Based on The New Yorker short story Escape From Spiderhead by George Saunders, the official synopsis from Netflix reads, “Two inmates (Miles Teller & Junree Smollett) form a connection while grappling with their pasts in a state-of-the-art penitentiary run by a brilliant visionary (Hemsworth) who experiments on his subjects with mind-altering drugs.” The trailer for Spiderhead opens with Hemsworth’s visionary Steve Abnesti observing one of his inmates played by Teller. We then see the Spiderhead penitentiary, which looks more like a weekend resort than a prison, sitting on a beautiful waterfront and only accessible by boat or plane. Abnesti assures Teller’s character that his presence in this facility, while technically a punishment, is also a privilege.
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The Spiderhead trailer cranks up a notch once Abnesti begins to administer his experimental drugs to his somewhat willing inmates. It’s unclear exactly how this drug works, but it seems to severely alter the subject’s emotions, bringing out all kinds of feelings from rage to arousal and dialling them up to 10. However, Abnesti doesn’t seem to be worried about the moral implications of these experiments, as he explains, “the time to worry about crossing lines was a lot of lines ago.” The rest of the Spiderhead trailer features jarring images of inmates fighting, screaming, and cleaning blood off the floors, as Abnesti laments about changing the world. Finally, the trailer ends with Abnesti claiming that beautiful people often get away with too much, including him.
Spiderhead is the latest film from director Joseph Kosinski, who also directed the highly anticipated sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which is due to hit theaters later this month. The film stars Tom Cruise, reprising his role as ace Navy pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from the original film, and also features Teller in a supporting role as Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw. While the Top Gun: Maverick doesn’t premiere in theaters until May 27th, early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and the film currently holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Kosinski’s other films include the 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy as well as the science fiction film Oblivion, which also featured Cruise in the leading role. Spiderhead is just one of many Netflix original films slated to premiere on the streaming service this year. Other upcoming high-profile films include the Russo brothers’ spy thriller The Gray Man, starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, and the Adam Sandler basketball movie Hustle from producer LeBron James.
Spiderhead will premiere exclusively on Netflix on June 17th, 2022.
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Source: Netflix | Youtube
