You don't usually put on a movie about superpowers expecting political commentary, a robust and
realistic sense of place, or deep cultural cuts - but, then again, most superpower movies
aren't Project Power.
Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's latest flick is full of brutal sci-fi action, surprising
plot twists, and excellent performances from its three leads.
But it's also much more than that.
If you're a fan of the filmmakers behind Project Power, you'll find plenty of small Easter
eggs paying tribute to their past and future productions.
It's stylish and exciting, and it's stacked with small details that give it an unexpected
depth.
It's the best of both worlds.
We're getting into spoilers, so make sure you want to know what happens before you keep
watching.
"I wanna see what happens."
Okay, let's dig into all the best small details hidden in Project Power.
He's credited in Project Power as Colson Baker, but no, your eyes do not deceive you.
Newt, the dealer who supplies Robin with the pills she slings, is played by none other
than award-winning hip-hop artist Machine Gun Kelly.
"Sounds too good to be true."
"That's because it is."
He appears again a few minutes later, when he fights Jamie Foxx with his Human Torch-like
fire powers, but he's a little harder to identify - as it turns out, setting yourself on fire
leaves behind some pretty nasty scars.
Baker is best known for his music, but he's also an accomplished actor.
He debuted in the 2014 romantic drama Beyond the Lights, which was directed by The Old
Guard's Gina Prince-Bythewood, and appeared in movies like Bird Box and The Dirt, where
he plays Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.
It's actually not that surprising that Baker popped up in Project Power, given that he's
worked with its directors, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, twice before.
In Nerve, a techno-thriller about a high-stakes game of online truth or dare, Baker plays
Ty, the chief rival of Emma Roberts' character, Vee.
In Viral, a sci-fi horror flick, he's CJ, the unfaithful boyfriend to Analeigh Tipton's
Stacey, who gets his comeuppance after Stacy catches a bizarre disease.
You can see a little bit of both movies in Project Power's DNA - the movie deals with
the dark side of technology and contains a fair amount of body horror - and Baker's casting
really drives the connections home.
When we first meet Robin, she's hanging out in a dilapidated amusement park, dealing to
the hooligans who roam its empty streets.
It's a striking location, especially with cinematographer Michael Simmonds' eerie lighting.
Remarkably, it's not a set.
The location is actually a real-life Six Flags park, originally named Jazzland, that was
destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.
Six Flags New Orleans never reopened, and since then, it's become a favorite spot for
graffiti artists and urban explorers, both of whom find the park's now-dystopian aesthetic
impossible to resist.
It's the perfect backdrop for Project Power's opening scenes.
After all, not only is urban decay one of Project Power's biggest themes, but there's
really no better metaphor for a superpowers-gone-bad story than a ruined amusement park.
Throughout Project Power, Jamie Foxx's character drives a blue truck.
There's nothing particularly special about it.
It's old and beat up and has Florida plates, which makes sense given that Tampa was the
Major's last stop before he reached New Orleans.
Look closely at the side of the vehicle, though.
See what it says?
"Supermarche Pool Cleaning."
If you were paying attention during Project Power's opening credits, that should sound
familiar: Supermarché is also the name of Project Power directors Henry Joost and Ariel
Schulman's production company.
Joost and Shulman have been working under the Supermarché banner for the better part
of two decades.
Catfish, a documentary about the perils of online dating, was Joost and Shulman's breakout
project, and spawned a TV series of the same name.
They've made commercials for companies like Nike, Facebook, and Google, along with Vogue
featurettes starring the likes of Margot Robbie and Elle Fanning.
When you see Supermarche's name on something, you know it's going to be unexpected and interesting.
Project Power is full of old-school gaming references, although you might have to look
pretty hard to find 'em.
In the very first scene, a pusher wears a Game Boy hoodie.
Later, a kid sports a t-shirt that says "Game Over."
When Jamie Foxx breaks into Newt's apartment, there's a paused video game on his TV.
Squint, and you can see that it's one of the old, NES-era Mega Man games - specifically,
the Fire Man level from the original 1987 title.
That's some genius foreshadowing for what happens next, when Newt gets his flame on,
and Jamie Foxx does a little platform gaming himself.
Fun retro-gaming Easter egg, or something more?
For those in the know, it's the latter.
See, Project Power directors Joost and Shulman have been attached to Fox's big-screen adaptation
of Mega Man since 2017, when they were hired to write and direct the movie.
On top of that, Project Power screenwriter Mattson Tomlin has joined the Mega Man team.
Fairly early in Project Power, Jamie Foxx reads a newspaper article about the effects
of Power on New Orleans.
At first glance, other than the subject matter, there's nothing particularly strange about
the story, but look at the byline.
No, Brandon Smith and Alice Alward aren't reporters for The Crescent Courier, although
they do know all about Project Power.
They're actually two members of the film's art department.
Alice Alward has worked on projects like Jesse Eisenberg's magical heist movie Now You See
Me, the Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart prison comedy Get Hard, David Gordon Green's satire
Our Brand Is Crisis, and the Purge television show.
As a graphic designer, Brandon Smith contributed to movies like The Town, 22 Jump Street, and
The Irishman.
About halfway through Project Power, the Major reveals that the company producing Power is
called Teleos, which is a Greek word that means "complete."
"Grabbed a bunch of Rangers, put 'em all in a room, filled them up with radiation, messed
with their genes...tried to turn us into superheroes."
Given that Teleos' entire business plan revolves around unlocking the full potential of the
human genome, it's a pretty good name.
Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll realize that there's a lot more to "Teleos" than it
seems at first - and to fully understand, you have to go all the way back to ancient
Greece, and specifically, to a dude named Aristotle.
See, Teleos' root word is "telos," which refers to an object's ultimate purpose, or "final
goal."
According to Aristotle, every object has a telos.
The telos of a chair is to provide a platform to sit on.
The telos of a knife is to cut things.
The concept of telos plays a big role in Aristotle's concept of biology - every organ has a unique
role to play in keeping the body alive, which is its telos - and it's an idea that pops
up a lot in Marxist studies, too.
See the connection?
Project Power is all about elevating human biology, and class warfare is one of the movie's
major themes.
Yeah, the name Teleos sounds cool, but it's actually a pretty clever reference, too.
You'll just need a philosophy degree to fully unpack what it means.
At the beginning of Project Power, Teleos and its signature product Power start out
fairly mysterious, but as the movie goes on, we learn a little more about both.
While they first seem like a shady newcomer, it turns out that Teleos has been operating
for years, experimenting on former military members before turning their attention to
New Orleans' criminal underground.
Similarly, while the special gifts that Power grants its users seem random, they all have
one thing in common: They're all based on abilities that animals display in the wild.
Most of this is revealed during the big presentation that Biggie gives to potential investors,
and which includes a breakdown of which powers came from which animals.
Healing abilities come from lizards.
Camouflage comes from the octopus.
Even Project Power's more fantastic abilities, like heat and freezing powers, come from animals
that can "thermoregulate."
Pay close attention to this montage, because if you do, you'll realize that it explains
the origins of every single superpower that pops up in the movie, including a few that,
at that point, haven't been seen yet.
It's a neat explanation of what you've already seen, and a clever teaser of what's to come.
Also, we just want to take a moment to call out the "Wolverine frog," which snaps its
own bones to make jagged claws.
Yes, it takes its name from Marvel's most famous mutant, and yes, it's actually a real
thing.
While talking to Art, Amy Landecker's villainous researcher, Gardner, provides an interesting
comparison for Art's daughter.
"I know you think what we're doing here is wrong, but do you know the name Henrietta
Lacks?"
Gardner goes into the story a little bit, but Henrietta Lacks' controversial contribution
to modern medicine is tremendous, and it deserves to be told in full.
In 1951, an African-American woman named Henrietta visited Johns Hopkins University, the only
medical facility she could find that would see Black patients, to be treated for cervical
cancer.
Her doctor took a sample of her cells and found something extraordinary - they continued
to survive and multiply in the lab.
Scientists eventually put the cells, which were dubbed "HeLa," into mass production,
and they've been used to develop the polio vaccine, test treatments for AIDS, cancer,
and other diseases, in-vitro fertilization, and many more medical breakthroughs.
But those cells were taken without Lacks' permission.
Her family didn't learn about them until 1975, and hasn't received a cent from their production.
In other words, it's a complicated story, which makes it a perfect touchstone for Project
Power, a movie that's all about unethical medical experiments and racial and economic
strife.
You don't need us to tell you that Project Power takes place in New Orleans.
From the very first frames, it's almost impossible to forget it.
It's not just all the action set around popular New Orleans landmarks, or the way production
designer Naomi Shohan seamlessly incorporates the city's distinct sense of style into Project
Power's overall look, either.
The film references Hurricane Katrina, which goes a long way towards explaining the sense
of anxiety lurking under the movie's surface.
It's also impossible to miss Frank's Steve Gleason jersey - and if you did, the former
Saints star and current ALS advocate is thanked in the movie's end credits.
But Project Power's sense of place goes even deeper than that.
Robin has a Buku poster on her bedroom wall, paying tribute to the city's annual music
festival.
When we first meet him, Frank is wearing a t-shirt from Fisherman's Friend Bait Shop,
a real business located just east of New Orleans.
Lots of New Orleans' murals and street art make cameos in the movie, too.
The details are everywhere, and go a long way towards making Project Power's world feel
lived in, vibrant, and real.
Thanks for watching.
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