Source: Universal Pictures: Blu-ray, 2021.
Year: 2021
Director: Ilya Naishuller
Action Stars:
Genre: Crime Film Espionage
Country: United States
Story Duration: 01:26:12
Act Duration:
1st Act: 00:22:00
2nd Act: 00:19:06
3rd Act: 00:22:16
4th Act: 00:22:47
Plot Turns:
1st: Hutch’s past identity discovered
2nd: Yulian orders search for Hutch
3rd: Hutch burns down his house
ASD Ratio: 49%
AAD Ratios:
1st Act: 32%
2nd Act: 56%
3rd Act: 58%
4th Act: 51%
Action Structure: 1243
Action Scenarios:
Capture
Escape
Fall
Fight
Heist
Pursuit
Rescue
Speed
Total Action Moments: 22
Notable Action Sequence: The Trap
Duration: 00:08:53
Act: 4th
Action Scenarios:
Fight
Rescue
Pursuit
Speed
Description: One of the ways that action films make themselves distinctive is by defamiliarizing the genres on which they are based through unique genre combinations. Nobody (2021) does so by combining elements from the espionage film with that of the gangster movie, a sub-genre of the crime film. This combination assumes its primary shape through the film’s protagonist-antagonist structure. Bob Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell, an ex-assassin who has previously worked for intelligence agencies but now lives a domesticated life. Aleksey Serebryakov plays Yulian Kuznetsov, a violent Russian mobster, who orders an attack on Hutch’s home after Hutch had beaten up and hospitalized Yulian’s brother.
This antagonism eventually culminates into a showdown between the two through which Hutch takes the upper hand by setting up an elaborate trap to defeat Yulian and his seeming endless supply of supporting Russian enforcers. Hutch purchases a factory from his father-in-law not in a move to settle down but to devise an elaborate set of booby traps. In an effort to lure Yulian to the booby-trapped factory, Hutch raids his nightclub and torches Russian mob money that Yulian was entrusted to safeguard. Enraged Yulian and his enforcers pursue Hutch in a multi-vehicle pursuit to the factory, unbeknownst to them that Hutch is leading them to his trap [Figure 1]. Upon arrival at the factory, Hutch is soon outnumbered by Yulian and his men and takes cover behind a vehicle. Harry Mansell, Hutch’s brother, suddenly appears from an upper factory window and starts firing at Yulian’s enforcers with a high-powered rifle, enacting the embedded rescue scenario [Figure 2]. David Mansell, Hutch’s father and ex-FBI agent, also appears and provides cover to allow his son to enter into the factory. Yulian and his enforcers follow by entering into the building only to discover its conversion into a killing zone through its multiple laid traps, the first of which consisting of a industrial press squeezing a hand grenade until it explodes [Figure 3]. The sequence continues by presenting novel forms of killing through the booby traps as well as showcasing the gunfighting abilities of the family trio. The sequence ends with the film’s final confrontation between Hutch and Yulian. Hutch tapes an explosive device to a bulletproof glass pane and rushes towards Yulian with it acting as a shield from Yulian’s automatic gunfire [Figure 4]. The devise explodes sending Hutch flying but protected from the blast as a result of the glass shield, whereas Yulian is killed by the exposion, and is left seriously disfigured, as revealed through an aftermath shot.