Run Hide Fight

"Pitch me your film idea."

"It's a 2021 take on Die Hard."

"Okay, those types of films are always popular. Die Hard on a plane? Ship, train, hotel? Where's it set?"

"It's set in a school. During a school shooting."

"..................oh jesus"

"No, no, listen, it's a unique angle. The protagonist is a girl, a student. She's guided by visions of her dead mother. She channels her grief into action"

"..............."

"And she can handle a gun well."

"Ok. I'm listening."

"The Red States will love it. It shows that guns can be the answer to violence."

"Sold! Here's your money. Let's make a right wing wet dream."

The above may not have happened but when you watch Run Hide Fight your mind will be spinning trying to figure out how this was greenlit.

Life's been tough on Zoe (Isabel May) since cancer took her mother Jennifer (Radha Mitchell) and she's drifted into aimlessness, something noticed by her ex soldier father Todd (Thomas Jane), her teachers and her best friend Lewis (Olly Sholotan). School's a drag and she wants out, away from home and everyone she knows, hoping college might bring a fresh start. She's about to be jolted out of her funk sooner than she realises though when a van crashes into her school cafeteria and a deranged gang of gun toting students start gunning down faculty and friends. Led by the alienated Tristan (Eli Brown) they want to cause maximum mayhem and as the carnage is live streamed to an appalled outside world, inside Zoe decides to fight back using the skills her father taught her.

Oh man, this one is in bad taste. The set up is sound, one that's been done dozens of times before. Lone warrior fights back against the odds and battles with their own demons in the process but setting it against a backdrop of a modern day, real life horror will always leave a bad taste in your mouth. Add in a very unambiguous stance on US gun control and you have a story that seems morally reprehensible to it's very core. Many, many films have taken the stance that violence is the only way to deal with violence but there's something genuinely unsettling about watching teenagers being shot in the head in scenes that feel like vignettes from The Hunger Games, but without the fantasy angle.

Entertainment hewn from real life suffering has always been a thing and most likely will always be around but it tends to come from the world of cheap, terribly acted exploitation cinema, churned out in an attempt to make money from outrage. Run Hide Fight is a decently made film, filled with believable performances and actors you'll recognise (Thomas Jane, Radha Mitchell and Treat Williams as Sheriff Tarsy) and it makes it all feel that much more offensive. There's money and effort behind in this propaganda. It's an agenda masquerading as entertainment. 

As for the baddies. Oh man the baddies. Why even bother looking into the reasons behind school shootings when you have a pantomime level bad guy running and gunning for no reason. Eli Brown's Tristan is less a character than a bunch of cliches and tropes roughly moulded into the shape of a person. He feels astoundingly out of place in a story that demands an antagonist with some bit of tangibility. It's almost like the money men behind the film weren't interested in that part of the story....... Isabel May as Zoe certainly deserved someone better to bounce off. Her performance is one of the better things about Run Hide Fight, especially the quieter moments where her mother is on her mind.

Run Hide Fight is streaming online and available on DVD now. It's a problematic watch on a number of levels. Give it a watch if you enjoy feeling like crap about how you just spent the last 110 minutes.