Spiderhead (2022)

By: Mike Ward on Sunday, June 26

R Running Time: 107 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Dystopian science-fiction has a built-in audience and Spiderhead has an inviting look and premise.
Seeing Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller pop up in a new Netflix film, directed by the man who also directed Top Gun: Maverick? How can you not give this a click?
Those familiar with the George Saunders short story will be curious to see how that was adapted into a feature-length film.

NO

It is hard to believe that the director of Spiderhead also directed Top Gun: Maverick.
There’s actually a hint of a good movie here, but the movie falls apart and truly has no sense of what kind of movie it wants to be.
Those familiar with the George Saunders short story are going to have A LOT of questions about how this film originated out of that story.

OUR REVIEW

For all of its impressive production design and notable casting choices, Spiderhead is a movie that rather quickly devolves into tonal imbalance and escalating absurdity. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), this adaptation of “Escape from Spiderhead,” an acclaimed 2010 short-story from writer George Saunders, becomes nonsensical and farcical the longer we watch it unfold.

Set somewhere in the near future, the premise is reasonable enough to entice fans of dystopian science fiction. Convicted criminals have the opportunity to opt-in to a behavioral study which reduces their sentencing. The Spiderhead prison compound is located on a remote island, with inmates surgically enhanced with MobiPaks, devices containing vials of emotion-altering drugs. Said drugs are infused into patients under the watchful eye of pharmaceutical expert, and 1980s synth-pop music enthusiast, Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth).

For all those wishing Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me with Science” could have a Kate Bush/”Stranger Things”-like return to the mainstream, here’s your movie.

Though the prison is hospitable and the inmates have few, if any, parameters to abide by, they have agreed to undergo controls and trials whenever Abnesti, and his dutiful assistant Mark (Mark Paguio) deem them necessary. Inmates are moved into a white-walled observation room, the subject must “acknowledge” the trial can begin, and then the drugs are administered through a smartphone app.

What could possibly go wrong?

Though he navigated the assignment of Top Gun: Maverick with confidence and seldom a misstep, Kosinski’s approach to Spiderhead is a tonal disaster. Scenes bounce around as suspenseful, then comedic, then dramatic, and the film never finds consistency in what kind of film it is trying to be. When Steve takes a liking to Jeff (Miles Teller), he becomes the go-to for specific trials with drugs like Luvactin (which amplifies sexual desire and attraction), Darkenfloxx (induces intense feelings of terror), Phobica (makes one fearful of the most mundane things), Laffodil (causing everything to be funny) and VerbaLuce (causing people to become verbose and chatty).

Jeff, who is imprisoned for a criminal conviction tied to one night of very bad judgment, begins to fall for fellow inmate Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett). As he wrestles with complicated emotions, Jeff begins to question the controls set in place long after we have already surmised that some of these folks may not be on the up and up. As he begins to unravel the truth of “Spiderhead,” we find ourselves in a convoluted story that has no real direction or purpose.

Adapted by Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the film flirts with the notion of making a statement on how easily vulnerable people can fall victim to manipulation. Maybe it speaks to inhumane treatment of prisoners. Perhaps it is a satire on how people have no control over their emotions. Some theorize it’s actually a story about love and forgiveness.

Who knows. Spiderhead certainly doesn’t. By the final act, when the action intensifies after all the secrets are revealed, one character is so manic in their behavior that any tension or drama is snuffed completely out because of the spectacle of what’s being placed before us. By this point, if Spiderhead can’t take any of this seriously, why should we?

CAST & CREW

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, Mark Paguio, Tess Haubrich, BeBe Bettencourt, Stephen Tongun, Nathan Jones, Angie Milliken, Sam Delich, Daniel Reader, Ben Knight

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick
Based on the short story “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders
Release Date: June 17, 2022
Netflix

Dystopian science-fiction has a built-in audience and Spiderhead has an inviting look and premise.

Seeing Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller pop up in a new Netflix film, directed by the man who also directed Top Gun: Maverick? How can you not give this a click?

Those familiar with the George Saunders short story will be curious to see how that was adapted into a feature-length film.

It is hard to believe that the director of Spiderhead also directed Top Gun: Maverick.

There’s actually a hint of a good movie here, but the movie falls apart and truly has no sense of what kind of movie it wants to be.

Those familiar with the George Saunders short story are going to have A LOT of questions about how this film originated out of that story.