Hardcore Henry is a lot smarter than people are giving it credit for.

Perhaps that’s not surprising. The film is a representation (and arguably, a glorification) of all of the things that run rampant in modern video games. Shot entirely in first person, Hardcore Henry is gloriously over-the-top in its action, breathlessly paced, and one of the most violent films in recent memory. It’s also crude, short on character development, and far more interested in cool moments than a traditional plot arc.

But Hardcore Henry is absolutely aware of these things. They’re not so much flaws as intentional nods to the video game medium, both positive and negative. This becomes overtly apparent towards the end (more on that in my Spoiler Section below), and for better or for worse, Hardcore Henry shows a great understanding of the “language” of the gaming medium.

Some of the film’s nods toward video games are direct references to specific games and moments. Sharlto Copley, who is reincarnated repeatedly throughout the movie as different versions of himself, is involved in a lot of these scenes. His drug-addled, banana-hammock clad incarnation is an obvious reference to Grand Theft Auto 5’s Trevor, and he also portrays multiple characters who hail directly from the Call of Duty series, including a fairly generic British general and a much more specific Call of Duty 4 character who I dare not spoil.

But far more significantly, Hardcore Henry shows its knowledge of the gaming medium through its intensely specific recreation of first person shooter game mechanics. The camera movement in this film is utterly brilliant, and an audience not weaned on video games will likely miss a lot of its most clever touches. Subtle details like the dip in the camera after Henry gets off of the table at the beginning (an indication in many games that the player is now taking control), or the onscreen clenched fists after receiving a power-up, or the hilariously diegetic action of wiping blood off of the camera (which, in the world of the film, technically should not exist) show just how carefully the cinematographers and choreographers considered each detail. Their work goes far beyond simply shooting an action film in first person. Hardcore Henry is a near-perfect recreation of the first person shooter form. The whole thing looks playable, from start to finish.

But in the end, what does such a slavish recreation of video game mechanics in the film medium achieve? As mentioned above, Hardcore Henry may be aware of the more problematic elements that it lifts from video games, but it still employs them. The writers understand that Henry’s’ motivation is flimsy and manipulated, but that still informs the narrative. They have to be cognizant of how women are treated as props in many games, and the threat of sexual violence is sometimes used as a short-cut to establish a character’s villainy, but Hardcore Henry still utilizes these same cheap devices. These are very valid criticisms of the film, just as they are for so many games.

But by transplanting the very elements that modern video games employ, both good and bad, onto a different medium with different standards and conventions, the audience is given a different lens through which to view video games. All of the above stand out, whereas in a game they can often be overshadowed by play mechanics or graphic elements. The video games medium necessitates a lot of the narrative shorthand that serves as Hardcore Henry’s apparent weakness, but viewing them in this way shines a spotlight on them where they may be ignored in a big AAA release. Meanwhile, the strengths of the medium are just as much on display through the ceaseless creative mayhem onscreen. Creating entertainment that strips away all extraneous elements in a pure pursuit of fun and excitement can be virtuous, as well.

To say that Hardcore Henry is not for everyone is an understatement. The film is likely nauseating to those less accustomed to the pacing of a standard video game, and a lot of the most clever references, concepts, and technical innovations will go completely unnoticed by people who haven’t played a video game in the last decade. But Hardcore Henry is a truly innovative work, testing the boundaries of its audience and experimenting with just how much intensity said audience can handle. This is reflected in the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score. After its festival debut, Hardcore Henry sat above 90%, but dipped to 48% after mainstream critics got their hands on it. For those judging by standard, contemporary ideas of what cinema should be, Hardcore Henry fails. But for those who are seeking out something new and exciting, few films are as cutting edge.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Above, I refer to Hardcore Henry’s narrative shorthand and cheap attempts at empathy as an “apparent weakness.” The “apparent” is important there, because the film’s employment of such cheap devices and its ultimate subversion of them is perhaps its most clever element.

The film opens with Henry being revived by his wife, who is piecing together his cybernetic body. Like the audience, Henry retains no memories of his life before. His wife/builder makes a show of putting his wedding ring on, and the way that this is conveyed to the audience makes her purpose obvious: you are supposed to care what happens to her. She is the macguffin, and the obvious emotional anchor.

As mentioned above, this is cheap, unearned empathy. However, we find out late in the film that the whole thing is a ruse. Henry’s real memories were blocked, and the whole backstory with his wife was fabricated to give him a reason to rampage through the world and cause the mayhem that he does. This reveal serves dual purposes. For one, it’s a pretty direct reference to the game Bioshock, which also uses the conventions of the first person shooter genre (the silent protagonist, the lack of personal backstory, the player’s unquestioning tendency to follow any mission objectives given) to hide its big twist in plain sight.

But the twist also serves to rub gamers’ faces in how much they are willing to accept in terms of motivation and “emotion” in games. Even before Henry’s “wife” mocks him for his belief in her, the manipulations of the opening scene are obvious. We’re so willing to use the flimsiest scenario (rescuing a princess, avenging a fallen friend, saving the world) to motivate our behavior in games that we rarely stop to ask ourselves how much better many games could be with a real, earned motivation. Hardcore Henry may fall into a similar trap through most of its duration, but it does so to make that argument that we could do better.

Also interesting is the way that the movie uses Henry’s “real” memories, of which we only catch a few glimpses, to motivate his actions in the very end. This is a nod to the baggage and experience that we all bring to our games. When Henry takes on the army of subjects at the end, it’s an allegory for the same-but-different experiences that we share with video games. We’re all “implanted” with the same stories and scenarios, but there are always elements, some brought forth from gaming experience and some from real-life experience, that influence our actions and make our hands-on time unique to us.

The other major plot, regarding Sharlto Copley’s Jimmy, also serves as metacommentary. The original “Jimmy” is a paraplegic man who, through the use of a device that looks not unlike a virtual reality apparatus, can control various versions of himself, which he makes radically different. He can be a soldier, or a druggie, or a hippie, or whatever he wants, and his own physical impediments cannot stop him.

This is, essentially, one of the reasons why the gaming medium is so powerful. We are all prisoners to our own physical limitations. Most of us will never be professional athletes, or war heroes, let alone superheroes. Gaming provides a direct feeling of empowerment that no other medium can quite achieve. By exploring this element in the character of Jimmy (who, it must be said, could be removed from the narrative and replaced by generic characters with little impact to the central plot), Hardcore Henry is saying that, for all of the gaming medium’s strengths and weaknesses, it remains important for this simple reason.