Vin Diesel is finally playing a superhero. The Fast & Furious star has already lent his voice to the CGI tree Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe of course, but in the upcoming movie Bloodshot viewers will actually see Diesel playing a human character with superpowers. Based on the comics published by Valiant Entertainment, the character’s code name is “Bloodshot,” but his real name is “Ray Garrison” — a soldier who has been transformed into an unstoppable killing machine by the injection of nanites.
The nanites can manipulate Bloodshot’s body, allowing him to heal from injuries as deadly as a gunshot to the face. But they can also manipulate his mind. The most arresting element of the trailer is the way we see Bloodshot trained for assassinations: His handlers keep manipulating implanted memories of his wife getting killed, constantly switching the face of her killer to match the next person they want Bloodshot to kill.
“Bloodshot is a soldier who died in the line of duty, brought back to life with cutting-edge nanotechnology,” Dinesh Shamdasani, a producer on the film and the former CEO of Valiant Entertainment, told EW at New York Comic Con. “Billions of microscopic computers replaced this blood, he now has complete control over his physiology, making him faster, stronger, able to heal, able to control machines. Here’s what’s really cool about Bloodshot though: It’s high-octane, bone-crushing action. The editor in chief of Valiant at one point called Bloodshot ‘a house on fire rolling down a hill of dynamite.’”
But, as with HBO’s new Watchmen series, you don’t necessarily need to be familiar with Bloodshot comics to enjoy the new movie. In fact, director Dave Wilson says Bloodshot is more akin to movies like RoboCop and Memento than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Guy Pearce’s presence in Bloodshot is an obvious Memento connection, but so is the way Bloodshot is constantly revived with no memories of what he just did. If we’re seeing things from his perspective, and his perspective can be manipulated, then what are we seeing?
“You’ve seen unstoppable superheroes before. You’ve seen healing abilities before. That is just one aspect of what makes it interesting to me,” Wilson tells EW. “What makes it most interesting is the repetitive quality of what they’re doing to him. The fact that he’s being manipulated allows you to subvert a lot of the expectations that these movies usually present. The love story isn’t the love story you think it is, and he’s not the hero he thinks he is.”
To find out the truth, check out Bloodshot when it hits theaters on Feb. 21, 2020. In the meantime, watch the trailer above.
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Bloodshot
type
Movie
release date
04/21/15
Complete Coverage
Bloodshot
