Jolt (film)

Jolt
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tanya Wexler
Written by	Scott Wascha
Produced by	David Bernardi Sherryl Clark Robert Van Norden Les Weldon Yariv Lerner
Starring	Kate Beckinsale
Cinematography	Jules O'Loughlin
Edited by	Chris Barwell Carsten Kupanek Michael J. Duthie
Music by	Dominic Lewis
Production companies	Millennium Media Busted Shark Productions Campbell Grobman Films Electric Films
Distributed by	Amazon Studios
Release date	July 23, 2021 (2021-07-23)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Jolt is a 2021 American action comedy film, adapted from a screenplay by Scott Wascha, and directed by Tanya Wexler. It stars Kate Beckinsale, Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, Stanley Tucci and Jai Courtney. It was released on July 23, 2021 by Amazon Studios.

Plot

Lindy Lewis (Kate Beckinsale) is a young woman who is afflicted with the intermittent explosive disorder. This causes her to react with violent rage at even the slightest transgression because her body has an unusually high level of cortisol, which in turn makes her stronger and faster than normal. Her parents eventually have her institutionalized due to her violent tendencies. While in the asylum, an unknown organization tries to weaponize Lindy's violent tendencies for their benefit, but they fail at every attempt to control her rage. Hoping the military will give her structure and discipline the organization puts Lindy in the army, but they are also unsuccessful at controlling her rage. Finally, Lindy is subjected to an experimental (but effective) treatment to control her rage; a form of self-administered shock treatment given through an electrode-lined vest she wears at all times. Thanks to the vest and the remote on her wrist, she is finally able to live in the world as a somewhat normal person.

Some time later, Lindy is prompted to go on a date by her therapist, and the designer of the vest, Dr. Ivan Munchin (Stanley Tucci). Munchin believes that this will test if she is able to have a healthy, normal relationship with someone. Eventually, Lindy decides to go on the date with an accountant named Justin (Jai Courtney). However, on the way there, Lindy encounters a customer being rude to a valet. She briefly considers crushing his ankle in his car door, but she activates the vest and prevents herself from harming the man. Upon meeting Justin for dinner, Lindy explains that she thought having a date would be good however, due to her recent close call, she decides is not going to stay. Justin convinces her to stay by starting a conversation about the bad dates that he has had and all the things that annoy him. Lindy continues the conversation by going down the list of all the things that would be considered pet peeves by normal people, but are triggers for her. The waitress informs Justin that if Lindy does not stay he would have to give up the table. The waitress also begins being rude to Justin concerning his allergies and his order, so Lindy briefly considers stabbing the waitress. Lindy then goes to the bathroom to activate her vest, but she hears the waitress from earlier gossiping in the bathroom stall. Lindy then hears that the waitress was purposefully rude to Justin for her own entertainment. In response, Lindy beats the waitress unconscious and then leaves the restaurant. She then takes her electroshock remote to Dr. Munchin to be fixed, but Munchin reveals that there is nothing wrong with the remote, she has merely built up a tolerance to the electricity. Munchin also tells Lindy that the vest is not a permanent solution, and it is supposed to be a temporary fix. They then discuss the previous events and the possibility that a healthy emotional connection could help her finally control her rage.

Lindy contacts Justin to go on a second date. They discuss their past as well as Justin’s job. Justin reveals that he only has one client; a man named Barry. They go back to Lindy's apartment and start to have sex. Justin sees Lindy's voltage therapy vest and electrodes all over her body, so she explains to him what it is. He does not seem to care and tells her it is not a big deal, and begins taking her vest off.

The next morning, Justin gets Lindy a gift along with breakfast in bed. Lindy opens the gift to see a camera, bought by Justin due to her mentioning that she likes to take pictures of people. Justin asks her to explain her voltage therapy. After explaining her condition, Justin appears to accept it. Justin then leaves for work and invites Lindy over for dinner later. Lindy visits Dr. Munchin to tell him that his theory worked and that she likes Justin a lot. Munchin insists that they have a session to deal with these feelings, but Lindy leaves to take pictures with the camera Justin gave her.

Later on,Lindy calls Justin's phone after not hearing from him all day and a Detective Vicars (Bobby Cannavale) answers. She goes to the police station to sit with Detective Vicars and Detective Nevins (Laverne Cox) and they state that Justin was murdered.

Lindy replays her time with Justin and begins to spiral, shocking herself repeatedly with the vest. She visits Munchin, claiming that the vest is not working, so he gives her a sedative. Once she comes to she says she needs to find out who murdered Justin. He tells her to let it go before it changes her irreversibly. Lindy then calls the detectives claiming to have more details about Justin's murder, as a ploy to get them out of the precinct so as to gain access to the evidence from Justin's murder. Lindy then heads to Justin's house and finds his phone. She is called by Detective Vicars who tells her that they found her and that Detective Nevins is on the way to arrest her. After a brief encounter with Nevins, Lindy takes Justin’s car and escapes.

Lindy goes to an electronics store to talk to someone about hacking Justin’s phone and meets Andi, a female hacker working in the store. Andi is able to locate Justin's client, Barry Kasparzki, a notorious gangster who was confirmed to be the last person in contact with him.

Upon finding out that Barry is in an abandoned building overseeing an underground fight, Lindy goes to that fight and demands that Barry tell her who killed Justin. He agrees, on the condition that she fight his top three guys all at once. Upon winning however, Barry tries to get her killed. But, Lindy manages to incapacitate both Barry and the gunman and gets him to tells her who killed Justin after threatening him with jumper cables. Barry tells her that a billionaire recluse named Gareth Fizel (David Bradley) had Justin killed, but she electrocutes him with the jumper cables anyway. Lindy visits Detective Vicars, now in the hospital after their car chase earlier, and asks him about Fizel. However, Detective Nevins interrupts them and chases Lindy to the maternity ward, where Lindy begins throwing infants at Nevins to slow her down. Lindy makes her way to Gareth's building where his head of security, Delacroix (Ori Pfeffer), knocks her unconscious. She awakens in a white room, zip-tied to a chair. Delacroix has also removed her vest. After threatening to kill her, Delacroix puts Lindy in a car back to her apartment and keeps the electroshock vest. Back at Fizel's building, Fizel tells Delacroix to get rid of Lindy. Back in the car, Lindy tells the driver to let her out of the car, but he does not comply, so she grabs him and begins to choke him causing him to crash. Lindy then goes to Dr. Munchin to get a new vest and returns to her apartment. She notices the 9 sign on her door has been moved, showing that someone was there, so she sneaks in her window and notices that Fizel's men have rigged an explosive device to the doorway. She then disarms the explosive and pockets it for further use. She leaves seeing Detective Vicars outside her apartment and gets in his car. She tells him he cannot arrest her because of her condition and he would be safer not to. He explains he go easy on her because she is different and that it has nothing to do with what Nevins says about her being a woman. Her apartment blows up and she leaves.

She finds Fizel; he tells her he is sorry that he killed Justin. He says he is glad he was able to see her before Delacroix hits her in the head again and she is back in the drainage room. He asks her does she know what exsanguinate and then explains what it was while doing so to her. She breaks free and fights him. She turns to ask how does she get to Fizel before hurting him. She then fights off a few guards. After using Delacroix finger to access where Fizel was Lindy learned that Justin wasn’t dead but in fact used her as a decoy so he could kill Fizel. Justin tells her Dr. Mucnhin had something to do with everything and that he needs to kill Fizel. She was only an experiment. She goes after him and he detonates her voltage electrodes, which stopped working because she was highly upset. Justin realizes her vest is not working and Lindy throws him a bag that has a bomb in it, blowing up Fizel's entire layer.

Lindy waits for Dr. Munchin in his office ready to kill him for betraying her. Just as she decides against it and handcuffs him the Detectives Vicars and Nevins enter the office to arrest Dr. Munchin on various charges. Lindy returns to her apartment and a woman (Susan Sarandon) who appears to be one of the doctors from when she was younger tells her that by embracing her rage she will truly become powerful before pressing her voltage detonator.

Cast

• Kate Beckinsale as Lindy Lewis
• Bobby Cannavale as Detective Vicars
• Jai Courtney as Justin
• Laverne Cox as Detective Nevin
• David Bradley as Gareth Fizel
• Ori Pfeffer as Delacroix
• Susan Sarandon as Woman With No Name
• Stanley Tucci as Dr. Ivan Munchin

Production

In April 2019, it was announced Kate Beckinsale had joined the cast of the film, with Tanya Wexler directing from a screenplay by Scott Wascha. In July 2019, Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, Stanley Tucci and Jai Courtney joined the cast of the film.

Principal photography began in July 2019. Per the credits, filming took place in Bulgaria and the United Kingdom.

Release

The film was released on July 23, 2021, by Amazon Prime Video.

Reception

Jolt holds a 35% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 43 reviews, with a weighted average of 4.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "In spite of a crackling premise and a star who's always ready for action, Jolt never manages to deliver much more than a mild buzz". On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 45 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Bob Strauss of The San Francisco Chronicle gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars writing: "While it's not always as sharp as it could be, the energy in "Jolt" never falters, and there are definitely amusing bits." Leslie Felperin of The Guardian gave the film 3 out of 5 stars writing: "Kate Beckinsale’s furious heroine is electrically entertaining". Calum Marsh of The New York Times gave the film a negative review writing: "The plot, stretched thin even at just 90 minutes, is extremely predictable, and therefore boring, and the film doesn't do enough with its high-concept shock-therapy conceit to feel fresh or novel." Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com also gave the film a negative review giving the film two stars writing: "An action-packed, sci-fi adjacent dark comedy that leaves a lot to be desired in its neon-soaked wake."

External links

• Jolt at IMDb
• Jolt at Rotten Tomatoes
• Jolt at Metacritic