Upgrade (2018)
- The incredible score for Upgrade was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Leigh Whannell originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
Upgrade is a 2018 Australian cyberpunk action horror film written and directed by Leigh Whannell. Logan Marshall-Green stars as Grey Trace, a technophobic mechanic in a near-future world who is left quadriplegic after a mugging that kills his wife. A reclusive tech billionaire implants Grey with STEM, an experimental AI chip that restores his mobility — and gives him extraordinary, lightning-fast combat abilities when Grey allows STEM to take control of his body.
As Grey hunts his wife's killers with STEM guiding his movements, the question of who is really in control — man or machine — becomes increasingly unsettling. Upgrade was a remarkable achievement in low-budget science fiction, delivering fight choreography that was genuinely inventive — Grey's bewildered expression as his body executes lethal precision violence it has been programmed to perform was both funny and disturbing. Leigh Whannell's direction used a locked-camera technique that tracked Grey's torso during fight scenes, making the movements feel mechanical.
Upgrade earned $16 million worldwide on a $5 million budget.
