Once upon a time, Hollywood actually produced loads of original ideas, with giant budgets, sprawling scales, and rousing, ensemble-led adventures with no built-in fanbase or existing IP in sight.
It’s almost hard to believe now, but studios used to actually take big chances on big-budget action-adventure fare created exclusively for the big screen, colorful, absurdly fun “event” films that were full of surprises and stunts and that weren’t beholden to any tired franchise or remade from any old classic.
And sometimes, they’d even make those sprawling, massive-budget event movies with an R rating. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it’s true.
Well if you miss those halcyon days of blockbuster cinema past, before all the shared universes, superhero fatigue, and existing IP-only greenlights, then you’ll definitely want to catch “Hope,” the mammoth new Korean action blockbuster, during its surprisingly wide US run right now.
The biggest and most expensive Korean film ever made, “Hope” is lot.
It’s a lot of gunfire. It’s a lot explosions. It’s a LOT of noise and blood and off-the-wall sci-fi action insanity.
But more than anything, it’s a lot of fun, and I mean a kind of fun that you rarely see – and more rarely feel – from Hollywood these days.
It’s all the brainchild of singular writer/director Na Hong-jin, who spent a full decade working toward what would become his country’s biggest foray into worldwide blockbuster territory, and it’s hard to see his efforts as anything other than a rousing, runaway success.
For a nearly three-hour, high-octane action epic, “Hope” actually starts about as small and as unassumingly as possible, with a young small-town police chief meeting up with his gruff second cousin and some friends to discuss a dead cow lying in the middle of a road, its flesh scratched and torn.
What could have done it? Well, a monster, of course. You know it’s a monster. But what is it? Where did it come from? What does it want and what does that mean for the residents of poor, little, mostly elderly Hope Harbor?
Well, most of those answers will have to wait, because for the next roughly 40 minutes, you’re treated to some of the most insane, exhaustive action in years, running right alongside Chief Bum-seok through the increasing – and increasingly deadly – path of destruction that the monster is leaving through town.
The action here is relentless, jumping into the fray headfirst with barely any broader exposition beyond “there’s a monster wreaking havoc for some reason” and riding a tidal wave of building momentum and escalating firepower. (Seriously, the number of bullets fired in this film might be historic.)
It’s also an absolute feast of production design and set dressing.
Every building is a wrecked mess of hanging ceilings, displaced junk, and seemingly endless suburban devastation as the monster has smashed, splintered, and squashed every building and every person in its way. After so many years of Hollywood’s reliance on non-descript CG destruction, it’s refreshing to follow the chief through a ruined town that feels lived in and real, with every scattered pot, pan, door, or body part actually placed for real by a person on the production team. It’s colorful, it’s real, and it’s practically all in broad daylight.
And through nearly the entire first act, the monster remains out of sight. Hong-jin builds the anticipation right alongside the intensity, the stakes, and the momentum, and when it finally all pays off with the big reveal, it’s in a moment of real fear and pure exhilaration the likes of which most American action films have forgotten.
But that’s all just the first act. Remember, this movie is long…
The unassailable fun and excitement of “Hope” is so tightly tied to its gradual revelations and realizations of what’s really happening that it would be a grave disservice for me to spoil anything or reveal too much of its increasingly epic and massive story here.
Suffice to say that it gets big, then bigger, then somehow, when you least expect it, bigger still. And along the way, there’s blindsiding plot twists, gleefully juvenile gross-out humor, and buckets upon buckets of blood, bodily destruction, and gooey, graphic gore.
There’s a full ensemble of characters and more than a few plot threads, ranging from emotional and distraught to goofy, bickering action-comedy, from ratcheting suspense and full horror to sweeping, crowd-pleasing action, complete with unreasonably invincible and unexplainably capable heroes.
In short, “Hope” is kind of everything all at once, and the fact that it mostly pulls it all off while remaining so undeniably fun and consistently surprisingly and invigorating is probably the most remarkable thing about it.
Sure, there are some elements that aren’t going to work everyone, and some that might turn off a lot of casual American audiences.
There are some real gross-out gags that won’t land with everyone. There are a lot of action sequences that are almost exhaustingly long and unyielding. And the CGI for the monsters could seem antiquated or cheap to some, though I loved it. (There’s a slightly jittery sense to their movements that smacks of classic Ray Harryhausen stop-motion, but at superspeed. And come on, that’s awesome.)
And without spoiling anything, there’s a pretty significant third-act revelation that’s bound to leave a lot of viewers scratching their heads and possibly very unsatisfied with the ending.
I’m not one of those viewers.
I was along for the ride, on board for the insanity, and nothing less than riveted by the shocks, thrills, and twists along the way.
But it’s also actually about something, believe it or not.
Though it’s not made explicit (at least not for Western audiences,) the film actually takes place in the 90s, and the town of Hope Harbor is actually a small border town near the landmine-laden Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. And none of that is incidental.
In reality, this gory, madcap action romp is something of an examination of small lives wrapped up in big wars, of the unprepared people caught in the middle of irresolvable catastrophes, and of the unexpected ways they’ll find themselves rising to the occasion or doing something pointlessly stupid, sometimes simultaneously.
“Hope” is a giant, unapologetic swing for the fences, and it’s a swing that distributor Neon is taking very seriously, with one of their widest releases ever, pushing the “must see in theaters” element especially hard.
But it’s true. You really must see “Hope” in theaters for the full effect. It needs to be extremely loud, unmanageably large, and altogether overwhelming enough to sweep you up in its wake and pull you along for every one of its 160 relentless minutes.
Time will tell if “Hope” actually succeeds in its quest to become a legitimate global blockbuster or if it ends its worldwide run as just an off-the-wall modern cult classic.
But rest assured, if it does get the sequel that it so undoubtedly deserves, you’ll want to be able to say that you saw the first installment on the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen.“Hope” is now playing in wide release, distributed by Neon.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
