Action thriller  ‘Gemini Man’ now showing

Action thriller ‘Gemini Man’ is showing in cinemas from 11 October. It has been released in the following cinemas: Liberty by Scope Cinemas, Colombo City Center, Majestic Cinemas, Empire Cinema, Regal Gampaha, Majestic Cinema Bronze Jaffna, Savoy Cinemas, Savoy Cinema Rajagiriya, Cinemax Ja Ela, Aruna Kirbathgoda, Sky Lite Malabe, Savoy Cinema Maharagama, and Ruoo Cinema Katunayaka.

‘Gemini Man’ isn’t just an action movie, it’s the ultimate action movie – an unprecedented trinity of never-before-seen spectacle, next-level performance and unparalleled audience immersion. A movie, its makers say, that takes all the component parts of what people have long loved about the genre, and then elevates all of them to pioneering new heights to deliver a unique theatrical experience. 

As its director, the two-time Oscar-winning visionary Ang Lee, has it: “We’re not just doing something good, we’re discovering something new – a new concept of filmmaking. Five hundred years from now they’ll look back and go, ‘Oh, for the first 100 years [of making movies] they did that…’ It’s like silent movies, like sound, like colour. We went through all that! This is another dimension.” 

A dimension in which Will Smith is playing not just the protagonist, the 51-year-old retiring hitman Henry Brogan, but also – through a revolutionary new technology – the antagonist as well, the 23-year-old version of himself, Junior, who will chase and battle his older incarnation across three continents in a series of thrilling action sequences that will challenge what anyone has seen before: one actor, playing two conflicting characters fighting hand-to-hand, in one singularly ground-breaking cinematic experience. 

This new dimension comes courtesy of Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison’s Skydance, the architects of some of Hollywood’s biggest and most successful event movies of the past five decades, now joining forces to redefine once again the possibilities of what people can experience on a big screen. “I’m so proud of ‘Gemini Man’ and what Ang, Will and the whole team have accomplished with this amazing story. Their artistry – and the incredible technology we’ve only just now been able to harness – have come together to make the kind of film you truly do have to see to believe,” says Ellison.  For Bruckheimer, his latest production is one he describes simply as, “a world-premiere adventure, from a world-premiere director and a world-premiere movie star”. And with it, he will make good on his highest concept ever, via a thrilling original story that stands out against cinema’s current sea of sequels and superheroes thanks to its standalone smarts and sheer sense of scale that has to be seen on the big screen. “This story is a fabulous idea, it really is,” says Bruckheimer. “Being chased by yourself. And not just by yourself, but by the one with all the youth and power…” 

In ‘Gemini Man’, the person being chased is Henry, played by the 51-year-old Will Smith. The person chasing him? That would be Junior, played by a 23-year-old Will Smith. Not a ‘de-aged’ doppelganger but a whole new digital human, a virtual mirror-self who will not just interact with but fight with his older self. 

“What we’re doing here has never been done before,” says Will Smith. “When I saw the first test [that the filmmakers put together as a proof of concept], it was a freaky experience. I mean, it was me. I was looking at the perfect 23-year-old version of myself, like somebody took all the flaws out. It was, like, ‘Damn!’ I mean, when you hear about it, it’s a cool-sounding idea, right? But when you see it, it’s cinematically astounding. When you see it, it gets inside of you. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s what cloning is!’”

The cloning aspect

That cloning aspect is crucial to ‘Gemini Man’, on two levels. On the first, it’s the idea that powers the plot. On the second, it’s what makes that plot even possible. The story centres around Smith’s Henry, a legendary government assassin in the twilight of his career who is haunted by his considerable body of work. When he informs his handlers that he is retiring from active service, Henry finds himself hunted down by the only assassin on the planet with the skills capable of taking him out: a 23-year-old clone of himself, under orders to eliminate the asset by any means possible.

So begins a globe-spanning, epic action-adventure shot in locations as diverse as Savannah, Budapest and Cartagena, in which Henry and Junior engage in close-quarter combat in a series of increasingly thrilling set-pieces that take in motorbike chases, gun battles and a deadly showdown that will test them both equally. Smith has, of course, got vast experience in action movies, but both of his unique performances are astonishingly complex under their killer exterior, Junior struggling to understand his true identity, Henry plagued by the ghosts of his. 

Make no mistake: in ‘Gemini Man’, Smith, collaborating with Ang Lee, widely credited as being one of the best directors of actors the business has ever known, has produced not one but two performances that rank at the very top of a career that has seen him at the very top for four decades and counting. Here are two characters of such depth, inner turmoil and outer aggression that the actor claims he simply couldn’t have played them until now. Certainly, no-one other than Smith could have done them the justice that he does here. As Lee observes of a pair of performances equal parts explosive and existential, “I feel like I have found a new Will Smith.” 

As tough as it gets

What makes Smith’s double-duty even more impressive is that neither one gives him anywhere to hide. Which is exactly how the filmmakers wanted it. “Basically, this movie is as tough as it gets,” says WETA Digital Supervisor Guy Williams. “We opted for an extremely difficult setup, because we knew it would give us the best results. Our take on this is that we don’t want to have to hide. We don’t want to ‘get away’ with anything, to cut any corners to restrict the freedom of a shot to make the visual effects easier. We want to 100 percent, whole hog, commit to a hard result. We have to make you believe [that there are two Will Smiths up on screen at the same time] for 100 percent of the movie.”

As a veteran of the award-winning Kiwi company that has brought to life a menagerie of iconic digital creations, the challenges for Williams were at once technical and emotive. With Lee insisting on shooting at the maximum frame rate of 120 frames per second and in 4K native 3D, ‘Gemini Man’ is the movie equivalent of a magician doing a disappearing act without a single bit of smoke and mirrors. “That’s a decent analogy,” says Williams. “We’re basically on stage naked.”  

And then, of course, there’s the ‘Will Smith factor’ to consider. “You know, we can make a really convincing T-rex, because no-one’s really seen a T-rex,” says Williams. “We can do Planet of The Apes because we have seen apes, but we haven’t seen them talk, so there’s a little bit of wiggle room there. But when it gets to a person, it’s way more difficult. And this isn’t any person we’re talking about, either. This is Will Smith. I know exactly who Will is. We all know exactly who Will is. We’re invested in our knowledge of him. We’ll all know if it works or not.”

For audiences this October, Lee’s decision to shoot simultaneously at the highest frame rate possible and with the most immersive 3D ever seen will, according to technical supervisor Ben Gervais, “provide all the things that Ang wants to deliver for audiences: immersion, intimacy and urgency – all the excitement you want in an action film, but on a whole new level.” On set, the crew had an analogy for how seismic a shift in experience this succession of creative decisions will mean for people watching in theatres. 

“The analogy is that an old movie is like a billboard – it’s detached, it’s over there,” says VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer, pointing into the middle-distance. “But with this, it’s like you’re now standing where the billboard was photographed. You feel like you are there, in there with them. The audience is right in the middle of the action, with the actors.”

For the actors, though, the process required nothing less than learning how to act all over again, sitting down in the purpose-built screening theatre on set to watch test footage and get their heads around the added levels of complexity and authenticity that this format will capture. That meant them having to forego traditional movie make-up, with the cameras now so sharp that they will pick up actual flesh responses that would normally be caked-over with foundation. “In this format, you can see the blood vessels in their face react,” says Gervais.  “And I loved that because it was great to come into something, especially on a big movie, as a woman, that’s totally different from what you would normally experience,” says Mary Elizabeth Winstead of this new approach. “Normally it’s like, ‘Put on all the make-up! Cover her with everything!’ But this is very stripped-down. There’s no pretence about it. It all just needs to be very real. That was very important to Ang – that you don’t see any artifice anywhere. He doesn’t want to see make-up on the skin. He doesn’t want any barrier between the actors and the audience. And, for me, it was certainly less time in the morning [in the make-up chair], which I don’t mind!”

In keeping with Gemini Man’s revolutionary approach, Winstead and the filmmakers pushed to make Danny – the government agent who comes to Henry’s aid in his desperate quest to stay alive – above and beyond the narrative trappings that have so often bogged down the action genre in the past. “It’s why I did it,” says Winstead, who trained for months to execute her biggest ever fight and action sequences. “It’s been refreshing playing a character who is trained, professional, can handle herself and isn’t a ‘love interest’. That was very satisfying.” It was also symptomatic of a production keen to at once provide a stunning cinematic experience and reframe the possibilities of what a cinematic experience can actually be.

“I have put everything I have learned over the years into this,” says Lee of the ethos that has driven the movie he feels he has spent over three decades – from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Brokeback Mountain and Life Of Pi, among many others – understanding how to fully realise. “This is exciting. I realised that over 100 frames per second, that’s where you’re free.” And besides, if for nothing else, “When we get done with this movie, we’ll end up with a perfect 23-year-old avatar of myself,” smiles Smith, the possibilities running through his head. “That’ll be crazy! I’ll be able to make movies with a 23-year-old version of myself…”