The particular film I am writing about in this review I didn't even know existed until I saw an online review on YouTube done by Brad Jones and Rob Walker as part of Jones' ongoing "Midnight Screenings" review series. Intrigued, I sought out a trailer for the film and was frankly flabbergasted by what the film turned out to be. A Die Hard rip-off set during an active shooter situation in a high school. I immediately had two very conflicting feelings: 1. This seems really tasteless and 2. I kind of wanted to see it. The distribution model for this movie is really interesting too, it's only available through The Daily Wire website to their subscribers. Not really wanting to give The Daily Wire money, I was able to procure a copy to watch through other means. What unfolded was the slice of B-movie exploitation filmmaking I was expecting and one with some very curious and problematic storytelling choices at that.
Zoe Hull (played by Isabel May) lives with her father, Todd (played by Thomas Jane), and is trying to recover from the death of her mother, Jennifer (played by Radha Mitchell). The film opens with the two of them going deer hunting together, apparently before school, in a scene that is obviously foreshadowing what is to come. The beginning of the film is loaded with exposition as the pieces are put into place for the action to kick off. Zoe and her best fried Lewis (played by Olly Sholotan), witness a fellow student dragging some thing from his white van into a field as they drive to school. A short time later, during their lunch period, that same van is driven straight into the cafeteria and we are introduced to our villains, led by the aforementioned student, Tristan (played by Eli Brown). The three other shooters are Kip (played by Cyrus Arnold), Chris (played by Britton Sear) and Chris' sister Anna (played by Catherine Davis). Tristan, Kip and Chris open fire on several classmates and take the remainder hostage, forcing the students to livestream the carnage. Meanwhile, Anna uses a set of keys to the school to disable the phone and fire alarm systems. During all of this, Zoe is in the nearby bathroom with the chaos somehow drowned out by a hand dryer. Once she does realize what is happening, she is able to narrowly avoid detection by hiding in the drop ceiling and making her way over the heating vents to the kitchen and eventually out of the school. Once outside, she realizes it's up to her to get her fellow students to safety and call for help. She goes back into the school and sets about trying to clear path for all the other classes to get out safely (because somehow they've remained oblivious to what is going on in the school), and in the process forced to take out each of the shooters one at a time.
In the pantheon of Die Hard clones, the concept of Die Hard at a school is nothing new. The Sean Astin/Wil Wheaton/Keith Coogan starring Toy Soldiers is probably the best of the bunch. What this movie does though is apply that scenario to the very real and very disturbing trend of school shootings with some decidedly trashy results. Kyle Rankin directs the film with a certain amount of skill and executes the action sequences reasonably well. From a storytelling perspective the film does make some curious choices with a rather underwritten script written by the film's director. The film has several moments where it might be going a bit deeper and make actual points on active shooter scenarios, such as with inane school protocols or unarmed school security guards only to unceremoniously drop them and go the other way. This is particularly surprising since this is the first film distributed by the Conservative News Site The Daily Wire. The film also spouts several right-wing catch phrases, but assigns the majority of them to the main villain Tristan, such as him shouting mockingly "Trigger Warning" and laughing after blowing away another student or remarking, "I guess it is easy to build a wall." after forcing the students to barricade the windows and hole in the wall of the cafeteria with the lunch tables. Again, considering where this film is coming from, it makes for a surprising bit of mixed messaging. On top of that, the film is set on Senior Prank Day, so Zoe has to repeatedly insist this isn't a prank and there really is an active shooter scenario playing out to every class she encounters until the bombs start going off and the school actually goes into lockdown. It also leads to a memorable sequence where Zoe has to fight off one of the shooters in a teacher's lounge filled with balloons. It's possibly the most unintentionally hilarious fight scene since Jean Claude Van Damme fought a terrorist disguised as Pittsburgh Penguins mascot Iceburgh in Sudden Death.
The acting in the film is actually pretty solid. Isabel May is impressive as the resourceful and determined Zoe. She really does a fantastic job conveying her character's struggles as well as her strength and intelligence as she deals with the unfolding crisis before her. Eli Brown swings for the fences in his rather over the top role as main villain Tristan, cribbing heavily from the the likes of Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber from Die Hard and John Malkovich's Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom from Con Air and for the most part succeeds with what he's given in a woefully underwritten part. The problem is the film never really gives the villains a motive for their actions. All four of them are presented as misfits and bullying is vaguely referenced too, but the why they decide to turn their school into a war zone is never particularly elaborated on, which is frustrating as a viewer. Thomas Jane gets a couple good moments in the film in a supporting role as Zoe's Dad including a pretty cool moment when, growing frustrated with the police's inaction, grabs his hunting rifle and helps his daughter himself from a sniper perch outside the school. Treat Williams turns up as the local Sheriff who takes control of the Police action outside the school and does reasonably well with what he's given by the film's script, and actually is a reasonably competent lawman, which is something of a rarity for movies like this. Radha Mitchell, in one of the film's more curious narrative choices, appears at various points throughout the film to Zoe as her mother's helpful ghost encouraging and helping her daughter along through the ordeal. Whether she is an actual ghost or just Zoe's imagination is left up to the viewer to decide.
Overall, Run Hide Fight, which takes it's title from the directions students are given on how to respond to an active shooter scenario, is probably not worth getting too up in arms about. Yes, the set up for this movie is pretty tacky and tasteless, but it is also such a shallow affair that there is very little beyond that to get upset about. Sure, there is plenty of shocking violence and a very unpleasant scene where Tristan forces a female teacher to disrobe for his own amusement, but at the same time it's all pretty standard action thriller nastiness. Against the backdrop of the very real current trend of school violence, the film feels all the more pointless as it really doesn't seem interested in taking any sort of position or make any sort of point on the subject matter at hand which makes for a decidedly cynical and nihilistic viewing experience. I suppose one can gleam a certain degree of perverse enjoyment in seeing a capable heroine take out a group of narcissistic teenage psychos, but seeing this sort of thing play out far more tragically and far too frequently on the evening news doesn't really lend itself to popcorn entertainment either.
