Ambulance (2022 film)
Ambulance is a 2022 American action thriller film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay and written by Chris Fedak. A co-production between New Republic Pictures, Project X Entertainment and Bay Films, it is a remake of the 2005 Danish film Ambulancen. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as adoptive brothers who hijack an ambulance after robbing a bank, and take a paramedic (Eiza González) and a police officer (Jackson White) hostage.
Ambulance
Chris Fedak
- Michael Bay
- Bradley J. Fischer
- Ian Bryce
- William Sherak
- James Vanderbilt
Roberto De Angelis
- Pietro Scalia
- Doug Brandt
- Calvin Wimmer
- New Republic Pictures
- Endeavor Content
- Project X Entertainment
- Bay Films
- March 16, 2022 (International)
- March 20, 2022 (UGC Normandie)
- April 8, 2022 (United States)
136 minutes[1]
United States
English
$40 million
$52.3 million
The film was first announced in 2015 and went through several crew changes. In 2020, Bay came on board to direct after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his plans to shoot a different movie. Filming took place in Los Angeles, in the midst of the pandemic with cinematographer Roberto De Angelis. During post-production, the film was edited by Pietro Scalia and the score was composed by Lorne Balfe.
Ambulance was theatrically released in some international territories on March 16, and then premiered in Paris, France, on March 20, and was theatrically released in the United States by Universal Pictures on April 8, 2022. The film underperformed at the box office, grossing approximately $52 million worldwide on a budget of $40 million. While the story drew some polarized response, Ambulance received praise for the performances, Bay's direction and the action sequences.[2]
Plot[edit]
Afghanistan veteran Will Sharp, who is desperately in need of $231,000 for surgery for his wife Amy, reaches out to Danny, his adoptive brother and a life-long criminal. Danny talks him into taking part in a $32 million bank heist. Though initially hesitant, Will agrees after Danny reaffirms that he is doing this for Amy. The plan nearly succeeds until Officer Zach, who goes to the bank to ask out a bank teller, discovers the situation and is held hostage by Danny. A shootout then occurs between one of the heist members and Zach's partner Officer Mark. The Special Investigation Section (SIS) of the LAPD arrives and shoots down the whole crew except Will and Danny, who retreat toward the garage. Zach attempts to escape and during a scuffle between him and Danny, is accidentally shot by Will. Leaving Zach to die, the brothers attempt to exit through the back of the building but find it surrounded by police. They then hijack an ambulance with EMT Cam Thompson on board, who is treating the injured Zach. After a chase that leads them into an alleyway, Cam makes a desperate attempt to escape using a fire extinguisher but is quickly recaptured by Danny.
SIS Captain Monroe arrives on the scene and deploys helicopters to chase after the ambulance. Cam gets Danny to help her use a defibrillator and Will to transfer some of his blood to Zach, much to his confusion and frustration. Danny then calls Papi, one of his father's criminal friends, for help losing the police in exchange for $8 million. When Cam stops Danny from shooting Mark, who has been chasing them, Danny threatens to throw her off the ambulance. The police are forced to retreat when it is discovered that Monroe's dog is inside Mark's police vehicle. FBI Agent Anson Clark, a past friend of Danny's, is put on the case. Zach begins to bleed out; Cam, with Will's assistance, begins to perform surgery on Zach. Despite her inexperience and a ruptured spleen, Cam successfully performs the surgery. Cam tries to convince Will to stop Danny, to no avail. Monroe, unaware of the surgery's success, moves forward with the operation and prepares to snipe Will and Danny without negotiating for Cam's life. Clark calls Cam and tells her to get down. Cam, wanting to save Zach's life, alerts Will and Danny about the snipers. Danny, having had enough of Cam, decides to shoot her, but Will intervenes, causing the brothers to fight about their predicament. They later partially reconcile and listen to music together to ease the tension.
In the Los Angeles River, helicopters chase the ambulance as Danny shoots at them. Will and Danny then drive on the opposite lane of the interstate, creating multiple accidents. On Papi's orders, his son, Roberto, drives an empty ambulance towards the police after filling it with C-4 explosives and deploys machine guns on separate cars to cause additional damage, which ends up wounding Monroe in the crossfire. Mark chases down Roberto and fatally shoots him after a scuffle, leaving Papi angry and distraught. Will and Danny escape to Papi's hideout. Papi demands the brothers leave Zach and Cam with them to deal with; Will refuses to cooperate and teams up with Danny to kill Papi and his crew. In the chaos, Cam accidentally shoots Will using Zach's gun. Danny takes the ambulance to a hospital and discovers Zach's gun. He is enraged when Cam reveals that she was the one who shot Will. Danny vows to kill Cam along with himself on live television before confronting the police. Left with no other choice, Will shoots Danny in the back. Danny apologizes to Will before he dies from his injuries. The police arrest a heavily injured Will and take him inside for surgery, Cam secretly gives some of the heist money to Amy for her surgery, and Zach, when questioned by the police about his injuries, tells them that Will saved his life.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Ambulance is an American remake of the 2005 Danish film of the same name. Producer Bradley J. Fischer said Michael Bay was his first choice to direct the film but that the filmmaker had originally passed on the project.[3] The film was announced on August 28, 2015, with Phillip Noyce attached to direct from a script written by Chris Fedak.[4] Two years later, it was reported that Noyce had been replaced by directing duo Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales,[5] but this version of the film never entered production.[6]
Marketing[edit]
The first trailer was shown at CinemaCon on August 25, 2021,[45] and released online on October 21, 2021.[46] It featured a cover of the song "California Dreamin'" sung by Bobby Womack.[45] The Hollywood Reporter compared the footage to Heat (1995) and Training Day (2001),[47] and Deadline Hollywood noted "the rapid rhythm that Bay does best."[48] Entertainment Weekly said the film looked like "pure chaos, thanks to a lot of quick camera cuts, loads of gunfire, a high-speed ambulance chase, and Jake Gyllehaal [sic] doing the absolute most with his bank robber character."[49] A second trailer was released on March 24, 2022. It featured the song "Sailing" by Christopher Cross.[50] Entertainment Weekly wrote, "The latest trailer for the chaotic heist-gone-wrong film is peak Michael Bay, with everything you could possibly want from an action flick".[51]
The film was marketed as a counterprogramming option for older male moviegoers. Pre-sales for the film trended ahead of Lionsgate's Moonfall (2022), which had a larger budget. Shawn Robbins from Boxoffice Pro said Universal had "done a fine job reaching its target male audience with significant promotion during major sporting events over the past few months."[52] According to iSpot, Universal spent $33 million on television spots promoting the film, which generated 819 million impressions across the United States. Commercials were generally aired during sporting events such as NFL and NBA games, men's college basketball, Super Bowl LVI and the Winter Olympics, as well as re-runs of The Big Bang Theory.[53]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Ambulance grossed $22.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $29.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $52.3 million.[54]
In the US and Canada, Ambulance was released alongside Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the wide expansion of Everything Everywhere All at Once. It was projected to gross $8–14 million from 3,412 theaters in its opening weekend.[52] Variety's Rebecca Rubin believed the "comparatively lean production budget ... could soften the blow in the event the film doesn't connect with audiences."[52] The film made $3.2 million on its first day, including $700,000 from Thursday night previews.[53] It went on to gross $8.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing fourth at the box office.[55] Men made up 62% of the audience during its opening, with those above the age of 25 comprising 77% of ticket sales and those above 35 comprising 49%. The ethnic breakdown of the audience showed that 38% were Caucasian, 29% Hispanic and Latino Americans, 22% African American, and 11% Asian or other. Deadline Hollywood's Anthony D'Alessandro noted the reluctance of older male audiences to return to theaters and said, "when it comes to action films in today's cinemas, it's the superhero films that have it all, everything else is B-rated. They've stolen the air away from something as standard as Ambulance."[53] The film made $4.1 million in its second weekend,[56] $1.8 million in its third,[57] and $1.2 million in its fourth before dropping out of the box office top ten.[58] Rubin deemed the film a box-office bomb, citing its release in a crowded marketplace, lukewarm reviews, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on moviegoing habits, and the action genre's steady decline in popularity.[59]
Outside the US and Canada, the film earned $4.4 million from 35 international markets in its opening weekend.[60][61] It made $6.6 million in its second weekend,[62] $2.8 million in its fourth,[63] $1.4 million in its fifth,[64] $1.8 million in its sixth,[65] and $572,000 in its seventh.[66]
Critical response[edit]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 252 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "At top speed and with sirens wailing, Ambulance comes riding to the rescue for audiences facing an emergency shortage of Michael Bay action thrills."[67] It is the second highest-rated film directed by Bay on the site, as well as the second to hold a "fresh" rating, alongside The Rock (1996).[53] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100 based on 55 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[68] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it a 77% positive score, with 61% saying they would definitely recommend it.[53]
Bay's direction was well received by critics. John Nugent of Empire said the filmmaker's "tribute to the emergency services (which involves blowing several of them up) is noisy, messy and frequently absurd — yet still somehow his most gleefully entertaining effort in at least a decade."[69] The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey said it was "as exhausting as it is exhilarating, in the way you both expect and desire from a Bay film."[70] Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter and Danny Leigh from Financial Times also described it as "exhausting". While Scheck called it a "decently premised B-movie stretched out to an interminable 136 minutes", Leigh said it was "hard to resist" and that audiences "would miss Bay if he vanished from the Hollywood menagerie."[38][71] Kevin Maher of The Times wrote, "Everything here is Bay squared. It's a film that simply does not stop."[72]
The story and performances received some criticism. TheWrap's Robert Abele said Gyllenhaal's acting was unconvincing and "over-the-top" and that Abdul-Mateen's character was a "poorly conceived good guy in over his head." He also said "Bay's addiction to confusion and pointlessness as operating visual narrative principles keeps this from being in any way pleasurable."[73] A. O. Scott of The New York Times was positive about the performances but found the story predictable, "It all ends up pretty much where you expect it will, but the actors do a good job of seething and emoting under pressure, and Gyllenhaal does a volatile, charming sociopath thing that isn't as annoying as it might be."[74] Tim Grierson, writing for Screen Daily, said the film "spotlights [Bay]'s visual panache alongside his considerable storytelling weaknesses."[75] The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw said "Ambulance has everything ... except actors giving a decent performance as believable characters in a workable script."[76] The Evening Standard's Charlotte O'Sullivan said the film picks up once the characters enter the ambulance, and that "the B-movie [Gyllenhaal] and Bay have cobbled together is genuinely diverting."[77]
Collider praised Ambulance as Bay's best film since The Rock and Bad Boys II as well as his "most human film to date", citing its emphasis on character development and emotional depth beyond his signature explosive action set-pieces.[78]
