Run Hide Fight

Run Hide Fight is a 2020 American action thriller film written and directed by Kyle Rankin. Starring Thomas Jane, Radha Mitchell and Isabel May, it follows a high school sieged by a quartet of school shooters.

Run Hide Fight
The Daily Wire release poster
Directed byKyle Rankin
Produced by
Written byKyle Rankin
Starring
Music byMondo Boys
CinematographyDarin Moran
Edited byMatthew Lorentz
Production
companies
Distributed byThe Daily Wire
Release date
  • September 10, 2020 (2020-09-10) (Venice)
  • January 14, 2021 (2021-01-14) (United States)
Running time
109 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 10, 2020. Distributed by The Daily Wire in North America, the film premiered on their platform on January 14, 2021.

Plot

High school student Zoe Hull struggles to come to grips with the death of her mother, Jennifer, causing her relationship with her father, Todd, to become strained. On the way to school, Zoe witnesses classmate Chris Jelick planting a strange device in a field, but writes it off as a prank. At school, Zoe's best friend Lewis attempts to ask her to prom, but it backfires and Zoe leaves for the bathroom when a drink is spilled on her.

Around town several incendiary devices are set off, distracting first responders and clogging up the roads. A van crashes into the school cafeteria carrying four school shooters. The leader, Tristan Voy, orders his accomplices Chris Jelick, Anna Jelick and Kip Quade to begin killing students. Lewis, who has access to the school's Facebook page, is tasked with live streaming Tristan. Zoe crawls through the bathroom ceiling and is able to escape the school. She begins warning students and helping them escape.

Tristan calls the front office to alert them of the shooting. Because school protocol requires that the shooting be confirmed, the school's principal and security guard are sent to the cafeteria to investigate. The principal attempts to talk Tristan down, blaming himself for Tristan's rage. However, Tristan admits his only motivation is to cause mayhem. Tristan kills the principal but allows the unarmed security guard to escape, commenting on how unprepared the guard was for an actual shooting. With the situation finally confirmed, the front office calls a lockdown.

Sheriff Tarsy attempts to coordinate a response to the shooting, but it proves difficult. An explosion in the front office kills the first police officer to respond. Anna is sent to survey the damage, but along the way she encounters Zoe, and is killed in the resulting fight. A police officer arrives at Tristan's home only to find that he has murdered his mother. The media picks up the livestream, much to Tristan's delight, and he begins removing students from their classrooms where they are sheltered in place.

Kip encounters Zoe and chases after her, but he is quickly subdued. Handcuffed, Kip admits his motivation for the shooting was retaliation for a bullying incident that occurred in middle school. Zoe points out that Kip has murdered several innocent students who had nothing to do with the incident. Zoe contacts the Sheriff and tells him that he needs to direct the media's cameras away from the school so that she can safely evacuate students. Sheriff Tarsy calls Tristan live on-air to provide cover, but Tristan soon realizes the ruse. Tristan demands Zoe reveal herself to him, threatening to kill hostages every five minutes if she does not.

Zoe returns to Kip, who expresses remorse for what he has done. As partial atonement for his crimes, Zoe has Kip ambush Tristan, and in the ensuing chaos that leaves Kip dead and Lewis injured, Zoe escapes with Lewis. Zoe settles Lewis and reveals that she reciprocates his feelings for her, but that she has a hard time expressing them. Lewis warns her that the van in the cafeteria is filled with explosives. Chris is sent to kill Zoe, but he is instead killed by Todd, who has taken a sniping position outside the school, right before Chris can execute her. Zoe hijacks the livestream, telling Tristan that she is the one people will remember, not him.

Tristan rigs the van to explode and escapes with a single hostage and an explosive. Zoe removes the van from the cafeteria by putting the shift in reverse and jamming the gas pedal with Chris' rifle; it explodes in the vacant parking lot. Zoe then tries to pursue Tristan, but is mistakenly arrested by SWAT. Outside the school, Zoe meets Sheriff Tarsy, who thanks her for her actions and tells her Tristan died in an explosion. Zoe meets with her father, affirming their love and repairing their relationship. Afterwards, she sees Tristan fleeing into the woods, having faked his own death. Zoe retrieves her father's hunting rifle and shoots Tristan as he retrieves a cache of money and a passport. Standing over him, Zoe lets Tristan bleed out, telling him that it's what he deserves for what he has done.

Cast

Production

In December 2019, it was announced Thomas Jane, Radha Mitchell, Isabel May, Eli Brown, Olly Sholotan, Treat Williams, Barbara Crampton, Cyrus Arnold, Britton Sear and Catherine Davis had joined the cast of the film, with Kyle Rankin directing from a screenplay he wrote, with Rebeller distributing.[2]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 10, 2020.[1][3][4]

The Daily Wire acquired the North American distribution rights to the film, and it premiered on their platform on January 14, 2021.[5][6]

Critical reception

Run Hide Fight received mostly negative reviews from critics and has a score of 25% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews with an average rating of 4.40/10.[7] The film also has a score of 13 out of 100 on Metacritic based on six critics indicating "overwhelming dislike".[8]

The film was described as "fundamentally tasteless" by Jonathan Romney of Screen International. He did though praise the film its "strong performances from young stars".[9] Guy Lodge of Variety compared the film to a cross between Elephant and The Hunger Games, and criticized the film for being "merely pedestrian at the levels of direction, craft and performance" and "a grab for attention by peddling an ambiguous line on gun control and eye-for-an-eye morality."[10]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter stated, "Half-hearted posturing aside, this is Die Hard in a high school, with a 17-year-old female John McClane getting motivational input from her dead cancer mom as she dismantles the murderous plot using little more than gut instincts."[11] David Ehrlich of IndieWire criticized director Rankin for several of the tropes he implemented, stating that the film is "a glib, artless, and reprehensibly stupid thriller that doesn’t even have enough on its mind to be provocative."[12] Robbie Collin of The Telegraph negatively compared the ringleader of the school shooters to the Joker from The Dark Knight and noted that "May's performance feels as heroic as the character she's playing" but that the film "makes no attempt to grapple with the American school shooting as a nihilistic cultural phenomenon."[13]

References
  1. "Run Hide Fight". Venice Film Fesitval. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  2. Grater, Tom (December 17, 2019). "School Shooting Drama 'Run Hide Fight', Made In Secret By 'Night Of The Living Deb' Director, To Be First Release From New Genre Label Rebeller". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  3. Wiseman, Andreas (August 11, 2020). "Venice Film Festival Adds Luca Guadagnino Pandemic-Themed Short & School Shooting Thriller 'Run Hide Fight'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  4. "The School-Shooting Movie That Stunned the Venice Film Festival Into Silence". The Daily Beast. September 11, 2020. Archived from the original on September 11, 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  5. "WATCH THE TRAILER: The Daily Wire To Premiere First Film on January 14". The Daily Wire. 2021-01-04. Archived from the original on 2021-01-04. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  6. "The Daily Wire Makes First Foray Into Film & TV With School Shooting Movie 'Run Hide Fight'; Right-Wing Site Developing Two TV Series". www.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 2021-01-04. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  7. "Run Hide Fight (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  8. "Run Hide Fight". Metacritic. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  9. "Run Hide Fight: Venice Review". Screen International. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  10. Lodge, Guy (September 10, 2020). "'Run Hide Fight' Review: Hunters Become Prey in a Crass, Wildly Misjudged School-Shooting Thriller". Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  11. "'Run Hide Fight': Film Review | Venice 2020 | Hollywood Reporter". www.hollywoodreporter.com. Archived from the original on 2021-01-04. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  12. Ehrlich, David (September 10, 2020). "'Run Hide Fight' Review: Glib Cinestate Thriller Turns a School Shooting into a Clichéd Action Movie". Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  13. Collin, Robbie (September 10, 2020). "Run Hide Fight review, Venice Film Festival: high school shooting thriller fatally in thrall to The Dark Knight". Archived from the original on January 5, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
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