One Deadly Bombshell

Who knew Charlize Theron would become one of our best action stars? I noted this recently in my review of The Old Guard 2, but there was a time when that really didn’t seem likely. Theron was an “it girl” in Hollywood, one of the many female starlets that appeared for a few years before the Hollywood suits got enamored with the next pretty face… except instead of fading away to take lesser gigs in indie dramas in the like (as so often happens with many “rising” female stars when the rise eventually ends), Theron reinvented herself. She went from fun “it girl” to bad-ass action star, and it worked.

Obviously Mad Max: Fury Road was the film that really put her on the map. Her turn as Furiosa was an eye opener for audiences, and many suddenly realized that the star (who had been working on reinventing herself over the years in films like Monster, Young Adult, and Prometheus) could handle action. Now, sure, if you’d seen Aeon Flux then you likely would have known that Theron could handle action… but then, how many people actually went and saw Aeon Flux? No, it was Mad Max: Fury Road that sold it, and suddenly Theron seemed like she could handle anything the action genre threw at her.

The next step, then, was finding a movie that could really push her action bona fides forward. This was around the time of John Wick, when the directing duo of Chad Stahelski (credited) and David Leitch (uncredited) showed everyone a fast and propulsive kind of action audiences ate up. Leitch then went off to work on his own projects, and Atomic Blonde was the first thing to cross his plate. A slick, 1980s-set spy film that he could put his signature action spin on, it was the perfect project. He just needed a star, and then Theron signed on and the film suddenly got really interesting…

Set in 1989 in the days leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is sent to Berlin, ostensibly to collect the body of James Gascoigne (Sam Hargrave), a field agent killed by the KGB. In reality, though, her primary mission is to track down and find “the list”, a detailed listing of every field agent working for every agency in the world. Anyone who has that list could name any price they wanted, and any agency that ended up with that list would be able to kill anyone, at any time, because they’d know every undercover operative out there. It’s a ticking time bomb that the British, and by extension the U.S., do not want landing in the wrong hands.

Unfortunately for Lorraine, she’s made by the KGB the second she lands in West Berlin and nearly killed by their operatives. She handily fights her way out of their grasp and is picked up by David Percival (James McAvoy), the MI6 Berlin station chief. However, Lorraine immediately pegs that Percival isn’t entirely on the up-and-up, having gone a bit “native” in Berlin during his time there serving the crown. Plus the list, which Gascoigne had in his possession, has gone missing. Lorraine is going to have to figure out who she can trust, and find a way to get either the list itself, or the man who made it, an agent called Spyglass (Eddie Marsan), so she can finish her mission and get the hell out of Berlin.

Atomic Blonde, based on the graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston, is a very twisty spy thriller. It’s full crosses and double-crosses, agents working against each other even as they’re all supposedly working on the same side. It’s impossible to know who is telling the truth and who is working for their own interests because, deep down, everyone is playing their own angles. It’s a film that keeps you guessing and never lets you feel comfortable with the story. At each turn, whenever it feels like you have a handle on what’s going to happen, everything twists again.

The story alone makes Atomic Blonde a compelling watch, but it’s what Leitch does with the film that really pushes it over the top. For starters, his team took the script and turned it into a lush, decadent, 1980s synthwave paradise. West Berlin is decorated in bright neons, washed in blues and purples, giving everything a very specific, very interesting feel. It’s the 1980s as filtered through a modern lens (as the actual 1980s didn’t look anywhere near this cool), giving the film a feel closer to John Wick in style than your average espionage thriller.

It also constantly assaults you with 1980s pop music. Lorraine battles bad guys in a car to “Blue Monday”. She walks the streets of Berlin scored by tracks like “I Ran (So Far Away)” and “99 Luftballons”. Every scene has a great musical hook, and solid song backing her action. The music sets the tone for the film, not only getting you into the 1980s vibes but also giving the movie a propulsive energy as the thumping pop beats constantly assault you (in a good way). This movie absolutely bathes you in 1980s pop music, and it rocks.

But it’s the action where the film really shines. The film has a ton of great setpieces for Theron, starting with the car fight early in the film. This is followed by a fantastic brawl in an apartment with Lorraine taking out six dudes before throwing herself out of a window and swinging down via a hose. The crowing sequence, though, is a long, 10-minute, one continuous shot fight in East Berlin where Lorraine takes on a steady stream of KGB agents, brawling her way up and down through an apartment building before taking to the streets in a car only for the sequence to continue as a chase. It’s absolutely ludicrous and totally worth the price of admission.

All of this is brought together by fantastic performances from Theron and McAvoy. Theron commands the screen, ruling every scene she’s in. She plays the tough as nails MI6 agent so well, giving her depth and vulnerability, when needed, while also playing cool, collecting, and aggressively combative in any scene that calls for it. She plays all facets of the character, turning Lorraine into a character you care about even when you aren’t sure you can trust her. McAvoy, meanwhile, plays such a great weasel. In fact, I think his performance as the slimy Percival is part of what sells the story so well. Lorraine seems so put together and Percival is such a mess that the film leans you towards one narrative even while things in the background could point you in a different direction. The film is all about misdirecting, and both leads sell so many aspects of it so well.

Really, I have nothing bad to say about Atomic Blonde at all. Usually I tear into films, good or bad, just to try and find something I can pick at and discuss, but it’s hard to find anything bad to say about this film. It’s an action movie so it’s not going to be for everyone, but anyone wanting to see Atomic Blonde likely already knows that this film is absolutely stuffed to the gills with great action. The fact that there’s fantastic design, a solid soundtrack, and a twisty story all on top only makes this film even better. I’d show up just for the action alone, but I’ll feast on all that Atomic Blonde has to offer.

So yeah, this film is great. If you haven’t seen Atomic Blonde already you really should. And then maybe, some day, the sequel or crossover or whatever the production team has in the works comes out and we can spend more time with Theron kicking all kinds of ass in the 1980s or 1990s or whenever she wants to.