| The Belko Experiment | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Greg McLean |
| Written by | James Gunn |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Luis David Sansas |
| Edited by | Julia Wong |
| Music by | Tyler Bates |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 89 minutes[3] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million[4] |
| Box office | $11.1 million[4] |
The Belko Experiment is a 2016 Americanactionhorror film directed byGreg McLean and written byJames Gunn, who also produced the film withPeter Safran. It starsJohn Gallagher Jr.,Tony Goldwyn,Adria Arjona,John C. McGinley,Melonie Diaz,Josh Brener, andMichael Rooker. The film follows eighty foreigners (mainly Americans) working abroad for a company named Belko Industries inBogotá,Colombia. One day, after they arrive at work, they are locked inside the building, and a mysterious voice announces that if the employees do not start killing each other, they will be killed themselves.
Filming began on June 1, 2015, in Bogotá, Colombia, and concluded the following month. The film premiered at theToronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016, and was released in the United States on March 17, 2017, byBlumhouse Tilt andOrion Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $11 million worldwide against its $5 million budget.
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Mike Milch and Barry Norris, employees of Belko Industries, arrive at their office building inBogotá,Colombia, to find unfamiliar security guards turning away local Colombian staff at the gate. New employee Dany Wilkins reports for her first day and is told that a tracking device is implanted in the base of every Belko employee's skull in case of kidnapping.
Evan Smith, Belko's head security guard, does not know who the new guards are. Once all employees show up, a voice on the intercom instructs them to kill two of their co-workers, or else there will be consequences. Steel shutters seal off the building, locking them all in. They ignore the announcement at first, believing it to be a sick prank, but after the set time ends and two have not been killed, four employees die when explosives hidden in their trackers detonate and blow their heads apart. Mike attempts to remove his tracker with a box cutter, but he gives up when the voice threatens to detonate his explosive unless he stops.
The group is told that unless thirty of them are dead within two hours, sixty will be killed. They split into two factions, one led by Mike, who believes that there should be no killing, and one led by Barry, who intends to follow the directions in order to save himself. Barry and his group, including executive Wendell and employees Terry, Antonio and Bradley, attempt to burn off the lock of the armory in order to gain access to its weapons. Mike and his group, including his girlfriend, Leandra Florez, Evan and employees Keith, Leota, Peggy, Vince and Roberto, try to hang banners from the roof as a call for help, but soldiers outside shoot at them. Barry, Wendell, and Terry ambush the group in the stairway, kill Evan and take his keys to the armory.
With their group now armed, Barry and Wendell select thirty people, including Mike and Peggy, forcing them to kneel in a line. Barry begins executing them. Dany, who has been hiding in the basement, sees what is happening and shuts off the building's lights before Mike and several others can be killed. The employees run for cover as Barry and his group start firing, killing several more. However, employees gang up on Bradley and Antonio and kill them. Meanwhile, Dany goes into the elevator shaft with Roberto.
Barry and Wendell hunt down the fleeing employees as the voice informs them that only 29 have been killed. When the two-hour time limit runs out, 31 more people are killed by their trackers, including Terry, Leota, Peggy, and Keith, leaving only 16 survivors. They are then informed by the voice that, as a final task, the employee who has killed the most people within an hour will be spared. Barry finds Dany and Roberto in the elevator shaft. Dany escapes while Roberto is crushed and killed by the elevator. Leandra finds two employees, Marty and Chet, collecting un-exploded trackers from the heads of people who have died by other methods. They tell her that they are planning to use them to blow up the wall. However, they are killed by Wendell. Leandra kills Wendell, leaving six final survivors: Vince, Mike, Barry, Dany, Leandra, and Liezle, who dies shortly afterward. Barry shoots Vince and Dany, killing them, and also shoots Leandra. With her dying breath, she proclaims her love to Mike.
In a rage, Mike bludgeons Barry to death with a tape dispenser. The building is then unsealed, as he is the last survivor, and the soldiers escort him to the hangar next door. There, he meets the owner of the voice, who explains they're part of an international organization studying human behavior. As he and his colleagues begin to question Mike about his emotional state, Mike notices a panel of switches corresponding to the 80 employees. Having planted the trackers that Marty collected on the soldiers and the voice, he flips every remaining switch except his own. The trackers explode, killing the soldiers and wounding the voice, before Mike grabs a gun and kills the remaining men. He then staggers outside.
It becomes apparent that Mike is one of many sole survivors from similar experiments, being watched by another group through security cameras. A new voice states, "End stage one. Commence stage two."
James Gunn began writing the film around 2007, after waking up from a dream of an office building being enclosed in metal walls and hearing a voice instruct employees to kill each other. The film wasgreenlit soon thereafter, and plans were made for it to be filmed inSão Paulo,Brazil, with Gunn directing. However, Gunn turned down the opportunity, owing to getting a divorce around the same time.[15] Gunn later said, "I just wanted to be around my friends and family. I didn't want to go shoot this thing that was about people who loved and cared about each other being forced into killing each other. It just didn't seem to be the way I wanted to spend the next few months of my life. So I backed out of it."[15] Gunn moved on to other projects, including the 2010 filmSuper, and had "kind of forgotten about it" until he received a call from Jon Glickman at MGM asking if he would still be interested in making it. Gunn did not have time to direct the film himself, due to his work onGuardians of the Galaxy, but he agreed to produce it, provided that he was given full creative control.[15]
Much of the cast was announced in May 2015, includingJohn Gallagher Jr.,[5]Tony Goldwyn,[6] andMelonie Diaz.[9] More joined the cast in June, includingDavid Del Rio,Stephen Blackehart,Josh Brener, andRusty Schwimmer.[10]Principal photography on the film began on June 1, 2015, inBogotá,Colombia.[16][17] and concluded on July 12, 2015.[18]
The film had its world premiere at theToronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016.[19] Shortly after,Blumhouse Tilt andOrion Pictures acquired U.S distribution rights to the film, and set it for a March 17, 2017, release.[20][21] It was released to UK theaters on April 15, 2017.[22]
The film was promoted through a series of fourclaymation shorts directed byLee Hardcastle which, according to website io9 (where they debuted), "features exaggerated versions ofThe Belko Experiment's characters, and offers a taste of the level of violence and humor you'll see when the actual movie opens".[23] The movie was also promoted with avideo game, "'Belko Experiment' Escape Room in VR", released forvirtual reality platforms.[24]
In the United States and Canada,The Belko Experiment was released alongsideBeauty and the Beast and was projected to gross around $4 million in its opening weekend.[25] It made $305,000 from Thursday night previews and $1.5 million on its first day. It went on to open to $4.1 million, finishing seventh at the box office.[26]
According to thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 54% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 106 reviews and an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "The Belko Experiment offers a few moments of lurid fun for genre enthusiasts, but lacks enough subversive smarts to consistently engage once the carnage kicks in."[27] OnMetacritic, the film has a score 44 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[28]
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