Hardcore Henry (2015)
Action cinema has always had a restless relationship with the camera. From the bone-crunching physicality of films like The Raid 2 to the elegantly choreographed mayhem of Hong Kong classics, directors have spent decades searching for new ways to put audiences inside the violence rather than simply watching it from a safe distance. Hardcore Henry, released in 2015, takes that impulse to its logical, borderline reckless conclusion. The entire film is shot in first-person perspective, placing the camera behind the eyes of Henry, a man who wakes up in a laboratory to discover he has been rebuilt as a cybernetic soldier, fitted with enhanced limbs, and robbed of his voice. His wife is immediately snatched away by a telekinetic mercenary commander named Akan, and what follows is a breathless, blood-soaked chase across Moscow over the course of a single day. The premise is thin by design, the sort of premise that exists mainly to keep a man running and shooting and falling off things at considerable speed.
The film began life, more or less, as a music video. Russian director Ilya Naishuller had shot a first-person action short for his band Biting Elbows, which went viral and caught the attention of producer Timur Bekmambetov, the man behind Night Watch and Wanted. Bekmambetov's production company Bazelevs came on board, with STX Entertainment and China's Huayi Brothers Pictures filling out the financing picture, making this an unusually multinational production for something so distinctly rooted in the frenetic, lo-fi energy of internet video culture. The budget, while not publicly confirmed in precise figures, was reportedly modest by Hollywood action standards, which makes some of the stunt work genuinely impressive in context. The whole thing was captured using GoPro cameras rigged to helmets worn by a rotating team of stuntmen, a logistical challenge that demanded extraordinary coordination from everyone on set. It is, whatever else you think of it, a film that clearly earned its bruises.
The cast around the silent protagonist is where the film finds most of its personality. Sharlto Copley, who first turned heads in District 9 as the hapless Wikus van de Merwe, appears here in a very different mode, playing Jimmy, a mysterious ally who keeps reappearing throughout the film in a variety of guises and personas. Copley throws himself at the role with the kind of committed, slightly unhinged energy the film needs, and he is, frankly, the main reason to stick around once the initial novelty settles. Danila Kozlovsky plays the villain Akan with a cold, theatrical menace, while Haley Bennett and Tim Roth fill supporting roles that are deliberately limited in scope. This is not an ensemble piece in any conventional sense. It is, by construction, a film about a point of view rather than a person, which raises interesting questions about where exactly your sympathy is supposed to sit.
There’s a certain kind of cinema that doesn’t just ask you to suspend your disbelief; it grabs you by the collar and drags you headfirst into the chaos. Hardcore Henry (2015), directed by Ilya Naishuller, is exactly that. Billed as the first feature film shot entirely in the first-person perspective, it’s a genuine technical feat that immediately sets it apart from everything else on the shelf. But I can completely see why it’s polarising audiences. It’s very much one of those films you either "get" or you don’t. If you’re a video gamer, the language of the camera will feel like second nature. If you’re not, I can easily understand why people are dubbing it "Headache Henry."
When it’s firing on all cylinders, the film is frantic, more than a little zany, and undeniably original. It’s the ultimate "turn your brain off" adrenaline rush, and in that regard, it feels a lot like Crank on steroids. But as someone who needs a solid narrative beneath the spectacle, I found the cracks showing before the halfway mark. For a start, it’s about 20 to 30 minutes too long. Once the initial shock of the POV wears off, the sheer relentless pace starts to feel incredibly one-note. The story itself is practically void of any real substance, and having a central character who never speaks a single word makes the whole experience feel a bit odd and emotionally hollow.
Ultimately, Hardcore Henry is a fascinating experiment that pushes the boundaries of action choreography, but it forgets that a movie needs a beating heart, not just a racing pulse. It’s a decent watch if you’re in the mood for pure, unadulterated kinetic energy, but it lacks the narrative depth to elevate it beyond a neat party trick. It’s decent, it’s certainly a unique ride, but it’s no more than that. You’ll walk away impressed by the stunt work, but you won't be thinking about it the next day.
Hardcore Henry sits in an odd but genuinely interesting corner of the action genre, the sort of film that will probably be cited in film school discussions about form and audience immersion long after most people have forgotten its plot. Naishuller has since gone on to direct Nobody (2021), a more traditional and arguably more satisfying action film, which perhaps tells its own story about the limits of pure formal experiment. If you enjoy action cinema that takes its choreography seriously, it is worth pairing with something like Anna or revisiting the kinetic madness of Police Story 4: First Strike for a sense of how spectacle and character can coexist without one swallowing the other whole. Hardcore Henry is a film that knows exactly one trick, and it performs that trick with considerable commitment. Whether one trick is enough is, as ever, entirely up to you.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2015 | Watched: 2026-06-09
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Hardcore Henry (2015) on YouTube
Where to watch
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