86 Minutes, Color, USA/Australia, 2000
Written By: Paul Bales, David Michael Latt, David Rimawi
& Sherri Strain
Directed By: Colin Budds
Dramatis Personae:
Michael
Landes is Max Knight, freelance cyborg
super-spy with a vast array of gadgetry and a wit drier than the Serengeti.
Rachel
Blakely plays dual roles: she is Ricki Daily,
technologically-impaired damsel in distress; and she is Claire, MaxÕs super-efficient
AI assistant; Moneypenny to MaxÕs Bond, only slightly on the creepy side.
Brooke
Harmon is Lindsey Daily, RickiÕs younger
sister, girl genius and kidnap victim.
Christopher Morris is Zachary Kahn,
aka DXM, evil computer genius and Mark McGrath impersonator, with a plan for
world domination so impractical that Doctor Evil would blush.
Anja Coleby is Tyler, DXMÕs lieutenant, a
pierced and tattooed Amazon killing machine.
Commentary:
IÕve spoken elsewhere about the thorny
legacy of Indiana Jones. Often imitated but never duplicated, because imitators
seem to be missing the point, latching on to the wrong aspect of the character
and thus falling short. But this is not the only beloved action-movie hero that
this happens to on a regular basis. Indeed, if thereÕs any character with a
thornier legacy than Indiana Jones, it has to be James Bond. The character
started out on solid enough footing: the super-suave, super-cool super-spy,
thwarting bad guys in exotic locales, armed with guile, dry wit, and the
occasional cool spy gadget. Unfortunately, as was the case with Indiana Jones,
the many imitators latched on to the wrong thing: focusing more on spectacle
and less on theme. Specifically, the super-cool spy gadgetry: as spy movies
evolved, there was less emphasis on the gritty reality of international
espionage and more on the cool secret weapons that could save the day in
spectacular fashion. The Bond movies themselves were guilty of this, growing
increasingly ridiculous and self-parodying as they progressed. This is why the
recent rebooting of the Bond movie continuity was met with such praise: it was
a return to the character of James Bond as a ruthless tough guy, relying more
on his wits than on wristwatch lasers or night-vision goggles.
That being said, Max Knight: Ultra Spy can be viewed as a
logical conclusion to this process: a spy with nothing BUT gadgets. If nothing
else, it would be a curiosity on an anthropological levelÉbut it also happens
to be a fun movie, flawed, but enjoyable sci-fi fluff.
An ÒUltra Spy,Ó according to our movie, is a
freelance spy for hire in the not-to-distant future. Ultra Spy clientele
include large tech corporations seeking to counteract industrial espionage. We
join our protagonist, the Ultra Spy Max Knight, on the job, breaking into the
Play-Tek Corporation to steal back a stolen experimental microchip. As he does
so, we get to see his many super-spy gadgets in action; a personal cloaking
device, a pair of sunglasses with a built-in HUD, and a direct real-time link
with Claire, his artificially intelligent assistant. Armed with these and many
others, and guided by Claire, Max easily penetrates Play-TekÕs security system
and recovers the chip, leaving his calling card behind. Unfortunately, the chip
had already been scanned and copied by the unscrupulous head of Play-Tek, who
relays both this and the news of the theft to his boss, a vague personage
calling himself DXM.
Later, Max regroups at home with Claire, who
reports what she has learned about the stolen microchip. ItÕs remarkably
complex – so complex, in fact that it could potentially mimic human
thought processes. In fact, with enough of these chips and enough power to make
it work, it would be theoretically possible to ÒuploadÓ a human mind into cyberspace.
Max is somewhat fascinated by the possibilities; since heÕs programmed Claire
to be his perfect woman, the thought of actually meeting her face to face is a
thing to speculate upon. But this speculation is cut short, as MaxÕs batteries
are running low. Literally: Max has a super high-tech pacemaker implanted in
his chest that he must plug in while he sleeps (this is explained later in the
film, though not to any great detail).
Meanwhile, at a local university, Ricki Daily
goes to meet her sister Lindsey at her lab. At the age of sixteen, Lindsey is a
physics genius, and she has just discovered a new element, ÒElement 120,Ó which
she believes to be a potential clean energy source. She has little time to
celebrate this breakthrough, however, because she is immediately abducted by
the leather-clad Tyler and her pair of Harajuku-esque minions (you may be
tempted to make an ÒEvil Spice GirlsÓ joke at this point, but believe or not
the movie does it for you later). Unable to save her sister, the distraught Ricki
asks one of LindseyÕs lab assistants what she should do. He suggests contacting
Max Knight. As an Ultra Spy, he has resources the police do not, and Max is
allegedly the best Ultra Spy there is. Unfortunately the initial contact does
not go well: nervous and ill-equipped to deal with the virtual reality
interview, Ricki gets the brush-off from Claire. But she does get MaxÕs
attention: physically she is virtually identical to Claire, for reasons neither
of them can explain. Given his slightly creepy crush on his virtual assistant,
Max is fascinated by the possibility of meeting her flesh-and-blood
doppelganger, and so resolves to take the case.
Meanwhile, Lindsey regains consciousness in an
abandoned military installation somewhere outside the city. Her host introduces
himself: former boy genius Zachary Kahn. Zack lays out to Lindsey his master
plan: he views the Internet as the only truly free society, and he has plans to
create a cyber-utopia. He has gathered together a group of devoted follows –
his ÒAvatarsÓ – and he plans to engineer a mass exodus, a mass upload of
human minds into Cyberspace, enabling them to truly to live free of judgment or
censorship. All he needs is a powerful enough energy source to make it work,
and this is where Lindsey and Element 120 come in. Moved by his passion, and
flattered by his attention, Lindsey agrees to help him, and tell him that her
research notes are on a disc back at her sisterÕs house. Zack dispatches Tyler
and her girls to care of things, and they arrive at RickiÕs place at almost the
exact time Max does. The ensuing scuffle leaves both the house and the disc
destroyed. This sets ZackÕs agenda back a little, and so he lets Lindsey use
his supercomputer to rebuild her work, and dispatches Tyler to inform the Avatars
of the delay.
Meanwhile Max and Ricki have regrouped at his
place, where Max has tracked TylerÕs DXM tattoo to an underground club where
she and the other Avatars hang out. They arrive just in time to hear Tyler
deliver her message, and in time to see her single-handedly dispatch the police
offers sent to break up this illegal party. An attempt to tail Tyler back to
DXMÕs hideout leads to a running battle at a shopping mall, which drains MaxÕs
pacemaker battery to dangerous levels. Ricki alone is no match for Tyler and
her goons, and she is taken prisoner while Max struggles to find a compatible
power source to recharge himself.
By this time, Lindsey has completed her
processing, and has begun producing Element 120 in the quantity Zack requires
for his plan. Also by this time, Lindsey begins to get an inkling as to ZackÕs
real intentions. Element 120 is a clean and powerful energy source, yes, but
only if properly contained. It will become dangerously flammable if exposed to
oxygen, so much so that it could potentially burn off the planetÕs atmosphere.
Of course, that poses no threat to DXM and his followers once theyÕve uploaded
themselves into Cyberspace, but as to human governments and authorities for
which DXM has made his contempt abundantly clear, wellÉwho needs the old world
when youÕve got a brave new one? With Ricki captured and Lindsey about to
outlive her usefulness, itÕs up to Max to recharge and save the day.
Make no mistake, Max Knight: Ultra Spy is a very silly movie.
Made for UPN in the early 2000s as a backdoor pilot for a possible TV series,
it doesnÕt aim all that high. But itÕs certainly entertaining, and it has some
surprising moments of cleverness. There was clearly a lot of thought put into
the plot and the details of the world the movie takes place in, or at least
more thought that youÕd expect to see in a backdoor pilot.
Case in point, Max Knight himself. As I said
previously, the character of Max Knight is a sort of logical end-point to a
spy-movie trend. With more and more emphasis on cool toys and less on
character, the inevitable end product is a spy character that has the coolest
toys imaginable, and no personality to speak of. Max is not suave, witty, or
particularly tough. In fact heÕs quite shy and unassuming when heÕs not out
saving the world. His house is a futuristic bachelor pad, pristine and sterile,
as much a sanctuary from the outside world as it is a base of operations. It
conjures up the image of a late-1990s dot-com millionaire, a geek with money
who buys himself a really cool place, but has no companions to share it with.
The closest thing to a friend he has is Claire, whom heÕs programmed to be his
perfect woman; she will always look good, will do all the housekeeping and will
complement him when he feels down. You wouldnÕt be surprised if Max had never
so much as talked to a real woman before Ricki came along. You never had that
feeling with 007. James Bond may not have had the cybernetic uplink gear, but
at least he could romance a woman, and offer her more than stale Chee-tos when
she came to visit. ItÕs worth pointing out that Michael Landes, perhaps one of
the blandest actors alive, was an inspired piece of casting as Max Knight. His
trademark woodenness and deadpan delivery actually works to his favor, as this
time he plays a character whoÕs SUPPOSED to look uncomfortable in his own skin.
There are a lot of clever little touches
abounding in the movie, as it plugs into that millennial zeitgeist that produced films
like The Matrix and Fight Club. ItÕs hard to actually describe it, but
Max Knight: Ultra Spy just FEELS like it belongs there. The way
characters speak and dress, the choice of incidental music, the technological
set dressingsÉit all conjures up a potent image of where people thought society
might have been heading. ItÕs almost like Blade RunnerÕs little punk brother.
Max is something of the incarnation of the Òcyber-bubbleÓ fear that began to
take shape at the time this movie was made: his gadgets make him good at his
job, but they also imprison him, separating him emotionally from the world
(itÕs implied that one of the reasons for his antisocial behavior is
sensitivity about his bionic heart; but again, not much is made of this
detail). Meanwhile DXM and Tyler, with their piercings and tattoos and
outlandish clothes, are incarnations of the late-1990s Alternative subculture
that was starting to coalesce – and even gain a measure of respectability
– at that point. The fact that an evil mastermind could look like that is
enough to show how far weÕve come from the days of sophisticated supervillains
who wear fine European suits and have dueling scars. DXM is not going to trade bon-mots with Max Knight over a
nice dinner; neither of them are THAT kind of smart. Even DXMÕs master plan, as
convoluted and impractical as it is, feels like it belongs here, speaking to
the untapped potential, and potential fears people had, of this here new
fangled Inter-Web technology.
And of course, like any science-fiction movie, Max
Knight: Ultra Spy suffers from unintentional comedy when you see these
magnificent technological marvels OF THE FUTURE! And realize just how many of
them are either obsolete now, just a few scant years afterwards, or simply
didnÕt pan out at all. Such as the CD that Lindsey keeps her research notes on.
Okay, CDs arenÕt QUITE obsolete yet, but USB drives have pretty much replaced
them for the kind of work Lindsey would be doing (mainly because a USB drive
wonÕt crack or warp when, say, your Amazonian thug tucks it into her bustier
for safe-keeping during a getaway). Or when DXM presents his organic
supercomputer to Lindsey, and brags about its SEVEN terabyte capacity. Wow.
Really, Zack? SEVEN whole terabytes? YouÕre going to blow up the world with
THAT? I know people with more than that in MUSIC! ItÕs just really funny in
retrospect.
Alas, as clever as the ideas behind the film
are, there are some flaws in the presentation. Director Colin Budds, who works
predominately in Australian television, doesnÕt seem to be able to action very
well. Chase sequences are confusing and difficult to follow, as are the fight
sequences when Max and Tyler finally have it out. There are some instances
where the film just seems to be trying too hard to be hip and topical, with
random references to the Spice Girls and the Teletubbies and so forth, which
just further muddies the issue of WHEN this story is supposed to be taking
place. A few years in the future? Modern day, just beyond the view of the
average person? ItÕs hard to tell. And that leads to yet another nitpick, with
the character of Ricki, who apparently just doesnÕt GET computers. Considering
how rare a thing it is even TODAY to find a person who demonstrates the level
of computer illiteracy that Ricki does, itÕs hard to swallow that someone like
her could even EXIST in the futuristic world she inhabits. I suppose itÕs meant
to be symbolic on some level: Ricki is the one who pulls Max out of his
cyber-bubble and into the real world, so it makes sense that she needs to be
removed from the technology. Even still, itÕs really hard to accept.
Once again, with Max Knight: Ultra Spy, we have an
interesting failure. A film with some goods ideas behind it, but lacking the
execution to fully realize them. Even still, itÕs fun to watch, and the same
canÕt be said for all the other interesting failures out there. And as I said,
itÕs an interesting artifact of the spy-movie trend, a place where spy movies
COULD have gone, had they continued down this path. Whether or not it was a
good thing that they didnÕt is a matter of personal opinion, I suppose. But
itÕs still fun to watch.
Things To Look For:
- One of the
aforementioned touches in Max Knight: Ultra Spy is the presence of
ÒHackish.Ó ItÕs a language that the Avatars speak to one another in. It has a
lot in common with nadsat: an invented language of slang terms for
future young people. And like nadsat, it makes perfect
sense once you listen to it closely. Even if you donÕt get the exact meaning of
the words, you can get the sense of it. Consisting of slang, technical jargon,
and deliberate mispronunciations, Hackish is pretty much what ÒLeetÓ would
sound like if it ever mutated into a spoken language (and that is the day I
finally snap and start hitting random people with dictionaries). ItÕs one of
those well-thought-out details that makes the movie seem a lot better.
- Max Knight: Ultra
Spy
was filmed in Australia, so many of the main cast members are Australians
putting on accents (and IÕve seen enough Sci-Fi Channel originals to spot an
Australian pretending to be American at a hundred yardsÉor meters, I guess).
This represents a trend in the late 1990s of filming and casting
action-adventure television shows in Australia and neighboring New Zealand,
shows like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior
Princess, and The Lost World, which also happened to star Rachel Blakely.
Thanks to these shows, I have come to believe that the Southern Hemisphere is
full of really, really good-looking people. I choose to maintain this delusion,
and I would thank anyone who knows differently to keep that to yourself.
- As if in counterpoint
to the little touches that make the movie work, there is a strange digression
toward the end of the movie. As Max pursues DXM through Cyberspace, he suddenly
finds himself trapped in a game of Half-Life. Hunh? What is THAT
about? Did Sierra Studios sponsor this movie or something? Talk about trying
too hard to be hipÉ
- There is also an
amusing running gag throughout the movie. MaxÕs personal cloaking device
malfunctions early on in his mission, and he is on hold with tech support for
nearly the entire duration of the movie (and they ultimately canÕt even solve
his problem). I guess even in the future some things just donÕt workÉ
Written words (c) 2009-2010 Tim o'Brien. Not to be used without
permission. Other content, including images, is intended as a Fair Use pursuant
to 17 U.S.C. sec. 107.
Date Posted: August 30th, 2009
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