Kill Switch (2017)

Plot of Kill Switch: A company called Alterplex has installed a tower which can get power from an alternative version of earth known as “The Echo”. Will Porter, a former astronaut is recruited to fulfil an emergency function, which is, if things start to go wrong he will be sent to the Echo to carry out what he is told is a balancing activity. He arrives in the Echo in a capsule and is immediately plunged into a fight for life, since, instead of the alternative world being empty, it is full of people, a mirror of earth. Will finds out that when he operates the switch he will destroy the Echo, which anyway self-destructing due to the energy loss. The armed forces in the Echo understand his task and are out to kill him before he can activate the switch, but will he activate it anyway, since it may result in the death of his family back home.

Content: No sex or nudity, or drinking or smoking or anything other than a bit of violence. This is the first film I have seen which is mainly a first person POV presentation. Hence after a bit of talking on the real earth we see him arrive in the Echo and then for virtually the whole film we are looking down the barrel of a machine gun while around us the Echo starts to be destroyed, with all sorts of stuff flying through the air, and also we are pursued by very effective drones which are the Echo “security”.

A View: I don’t think this film is quite as bad as the few reviewers have painted it, although out in the real world it has made virtually no money, possibly the real measure of how successful a film is. It rolls along, and is not too long but the question remains can a first person shoot ‘em up presented as a film be successful? I think it is worth a watch for film buffs, just for the interest.

Fun Fact: A one point a ship is dragged into the sky in the Echo. It is a real offshore support ship. I can’t imagine how it comes to be in the film.