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There’s a whole subgenre of movies that has evolved over the last decade that can be best described as dystopian monster flicks. Pacific Rim, Love and Monsters, and A Quiet Place all present a world overrun by gargantuan terrors that consider humanity a tasty snack. In these films, a small band of courageous survivors emerge from the ruins to fight a grotesque and unexplainable force (and sometimes they do it with giant robots). 

Elevation is the latest entry, which you can check out now on (HBO) Max. Anthony Mackie, better known as Sam Wilson from the Avengers movies and Captain America: Brave New World, is our hero. He’s a single dad living in a refuge high in the Colorado Rockies, far from the monsters that have ravaged the Earth below. Seems like three years earlier, giant nasty murder bugs emerged from the ground to stomp all over everything.

People fled to higher ground because these baddies can’t go higher than 8,000 feet. Civilization is now a few sparse mountain colonies that communicate by radio and signal flags. Will and his fellow survivors live like frontier folk, eking out a mild existence with few modern luxuries. This is especially troubling for Will’s young son, who suffers from respiratory issues and needs nightly treatments. His medical supplies are running out and Will needs to venture down to the abandoned hospital in Boulder to get more if his boy’s going to make it. 

Joining Will on his journey is Nina, a bitter drunk scientist who thinks she’s close to developing a weapon that can take down these creatures. She wants to return to her lab in the city because she needs her equipment to make a breakthrough. Nina had made the trip a year before with a handful of survivors, including Will’s wife, but they were attacked by the giant murder bugs and only Nina made it back. Hence all the bitterness and drinking. Will’s not psyched to bring her but he knows he needs her help. 

Will’s friend, Katie, is a hardcore outdoorsy type who doesn’t trust Nina so she comes along to get his back. She’s also there mainly because the story works better with three people. No offense to Katie, but you know she’s basically an expendable plot point. You’ve got three people going into extremely dangerous territory. The stakes are high. Who do you think is most likely to become food for the beast: the hero, the scientist, or the stalwart friend? If you’ve seen more than two movies in the last year, you can figure this out. 

I don’t think I’m revealing any spoilers here. For the most part, you’re not really invested in Katie anyway. You find out that she’s got survival skills because you see her chop wood and handle a gun. She was Will’s wife’s best friend and might be harboring a secret crush on him, but we know that only because it’s mentioned by Nina with a throwaway line midway through the movie. There’s virtually no romantic chemistry between these characters. But I’m not complaining.

A strength of this movie is that the central characters are two women and a guy and there are no love interests. Everyone is tough and capable and holds their own. The man doesn’t charge in and rescue the ladies. There are actually a couple of scenes where they save his bacon and it’s very refreshing. Mackie is clearly the star here, but he’s not invulnerable. Each character gets to wear the white hat for a while. Some for a shorter time than others (Sorry, Katie). 

Nina is played by Morena Baccarin, who made a memorable debut 20+ years ago as Inara on the beloved cult classic Firefly. She is more remembered now as the love interest in the Deadpool movies. It was cool to see her stretch a bit with Nina, who is equal parts Hooper and Quint from Jaws. Like everyone here, her character could have used a little more fleshing out. But unlike our hero, she at least gets a backstory.

All we know about Will is he was some kind of engineer who worked in mining before the giant bug apocalypse, married money, and has a sick kid. Being a widowed dad is his primary motivation here and the career info is important because a pivotal scene takes place in an abandoned mine. But Will only knows enough about the mine to put them all in danger so maybe it was a good thing that he married into money. Just sayin’.

Despite the misadventures in the mine, Mackie makes a solid everyman hero. Both here and in his Marvel movies, he demonstrates an honest relatability that’s lacking recently in modern cinema. Will’s motivation is not to save the world, just nab some medical supplies and get home to care for his son. His heroics are a means to an end. Meanwhile, Nina reminds him that if they don’t find a way to destroy the semi-indestructible giant monster bugs, no one will be safe. 

These monsterpocalypse flicks always hinge on a gimmick and Elevation is no exception. In A Quiet Place, you couldn’t make any noise. In Bird Box, you had to stay blindfolded. In Elevation, you have to stay above 8,000 feet or the creeping baddies will get you. Why? I have no idea and our heroes don’t either. There’s an assumption made towards the end, but basically these monsters are afraid of heights. Just go with it.

And you know what? I’m fine with that logic. Elevation is not awesome, but it’s pretty good use of some time when you need to unplug for a while. Watch the good guys get chased by the giant murder bugs for about 90 minutes. In this age of bloated epics, it’s nice to enjoy something that wraps up in less than two hours. Elevation’s brisk running time is a selling point, but there is a price to pay for all that brevity. The ending feels rushed with a plot that gets really compacted in the final quarter. More story points get delivered during the closing credits than probably should. 

They also hint at a sequel, which seems a bit premature. C’mon guys, please finish the story you’re telling here first. This movie was directed by George Nolfi, who wrote Ocean’s Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum so maybe sequels must be in his blood. He also directed The Adjustment Bureau, which was a mind-bending sci-fi romance starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Elevation has a much simpler goal than that flick. It’s 90 minutes of heroes, monsters, chases, and gorgeous mountain scenery. The altitude may be high, but the attitude is just right.

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