Apparently, he did so and now all Hell is breaking loose. When Alterplex
started sucking power out of the Echo, the unstable mirror universe started
sucked back large masses (ships and trains falling from the sky) to compensate.
It
seems everyone has a doppelganger in the Echo, except Porter. His double died
during the initial chaos. With his power levels declining, Porter will have to
decide whether it is time to use the “Re-divider” or kill switch, the put a
stop to the mutual Armageddon. However, that means one of the universes will be
sacrificed.
Given
the provocative premise, Kill Switch probably
sounds headier than it is. In any event, you cannot accuse Smit of playing for
small stakes. In fact, the Macguffin is quite clever, the slam-bang pacing races
along like a high-performance sports car, and the apocalyptic effects are
surprising well-realized. Arguably, it also treats the shadowy corporation and
the fanatical environmentalist with roughly equivalent suspicion and disdain.
It
is slightly ironic Dan Stevens, Cousin Matthew in Downton Abbey, plays Porter, the Yank who uproots his family (a
widowed sister and her traumatized son), relocating to Europe. Nonetheless, he
holds up his end rather well, especially consider we only really see him in the
flashback scenes. Bérénice Marlohe is convincingly cool, smart, and dangerous
as his colleague Abigail Vos (in both universes). For what it’s worth, Mike
Libanon is also all kinds of sinister as the zealous spiritual leader of the
eco-terrorists, but this isn’t exactly a film requiring classically-trained
chops. It is more about running and dodging and weaving and more running.
