‘Hardcore’ NSFW Trailer Presents Brutal Action With a First-Person POV

Hardcore is premiering at TIFF this week, and the first trailer has arrived to give you a sense of what this new action film has to offer. The conceit of Hardcore is that the film is shown entirely in first-person POV, but that’s not all it has going for it — co-starring Sharlto Copley, the film is incredibly violent and bloody, and the trailer is appropriately NSFW, of course.

I’m a bit skeptical that Hardcore can sustain the first-person POV conceit throughout its entire runtime, but the trailer is intriguing enough. It’s not just the first-person stuff that calls to mind Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop — the plot of Hardcore also has some things in common with that classic film, centering on a faceless protagonist who is brought back from the dead by his wife with the help of cyborg technology. With no memories of his past life, the “you” character must pursue the telekinetic villain and his henchmen to rescue the wife “you” barely remembers.

The concept is interesting and clearly designed with a first-person video game aesthetic in mind, but it remains to be seen how well this idea serves the story and whether this narrative device improves on or detracts from the overall film experience.

Here’s the official plot synopsis from TIFF:

You remember nothing. Mainly because you’ve just been brought back from the dead by your wife (Haley Bennett). She tells you that your name is Henry and congratulations, you’re now a cyborg.

5 minutes later, your wife has been kidnapped and you should probably go get her back. Who’s got her? His name’s Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), he’s just a psychotic megalomaniac with telekinetic powers, and a never-ending army of mercenaries. You’re also in an unfamiliar city of Moscow, Russia and everyone wants you dead. Everyone, except for a mysterious British fellow called Jimmy (Sharlto Copley). He might be on your side. Good luck Henry. You’re very much likely to need it.

Executive produced by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), Hardcore also stars Haley Bennett and Danila Kozlovsky and does not currently have a formal release date.