Die Hard in a High School

From it’s jarring opening, and through the rest of the first act mundane moments of a day in the life of a high school student, Run Hide Fight is so on the nose in it’s foreshadowing it almost upstages the fine performances behind it. Writer/director Kyle Rankin makes clear from the get go that subtlety is not a big concern for this film. The story centers around Zoe Hull, played remarkably well by Isabel May, a high school student struggling to come to terms with the loss of her dearly departed mother. Zoe is, as we soon learn, is a bit disturbed.

The film opens with she and her father Todd Hull (Thomas Jane) hunting. He whispers fatherly advice to her, guiding her as she takes aim at the buck in her sights. She shoots, but the deer is not dead still suffering from it’s mortal wound. Todd explains to his daughter that her job as a huntress is not yet done. He explains that while it is tempting to let the mortal wound of the deer take its course, but this would be cruel.

As he explains this, Zoe walks off, returns with a big rock and bashes in the head of the dying deer. It is a jarring scene, not just for the audience but for Todd too. It is short, too bitter to be sweet and on the nose. Back at home dad tries to confront Zoe about her war with the world, but Zoe being a typical high school student at war with the world is having none of it. Fortunately her friend Lewis arrives just in time to give her a ride to school.

The confrontation between daughter and dad includes line’s like Todd’s: “You’re 17 years old and you got rid of your cellphone?” Some foreshadowing there, I tell you. On the ride to school, they are approached by a speeding Jeep carrying fellow high school students. Presumably the popular ones. Zoe say’s of them; “They’re like rolling soldiers who don’t realize their empire is about to crumble.”

That line is actually a nice bit of foreshadowing as it speaks directly to graduating students, but foreshadows the doom to come. The jeep filled with rowdy boys speeds up beside them, one of the boys mooning Lewis and Zoe. She responds by castigating them, telling them that she knows they’re hurting because their mommy didn’t love them enough. The driver of the jeep responds by running Lewis off the road. Lewis laments he’s always the guy that gets run off the road.

Zoe points out, he acted responsibly and looked out for their safety where she imprudently egged those boys on. It’s worth pointing out that before this happened, Lewis had already taken credit for “saving” Zoe from her dad. This too is a nice bit of foreshadowing with a twist. Foreshadowing because if you’re not already aware of the fact that Zoe is actually John McClaine from Die Hard, you’re just not paying attention. While still on the side of the road they notice a familiar student exiting a suspicious white van with a suspicious box that he gingerly places in a field.

Lewis has also pointed out while still on the side of the road that it’s “prank day” at the high school. So, when they arrive at school, in the parking lot are all kinds of shenanigans. While walking towards the school a kid with a water pistol runs past them causing Lewis to flinch. Once at school, after being told he’s being weird, Lewis admits to being stressed. Zoe tells him; “Just remember Lewis, this is high school. Nothing that happens here matters in the real world. Got it?” Even when the film is being ironic it is sloppy drenched in the syrup of foreshadowing.

Once in class, one of Zoe’s classmates hands her an iPod to listen to a song the classmate wrote. While listening Zoe tells her classmate; “I want this played at my funeral.” Do you get it or should I keep giving examples of the numerous lines that foreshadow the doom to come? Kyle Ranking writes and directs this movie like he’s the right-wing version of Oliver Stone. Hammering and hammering his point like his audience is a bunch of nails. I happen to like Oliver Stone’s films, and don’t necessarily mean that as a jab at either director.

All this hammering away, despite its grim nature turns out to be a lot of fun, just like any Die Hard movie should be. When the four horsemen of the apocalypse arrive – I doubt it’s any accident that there are four of them – that hammering actually manages to build up some proper tension. Before the school shooters even arrive, it’s been made clear they’ve seriously planned and organized the tragedy that follows. The kid from the white van placing a box in that field explodes as do a few other locations.

These explosions tie up firefighters and law enforcement before the villains even arrive. When these four horsemen finally do arrive, in the high school cafeteria, they are led by a smarmy pipsqueak. Like a young relation to Peter Saarsgard only played by Eli Brown. Brown is pretty good as Tristan Voy, the joyously angry teen out for revenge, and the ease in which his performance disappears under the shadow of Isabelle May’s heroic Zoe may be genius on Brown’s part.

Zoe has no patience for angry victims who’ve been bullied now becoming lethal bullies themselves. She has no empathy for any need to be a victim any longer than it takes to find remedy. Zoe, who has managed to *run* from these vicious killers, *hide* from them only to witness an innocent lunch lady be slaughtered by one of the villains, finally decides to *fight.* If this all seems that this is right-wing rhetoric dramatized into a popcorn thriller, that’s because it is.

The film was released on Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire. It was produced by Amanda Presmyk and Dallas Sonnier of Cinestate. Cinestate is known for such movies as Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. Run Hide Fight is a film that largely sees things in terms of black and white. It’s not that the film is nuance free, but it prefers to hammer away at it’s points with blunt force. In a film that centers around angry teens who’ve decided to massacre their classmates, that blunt force drama tends to work.

When Zoe is able to disarm and subdue Kip (Cyrus Arnold), he petulantly shames Zoe for being one of those who were there (so many years ago) when little Kip was depantsed by a classmate. Everybody laughed. He relayed all the times girls would giggle in his presence. He relayed the time a teacher castigated him for handing his homework in late by saying; “You’ve seemed to come up short.” Kip has had to live the agony of that moment all of his life he wants you to know.

Zoe responds by suggesting that maybe those girls were just giggling over something unrelated. That possibly his teacher had no clue he was once depantsed (all those years ago). She has no patience for Kips justifications for what he’s done. He is, after all, the one who slaughtered the lunch lady. She has duck taped him to a seat in the auditorium and leaves him there.

Zoe then begins the process of helping students escape the impending doom. It’s a game of cat and mouse between her and Tristan. In the age where woman are now often cast as bad ass superhero types, Run Hide Fight does a great job making Zoe’s power plausible. She’s human, and part of the explanation of her power is that she harbors plenty of rage over the death of her mother. Her power is simply her training by her father, to survive.

It is a clever twist that Zoe winds up saving the boy who crushes on her and fantasizes about saving her. Lewis has been rejected by Zoe after he asked her to prom. He feels his attraction to her is unrequited and understandably so. Still, he worries about her. When he is led to believe Zoe is dead, he mourns her and when he discovers that she’s still alive he’s relived but brims with pride. He can’t help but proud of this bad ass Zoe.

Rankin has made this set up plausible enough to enjoy the show. But when he takes it off the rails in the final act, it’s hard to enjoy the movie while your constantly rolling your eyes all the way to the back of your head. Overall Run Hide Fight is a well made popcorn action/thriller. Isabel May shines and her bravado performance alone is worth the price of admission. Still, Rankin’s tale of Die Hard in a high school is devilishly fun and subversive when juxtaposed against typical Hollywood films about school shootings.

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