The Black-and-Chrome Action Movie Pack and ‘Onslaught’ With Michael Biehn and Adam Wingard!

Mutiny 2025

Statham as a bodyguard avenging a shipping magnate, on a boat. Accidentally posted to Prime for two hours before release; a plausible dent in a modest box office.

The Whisper Man 2025

James Ashcroft serial-killer thriller for Netflix, Fincher-and-Zodiac indebted. De Niro at a whisper, Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan playing it straight, Hamish Linklater as a bone collector. CR's verdict: should have been a TV show; drags in the final third.

Onslaught 2025

Wingard's return to guest-verse form: army sniper (Adria Arjona) in a New Mexico trailer park versus escaped super soldiers. A Western at night. Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall as not-so-crypto-Nazi doctors, Drew Starkey as an MDMA-rolling government fixer, Michael Biehn as Baylor, Eric Wareheim and Reginald VelJohnson around the edges. Not a masterpiece, not trying to be.

Mad Max: Fury Road 2015

The Black & Chrome edition gives the whole category its name.

The Road Warrior 1981

CR's single best example: the fashion and aesthetic built out of nothing.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991

Sean's platonic ideal: leather jackets, souped-up shit, super killers.

The Terminator 1984

The dying-cityscape strain, marketed to kids like us.

Aliens 1986

Falls right in the middle: colonial marines plus one woman guarding a child.

They Live 1988

A comfort movie you rewatch a hundred times.

RoboCop 1987

Verhoeven's glimmer of comedy inside the dinginess.

Total Recall 1990

Big Trouble in Little China 1986

Carpenter falling-asleep-to fare.

Prince of Darkness 1987

Starship Troopers 1997

Related to Aliens but a distinctly more absurd, comic register.

Snowpiercer 2013

Vampires 1998

John Carpenter's, way underrated; a cynical band of brothers versus the supernatural.

Ghosts of Mars 2001

Carpenter doing Planet of the Vampires by way of Von Ryan's Express; maybe fits the category even harder.

Universal Soldier 1992

Early Emmerich, a direct Onslaught ancestor; spawned a VOD paradise of sequels.

The Matrix Reloaded 2003

A case for tier one: the highway sequence, Neo's most Arnold performance.

Dredd 2012

Tier two.

Upgrade 2018

Tier two.

Soldier 1998

Kurt Russell; tier two.

Terminator Salvation 2009

Lives on for Bale's meltdown, but as much blood-and-chrome as the first two.

Predators 2010

Nimrod Antal directs, Rodriguez produces; criminals dropped on a planet.

Pitch Black 2000

The Riddick zone.

The Chronicles of Riddick 2004

V for Vendetta 2005

More politically charged than the rest.

John Wick 2014

Works in the tradition, if more elevated and stylized.

Ballerina 2025

A self-consciously B-movie Wick; VFX felt unfinished.

The Tomorrow War 2021

Tier three; Pratt as teacher turned future super soldier.

Without Remorse 2021

An appalling, dull Clancy reboot per Sean; Michael B. Jordan, Sheridan script.

Ultraviolet 2006

Milla Jovovich sci-fi action; all the trappings.

Aeon Flux 2005

Doesn't quite work but has the trappings.

Tron: Legacy 2010

Sixth score, fun to look at, plot forgettable.

Aliens 1986

Wingard's origin story: the out-of-print VHS he rented from a half-Radio Shack video store and watched ~24 times; Biehn's Hicks was the favorite toy.

The Terminator 1984

Won its opening weekend, wasn't a top-20 film that year; nobody was clamoring to cast Biehn after.

Alien 1979

The tape the half-Radio Shack store had instead of Aliens; young Wingard rented it hunting for the space marines and found none.

Alien 3 1992

Just out at the time; the other wrong tape Wingard rented before Tommy tracked down a copy of Aliens.

Time Bomb 1991

Avi Nesher B-movie Biehn starred in; its short, primal bursts of action were a stated Onslaught reference. Biehn found it disappointing at the time.

The Guest 2014

The film Wingard is most identified with; Onslaught more or less lives in its universe.

You're Next 2011

Blair Witch 2016

Death Note 2017

Godzilla vs. Kong 2021

Shot during the pandemic; Wingard started it in a cast after being hit by a car crossing the street outside Simon Barrett's.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire 2024

The franchise-IP stretch he wanted to step away from.

Tombstone 1993

Notoriously director-by-committee (Kevin Jarre out, Cosmatos in, Kurt Russell steering); ignored on release, beloved now. Nobody mentioned Biehn's Johnny Ringo.

Navy Seals 1990

Biehn's cautionary tale on saying yes: he confused Lewis Teague with Gene Wilder's credits.

The Woman in Red 1984

Gene Wilder's, which Biehn wrongly credited to Teague.

Lady in Red 1979

The Lewis Teague film Biehn was actually thinking of.

Cujo 1983

The other Teague credit that pushed Biehn to say yes.

The Abyss 1989

Biehn told Cameron the third act felt chunky.

Grindhouse 2007

First time Biehn recalls being surprised by a soft opening weekend.

The Shawshank Redemption 1994

Cited as another film nobody cared about on release.

Hit Man 2023

Biehn on Arjona: very sexy, and it worked.

Los Frikis 2024

The small Cuba-set film (Biehn calls it 'El Freakos'/'Loose Freakies') Arjona produced and stars in; desperate Cubans injecting HIV to escape. His last-great-thing pick.

Pillion 2025

Wingard's pick: a sweet, funny motorcycle-seat romance he compares to the Stevens/Hall dynamic, gay version.