Upgrade

Upgrade (2018) is Leigh Whannell's sci-fi action thriller, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A near future where machines handle almost everything for people. Grey rebuilds old cars by hand and distrusts gadgets. That distrust turns out to be justified.

After an ambush on a dark road, Grey's wife is dead and he is left paralyzed from the neck down (Logan Marshall-Green carries the lead). A reclusive billionaire inventor offers a way out: an AI chip called STEM grafted to his spine. Grey walks again, but the implant comes with a voice in his head that fights better than any human. Let it take over and his body strikes, breaks and kills with the cold precision of a machine. The hunt for his attackers becomes a bargain in which it is never clear who is steering whom.

Whannell, the writer behind Saw and Insidious, made a lean, bloody and surprisingly funny film on a modest budget. The fight choreography is flipped inside out: the camera is rigged to the actor, so each blow looks like STEM is yanking Grey by invisible strings. Stream Upgrade (2018) online on iFILM.