Director Adam Wingard is back. After spending the past several years with Godzilla and King Kong, the director of You’re Next, The Guest, and Blair Witch has returned with the kind of films that made him famous in the first place: grounded, badass action with a genre twist. He’s once again teamed up with writer Simon Barrett for Onslaught, which will be out September 4, and the first trailer looks properly insane.
Onslaught stars Adria Arjona (Andor) as a retired Army sniper who just wants to live a quiet life with her daughter. That’s going to be tough, though, when “a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers” (as per the official studio description) escapes from a nearby secret base.
In addition to Arjona, Wingard has loaded up with a bunch of action icons. So, yes, that’s Die Hard’s own Reginald VelJohnson at the end of the trailer. That’s also James Cameron’s muse, Michael Biehn, in there. MMA legend Alex Pereira is a pretty formidable bad guy. Rebecca Hall returns from Godzilla v. Kong duty. Dan Stevens returns from not just Godzilla v. Kong but The Guest as well.
And yet it really feels like this trailer doesn’t even scratch the surface. Arjona’s character and her daughter are clearly the main focus of the action, but so much of what we see here doesn’t involve them. There are lots of sinister things about this Drew Starkey character, plenty of guns and explosions, but not as clear a picture of how this sniper character fits in. Why is she living in the desert? What happened to her? Where’s the father? How did she become so good?
We guess we’ll have to wait until September 4 to find out. And, while we think the Godzilla x Kong movies are okay, it’s just great to have Wingard back to doing what he does best: stylized action with fun characters and unique settings.
Are you excited for Onslaught? Let us know.
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