Warning: Major spoilers for Sniper: The Last Stand below!Despite being the eleventh entry in a cult action series,Sniper: The Last Standfeatures anaudacious twist that genuinely caught me off guard. It may lack the brand recognition of other long-running franchises likeJohn WickorMission: Impossible, but that just makes it all the more delightful thattheSniperseries has reached eleven entriesand counting. For the uninitiated, the series follows the adventures of veteran sniper Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) and later his son Brandon (Chad Michael Collins) as they hop around the world on various dangerous assignments.
The quality of theSnipermovie franchisehas been (pun slightly intended) hit and miss, but the most recent sequelThe Last Standis the best entry in a long time. The Danishka Esterhazy-directed outing plays with the series formula in creative ways while ditching the misfiring humor of the previous two films. What really impressed me was Esterhazy’s decision to pull the rug from underneath viewers around the midway mark, when it revealed the purpose of villain Kovalov’s (Arnold Vosloo) superweapon.
Chad Michael Collins Gives Deadly Order In Sniper: The Last Stand Clip [EXCLUSIVE]
Exclusive: ScreenRant presents a clip from Danishka Esterhazy’s new action film, Sniper: The Last Stand, starring Chad Michael Collins.
I Can’t Believe Sniper: The Last Stand Wiped Out The Villain And Half The Cast Midway Through
Half of The Last Stand’s ensemble literally drops dead
During the opening scene Beckett is part of a raid on Kovalov’s compound, and as a desperate last measure, Vosloo’s villain activates an experiment pulse weapon. It emits a small blast, but none of the characters caught in its radius appear affected. That’s until the midway mark whenSniper: The Last Standupended my expectations for where the story was going by killing half the team and Vosloo’s antagonistinside of a minute.
I haven’t felt so wrongfooted by an action film in a long time, with the abruptness of this scene being genuinely shocking. Not only does the sequel kill off one of its biggest supporting players in Vosloo (The Mummymovies), but it completely redirects where the story is heading. It turns outKovalov’s doomsday device has the power to kill via a pulse wave, and the rest of the story involves the team prepping for an incoming militia assault while making sure the weapon is destroyed.
Action Franchises Need To Learn From Pulling Off Such A Bold Twist 11 Movies In
Sniper used it’s formula against viewers
Wiping out half the cast isn’t just about shock value - it underlines very clearly the threat posed by this weapon. There’s a comfortable familiarity to a series likeSniper,and while a new director will come in and add their own style, it always falls back on the key beats.What I found thrilling aboutThe Last Stand’sbig twist is that it used that formulaagainstmethis time. I was expecting a meat-and-potatoes action flick that got the job done, but it proved that evenafter watching elevenSniperfilms, a franchise could still strive to uproot expectations.
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Bigger budget franchises could learn that lesson too.The Fast & Furiousmovies have become complacent in recent years and felt that so long as they added more actors and setpieces, audiences would come back.It was this strict adherence to the rulebook that madeFast Xsuch a tired, bloated slog, and the subsequent mixed reviews and disappointing box office it received reflected that.
It helps that Sniper: The Last Stand also delivers on the action front, with the final act essentially being a non-stop setpiece…
I’m not sayingFast 11needs to wipe out half the characters likeThe Last Standdid, but it would be nice to see more sequels zigging instead of zagging and seeing what happens. It helps thatSniper: The Last Standalso delivers on the action front, with the final act essentially being a non-stop setpiecefilled with shootouts and fights. It ticks all the boxes fans come for while making sure to toy with expectations.
The Sniper Series Is Now A Rare Breed Of Action Franchise That I’d Love To See More Of
Action movies don’t always have to be so formulaic
In addition to leaving me feeling energized about theSniperseries, the film gave me some (admittedly faint) hope other franchises could follow a similar path. It’s not like an action movie’s story needs to be particularly complex or subversive, but with audiences so familiar with how certain types of movies play out, it’s time to try a different path. While not a franchise, Netflix’sRebel Ridgeis another example of a genre offering that looked familiar on the surface and delivered the action but also worked to make the characters engaging and keep the plot unpredictable.
Chad Michael Collins is also known as Alex Keller (AKA “Echo 3-1”) from theCall of Duty: Modern Warfaregames.
IfSniper 12happens, I’d love to see it take more big swings likeThe Last Stand’smidway shocker. Likewise,it would be cool to see the likes of theJames BondorJason Bourneseries playing with their formulas and keeping audiences on their toes. Wishful thinking probably, but if the eleventh entry in a B-movie action saga can aspire to bigger things, there’s no reason other properties can’t.
Sniper
Sniper is an action film series that began in 1993 with the Louis Llosa-directed film Sniper. Michael Frost Beckner and Crash Leyland created the franchise, which has spanned ten films. The movies focus on Force Reconnaissance Scout Snipers in the US Marine Corps.
Cast
Sniper: The Last Stand follows the seasoned marksman Brandon Beckett as he confronts a deadly adversary threatening global security. Set against a backdrop of international espionage, the film explores themes of loyalty and redemption as Beckett struggles to thwart a large-scale conspiracy.
