By: Andrew Wing

Spiderhead is a 2022 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Top Gun: Maverick), with a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland, Deadpool), based on the dystopian short story “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders and first published in The New Yorker. The film stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Endgame), Miles Teller (Whiplash, Top Gun: Maverick), and Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey, Lovecraft Country).

The story follows inmates in a luxurious prison who participate in experiments involving mind-altering drugs. Principal photography took place in Australia in 2020.

Spiderhead premiered in Sydney on June 11, 2022, and was released on Netflix on June 17, 2022.

THE GOOD

I never thought it’d be over a month after the release of Spiderhead that I’d finally watch it and review it, but hey life gets in the way sometimes. Nevertheless, I finally got to check out this science fiction psychological thriller, which by the way is basically my two favorite genres rolled into one, from the great yet underrated Joseph Kosinski. I love Kosinski. I’ve seen all of his films, and I’m assuming most people reading this saw his other film that came out earlier this year, a little film by the name of Top Gun: Maverick (see Ted’s full review here) that just recently entered into the top twenty of highest-grossing films of all time at $1.29 billion. Other than Kosinski’s inclusion though, its cast was led by two of my favorite actors at the moment in Miles Teller and the God of thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth who is having himself quite the summer with this, and Thor: Love and Thunder (see Ted’s full review here). That said, was my love for all the guy’s included in this enough to make me actually enjoy the movie? Keep reading to find out!

It wasn’t great, but I still enjoyed it. This movie was interesting, there was a lot to take away from this, and while I don’t think it was Joseph Kosinski’s best work, I still appreciated what he went for with this. He built this world with incredible scale, but more than that, he kept me intrigued from start to finish which says a lot. As I said, I am a big fan of his, and he has clearly already shown he can do these big-budget IP movies like the two I referenced in the intro, but it was great to see some diversity from him with this. This was something totally new from him, and while I don’t think he crushed it, he still gave us a good product and he stood out. All in all, Kosinski continues to show us that he is here to stay, and is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today.

Next with the screenplay we got here from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. I won’t lie, the screenplay wasn’t perfect which I will go into more detail about later in the review, but it is extremely hard to make a film out of a short story. That’s a tall task, but they pulled it off and pulled it off rather well. The screenplay in this movie was engaging, and thrilling, and kept me locked in and wanting more. I was fully invested in all of the characters and I wanted to see where this journey led them, and that is the main thing I think writers go for with anything they write. I just can’t wait to see what these two guys write next because they continue to build themselves up quite the resume.

Now onto the performances we got in Spiderhead. It’s only right that I start with Chris Hemsworth because I thought he stole the show here. I absolutely love Chris Hemsworth and he is a big reason why Thor is my favorite Marvel superhero. That said, as much as I love him in those movies, I am going to need more of this from Hemsworth. He is way too often typecast, people forget that he can act, but that’s okay because he shows us here. I loved everything about his performance here. His range was wild as we got to see him play the devilish antagonist of a scientist in Spiderhead and he just did a fantastic job!

Next with Miles Teller, an actor I truly adore. I really don’t think Teller has ever had a bad role, and yes I know he was in the Divergent film series and also the terrible remake of Footloose, but I thought his performances in those movies were good. His favorite performance of mine though was undoubtedly in Whiplash back in 2014, and I just can’t get enough of the guy. I don’t know what more there is to say about him. I was buying everything he was selling here, maybe except for the part where he fought well against Hemsworth, but in all seriousness, he was funny at times, and he also crushed it in the more dramatic scenes where he was either breaking down emotionally or going toe-to-toe with Hemsworth’s evil character.

As for the technical elements of Spiderhead, it didn’t skip a beat. I mentioned the scale of the film when talking about Kosinski, but it was legit. The film takes place in the most luxurious prison you’ll ever see, so with that said, shoutout to the production design team on this. Also shoutout to the cinematographer Claudio Miranda who has gotten Academy Award nominations in the past for films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Life of Pi, two beautiful films. And lastly, this film has a rocking soundtrack full of deep cuts, so if you need a reason to check this flick out, there it is!

THE BAD

Time for the not-so-fun part of the review. Now I liked Spiderhead, there is no debating that. I respect what Kosinski and his writers were going for, and I have no bad things to say about the acting performances we got, but there was one thing that really hurt the film in my opinion. And that was just really the entire second half of the film. The film’s premise was weird, but despite that, I was feeling the premise at first and I was locked in. But right towards the halfway point, you could feel the film losing momentum, and that ultimately led to the ending falling completely flat, and that was really unfortunate and disappointing. I don’t know why, but I just think whoever called the shots at the end of the day wanted to play it safe, and I will talk a bit more about what I thought were some undercooked ideas the film had in the next couple of paragraphs.

I also just have to get this off my chest, but Spiderhead felt eerily similar to one of my favorite films from last decade, Ex Machina from Alex Garland. I absolutely loved that movie, and a big reason was because of how much of a sci-fi it was. And to get back to the undercooked ideas quip I had with Spiderhead, it was definitely more of a mystery thriller than science fiction, and I really think it would have been better if they included more science fiction elements into the movie.

To continue, I just think this movie had so much untapped potential. As I have stated a couple of times in this review, this film is based on the dystopian short story “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders which was first published in The New Yorker. Don’t get me wrong, I give this movie a lot of credit for what they put together, but the simple truth is that it is very hard to adapt a short story into a full feature-length film. It’s a tough thing to do, and while I haven’t read the short story yet myself, after reading other critic reviews it seems like there was a lot of cool stuff from the story that didn’t get used as much as people had hoped.

THE VERDICT

Despite a lackluster second half due to a loss of momentum, Spiderhead was still an interesting, engaging watch from Joseph Kosinski with very solid performances from Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller, and an incredible soundtrack full of bangers.