Scorched Earth is a 2018 Canadian-American post-apocalyptic science fiction/action film directed by Peter Howitt starring Gina Carano. Supporting cast include John Hannah, Ryan Robbins, Patrick Gilmore, Patrick Sabongui & Stephanie Bennett.
It’s a post apocalyptic futurist movie where the earth has had brutal climate changes, colloquially known as the Cloud Fall. The combination of pollution and relentless mining of Earth’s resources through industrialism has left the environment nearly unlivable and extremely hostile to human habitation. People trade using the barter system and water purifers nd silver, ground up to line the interior of breathing masks, to keep out a painful and fatal airborne disease known as Black Lung. Cars are mostly banned and anyone caught driving such a vehicle was given the maximum sentence, and numerous people have become bounty hunters, bringing in drivers and other lawbreakers in exchange for tabs and silver, dead or alive.
Carano plays Atticus Gage, a bounty hunter who after killing Chavo, a female outlaw, freeing several pilgrims in the process. After she collects her bounty from Sheriff Grubbs in New Montana, and her mentor Doc he tells her of the massive sum on the head of Thomas Jackson, an unusually industrious outlaw who is building a shelter-town for criminals, calling it Defiance. She takes on the persona of Chavo, as everyone in her group have died. She makes an impression on Jackson though his right hand man Lear is suspicious of her. Gage endears herself to Jackson by saving his life when Grubbs and a posse sneak into Defiance to try taking him out. Jackson decides to include Gage in his plans, which includes enslaving the entire region to work in the silver mines near his town, he offers Gage 15% of the cut of the profits in exchange for her services as a gunfighter, and unintentionally revealing a scar on his forearm, which Gage’s sister had made when she bit him, before he killed her.
Shortly after, Jackson took Gage, Lear and several men to capture pilgrims with armored vehicles and armed escorts. Among the pilgrims is Beatrice, one of the women Gage saved from Chavo earlier. She warns the woman to be quiet and patient. While Jackson and his men celebrate, Gage urges Melena, Jackson’s girlfriend, to leave Defiance that night, revealing her identity as a bounty hunter. She apprehends Jackson, but is captured immediately, having been betrayed by Melena, and also identified by Womack, who was now terminally infected by black lung. They briefly torture Gage, then Womack drives her out into the wilderness, and dumps her in a gorge.
She survives the fall, and manages to get back to New Montana, but contracted a severe case of black lung. Doc revives her and tends her wounds, and together, the two plot to take down Jackson and the entire town of Defiance. They liberate Beatrice and the other captives from the silver mine, then engage the entire town. Gage severely wounds Lear, and is saved from a sniper by a repentant Melena. Gage pursues Jackson to the mines and fights with him, leaving him to die in an explosion using dynamites. She returns to the town, where a wounded Doc had managed to dispatch Lear for good, cuts down the corpses hanging in the town entrance, and transports Doc back to New Montana by stretcher.
It’s an average film, a one-time watch which I wanted to see just because of Gina but Ryan Robbins gleeful portrayal of a baddie is also a good reason to check it out. Nothing special. A 6 outta 10!
What can one do when you have way too many tv shows that you have on dvd and want to watch them over and over again? I am currently rewatching a bunch of shows – ok let’s go with comedy first, it’s Little Mosque On The Praiser which is a sitcom and I’m midway through 5th season and it has one more season to go. This is my second watch of this Canadian show. I am also on season 7 of Star Trek Voyager and season 6 of Star Trek Deep Space Nine – it’s the 8th and 2nd time for the shows respectively. Yeah I got into DS9 fairly late.
