Adapted from the 2016 short film bearing the same title, Code 8 adds yet another iteration to the people-with-powers genre. Written and directed by Jeff Chan, this Canadian science fiction film on Netflix successfully balances a contemporary metaphor with the requisite action and plot complexities of the genre.
Faux and vintage newsreel make up the intro to Code 8 which provides a brief history of the late 19th and early 20th century contributions that powered people have made to society. Employed as construction workers, factory labor, miners, longshoremen, etc., in jobs that required physical strength, much like the masses of immigrant labor in North America during the same time period, the powered people of Code 8 were vital. A frustrated non contemporaneous voice over states that powered people were also doctors and nurses and helped build society.
However, the powered people in Code 8, unlike those in the X-Men or The Avengers, are not super powered or mutants, they are specifically super gifted. Brawns are much stronger than regular folk, electrics can create and project electricity from their bodies, healers heal with a prolonged touch. Some powered can read minds or have virtually impenetrable skin while others can produce extreme heat or freeze objects they touch. Telekinetic abilities are also common. It’s easy to see why any of these powers would be useful and valued before the technological revolution produced better machines to replace the powered or the immigrant labor force.
The intro leads us to present day 21st century Lincoln City where the powered have become a feared population in need of cataloging and control. Use of their powers is illegal unless a very expensive permit has been granted. Many powered wait outside designated locations to get picked up as day laborers, not unlike the manner by which undocumented immigrants in many American communities have found work over the past decades. Armored drones patrol the skies to monitor the powered and can drop heavily armed robotic “guardians” at any time. As such, powered people must get by any way they can. Some have chosen a life of crime by dealing a drug called psyke or by selling their spinal fluid as the key component of the drug.
Connor Reed, played by Robbie Amell, is a Class 2 Electric who works odd construction jobs. He lives with his mom, played poignantly by Kari Matchett, who works in a grocery store despite her terminal illness. Connor’s dad, also an electric, died when he was a boy. His mom’s power to freeze objects has become weak and unpredictable from her failing health and jeopardizes her job. Times are tough. Having lost one job and unable to find another to help pay for his mom’s medical expenses, he accepts work as an electric from Garrett Kent, played by Stephen Amell of Arrow, to aid psyke dealers.
It is not a misprint. In the real world Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell are paternal cousins, both beautiful and both buff.
After their first job Garrett sees that Connor has far more potential than he realizes and offers him a chance to make a lot more money on a bank heist. Connor accepts the job and subsequent training from Garrett to bolster his powers.
Here the movie weaves in an out of sub plots and supporting character back stories that reveal their motivation for entering into crime. This is also where the movie relies on predictable subplots and confrontations that would be dramatically more powerful if spoken softly. The “good cop bad cop” cliche´ is poorly executed, without a believable relationship between the cops or fully realized motivations for their attitudes.
While Code 8 is cast well, and generally well acted, the casting of the Amell cousins, who bear such an obvious resemblance to each other, is questionable unless that resemblance is going to be worked into the story. Also, director Jeff Chan should have noticed that in many places the actors need to “take the air out of their lines” to give the scenes the necessary natural quality of real dialogue.
The use of special effects in the movie, while limited, are well balanced within the created world of Code 8. The guardians that drop from the drones are menacing, deadly and believable, as are the drones.
While not providing any answers to the role of different or powered people in society, Code 8 is an interesting metaphorical premise that unnecessarily stumbles in places but is nonetheless an engaging contribution to the genre.
