CBR has an exclusive first look at Safe House, Vertical’s new action thriller starring Thunderbolts* star Hannah John-Kamen and Mortal Kombat’s Lewis Tan. It will be released on Oct. 31.
The suspensful film‘s logline teases six government agents finding themselves trapped in a high-security safe house after a terrorist attack, and they soon realize they must not only survive the enemy outside — but the potential traitor among them. In CBR’s exclusive clip, the terrifying ambush on the vice president’s motorcade takes place, leaving downtown Los Angeles in utter ruin. Secret Service agent Choi (Tan) narrowly escapes and retreats to the safe house, where he is later joined by other survivors, including John-Kamen’s Department of Defense specialist Owens.
After the events of the ambush, tensions only get higher as Safe House’s plot develops. Locked in the safe house with communication lines down, accusations between the survivors begin to fly and trust withers away. It turns out that each of the agents has their own classified mission, a murky past, or a hidden agenda. When it is revealed that the detonator signal came from inside the safe house, their suspicions turn into all-out violence.
With armed operatives ready to breach the safe house’s walls, the group must quickly decide to join forces or tear each other apart in what turns out to be a high-stakes battle for survival where no one can be trusted. In addition to John-Kamen and Tan, Safe House also stars Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris), Holt McCallany (Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), Ethan Embry (Eagle Eye) and MIchael Bradway (Marked Men: Rule+Shaw).
Safe House’s Actors Did All Their Own Stunts
Characters look mistrustingly at each other in Vertical’s Safe House.Vertical
CBR’s exclusive clip teases the explosive action that will unfold in Safe House, and the film’s director, Jamie Marshall, teased how all the actors performed their own stunts for the production. “The first thing I said to them was, ‘By the way, we don’t have any stunt doubles in this movie,'” he said. “They were like, ‘Yeah! I want to do that!’ Our stunt coordinator, Arnold Chon, was just terrific teaching these actors. They all knocked it out of the park.”
The film marks Marshall’s directorial debut, but he built his career on action film sets with credits including Immortals, Olympus Has Fallen and many others. He also opened up about how important believability was to him for the film’s story. “It was important that we try to push the line to like ‘This could really happen,'” Marshall shared. Before filming, he met with therapists who work with veterans to help inform the characters. “We also had an advisor on the movie who had been part of the CIA,” he added.
As for Safe House’s themes, Marshall talked about what fans can expect beyond the entertaining high-stakes energy. “It’s an action-packed thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and taps into today’s political climate,” Marshall said. “It’s also a story of survival about the common good of people coming together.”
Safe House will be released by Vertical on Oct. 31.