Everyone Is Watching Code 8 on Netflix—and That's a Big Deal

[Karlston]

Everyone Is Watching Code 8 on Netflix—and That's a Big Deal

The sci-fi movie, which has catapulted up the ranks on the streaming service's Top 10, proves there's an appetite for indie genre flicks.

Code 8 is very popular on Netflix. Courtesy of Netflix

 

On the surface, Code 8 is essentially a grab bag of sci-fi and genre tropes. To paraphrase Bill Hader’s Stefon, this movie has everything: superpowered X-Men-esque mutants, dystopian surveillance drones, robocops that look like Chappie after a glow-up, an allegory for the human condition. It’s about a guy named Connor (Robbie Amell) in a fictional metropolis called Lincoln City, where 4 percent of the population is born with supernatural abilities. (In Connor's case, he can manipulate electricity.) In this alternate universe, people with powers have to register their abilities with the government, but they often work off the books, doing construction and other odd jobs. Connor’s mother is struggling with terminal illness, so he begins doing crimes to pay for her care. Again, tropes. It's working: Despite the fact that Code 8 never had a big national release, it currently ranks among the Top 10 most popular things on Netflix in the US.

 

How? How did an indie sci-fi movie, which landed on Netflix on April 11, join the ranks of Tiger King and Ozark? Yes, lots of people are at home, sheltering in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and that means they’re digging deep into the streaming service’s archive. But they could’ve picked anything—why this? The most obvious answer is the film’s star. Robbie Amell and his cousin, Stephen Amell, both star in Code 8 and helped finance the film by raising $2.5 million on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. Stephen Amell is Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on the CW show Arrow (Robbie has appeared on the show too), and both have devoted fan bases. As the movie has progressed from a 2016 short film to its latest incarnation, those devotees have followed along and participated in hype campaigns on social media. They got excited when the film did a limited run in theaters when it went to video-on-demand. Now, that enthusiasm has carried over to Netflix.

 

That traction is significant, not just for Code 8 but for indie films in general. Netflix has been famously tight-lipped about its viewership numbers, but in February the company announced it would be adding a new row to everyone’s queue that lists the 10 most popular shows and movies in each country. Code 8 is currently in the third position on the list, but just being in the Top 10 is no small feat when one considers everything there is to watch on Netflix. Having a film like Code 8 break into those ranks proves there is an audience for indie sci-fi offerings and shows that fact to the world—which only encourages more people to watch.

 

 

Drawing attention to smaller movies and shows has been one of the big promises of streaming from the beginning. Netflix has stocked its shelves with smaller offerings—particularly genre programming—and while that’s kept a lot of writers, directors, crews, and actors employed, it’s been hard for Hollywood and the public at large to know whether those efforts are successful broadly. Over the years, Netflix has released data on obviously popular series like Stranger Things, but everything else seemed locked away in a black box. When filmmaker Ava DuVernay tweeted that her Netflix miniseries had been watched by more than 23 million accounts, it proved how large the appetite was for stories like the tale of the Central Park Five. As DuVernay put it, “Imagine believing the world doesn’t care about real stories of black people. It always made me sad … Our stories matter and can move across the globe. A new truth for a new day.” In releasing those numbers, DuVernay demonstrated the popularity of her series not only to its fans but also to its potential fans—who may be enticed to watch it because of its popularity—and to Hollywood itself.

 

Code 8, unlike Stranger Things or When They See Us, isn’t a Netflix original. It didn’t have the wind of the Netflix marketing machine at its back. That means the bulk of its traction with viewers is happening organically. Independent films, music, books, and media of all varieties have always had fandoms that were likely larger than they appeared to the naked eye, and the internet has always helped them grow. Code 8 is a fun movie; not a great one, but the kind of genre flick that helps pad out the endless reboots and remakes, the kind that makes people say, "Hollywood should be making more of these." The movie's popularity, while it may be an effect of lots of people being stuck at home and looking for things to watch, is also the result of something else: Viewers wanting more new science fiction and genre movies. It might lean on tropes, but it proves that if you make it, fans will come—and now, everyone knows it.

 

 

Updated 4-16-2020, 11:00 am EDT. This story was updated to correct that Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell are cousins, not brothers as previously stated.

 

 

Source: Everyone Is Watching Code 8 on Netflix—and That's a Big Deal (Wired)

[Karlston]

Review: Gritty techno-thriller Code 8 is a surprise breakout hit on Netflix

Think X-Men meets District 9, with a dash of The Town thrown in for good measure.

Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell star in Code 8, a Canadian sci-fi film currently making waves on Netflix.

 

One of the surprise breakout hits on Netflix during the coronavirus shutdown is Code 8, a Canadian science-fiction film funded entirely through a crowdfunding campaign. It's set in an alternate timeline in the 1990s, where people with superhuman powers face severe discrimination and economic hardship. But this isn't a cheap rip-off of the X-Men franchise. Code 8 is a smart, gritty, techno-noir thriller that is equal parts X-Men, District 9, and classic heist movies (Ben Affleck's The Town is probably closest in tone and themes).

 

(Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.)

 

Directed by Jeff Chan, Code 8 began life as a short teaser film of the same name, produced by cousins Robbie Amell (star of the forthcoming Upload) and Stephen Amell (Arrow) in 2016. They launched an Indiegogo fundraiser that year to make a feature-length version and soon raised $2.4 million. By December of last year, when the film was officially released, they had raised $3.4 million altogether, with the extra funds going to cover promotional and distribution costs, as well as perks for the more than 30,000 individual contributors (many of whom are named in the very long credits sequence). The film grossed only $150,000 in theaters but has found a second life on Netflix, where it currently ranks in the Top Ten in terms of viewership.

 

An opening montage lays out the film's basic premise with deft strokes. So-called "Powers" emerged at the dawn of the 20th century and are soon required to register their abilities with the government. "Electrics" have electrokinetic abilities, "Pyros" can control fire, Brawns have super strength, "Readers" can read minds, "TKs" are telekinetics, and so forth. Initially, Powers are key workers in the economy, helping build Lincoln City (aka the "City of Tomorrow")—at least until the rise of mechanization in a Second Industrial Revolution ousts them from their once-valuable jobs.

 

By the 1990s, Powers are essentially second-class citizens, forced to eke out a bare existence taking on random work off the books. Many turn to crime out of necessity. A powerful syndicate known as The Trust is dealing a novel drug known as Psyke, derived from the spinal fluid of Powers. Meanwhile, the Lincoln City government is debating implementing a new law banning Powers altogether, as a police force reliant on drones, facial recognition, and armed android "Guardians" attempts to stamp out the Psyke trade.

 

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That's the big picture, but Code 8 is all about the personal narratives, notably the story of Connor Reed (Robbie Amell), a young Class 5 Electric trying to raise enough money to pay for a life-saving operation for his mother Mary (Kari Matchett), whose brain tumor is causing her to lose control of her cryogenic powers.

Connor's father (also an Electric) was killed while committing a robbery when the boy was only five, and Mary has done her best to keep him from following in his father's footsteps. But desperation leads Connor to join forces with a small team led by a TK named Garrett (Stephen Amell). Their mission: to steal some chemicals for a local crime lord and Reader named Marcus Sutcliffe (Greg Bryk). Things do not go smoothly.

 

I'll admit to some skepticism going into the film—the premise seemed hopelessly derivative—but Code 8 quickly won me over with its thoughtful, character-driven depiction of marginalized, increasingly desperate people caught in an impossible situation. That includes police officer Park (Sung Kang), who, for personal reasons revealed later in the film, is still capable of seeing Powers as human beings—even as his bigoted partner, Davis (Aaron Abrams), hurls slurs and suggests planting evidence to frame a key suspect. "Life hits you hard enough, you're gonna start hitting back," he observes in one prescient exchange.

 

Both Amell cousins deliver strong performances, as does much of the cast, especially Matchett as a dying Mary Reed, and Kyla Kane as Nia, a Healer with a Psyke addiction, forced to work for Marcus to pay off her father's debt. The production quality is generally quite good, which is impressive given the film's limited budget, and the plot moves quickly, while still allowing enough time for introspective moments. Best of all, the film knows better than to give us an easy happy ending, which would have cheapened all the effort screenwriter Chris Pare devoted to striking just the right tone of bleak resignation. All in all, it's well worth watching.

 

Code 8 is currently streaming on Netflix.

 

Listing image by Vertical Entertainment/Netflix

 

 

Source: Review: Gritty techno-thriller Code 8 is a surprise breakout hit on Netflix (Ars Technica)  

 

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