AFTERBURN : Tuesday 16th December 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'AFTERBURN' earlier this week at my local multiplex, and this American post-apocalyptic action film is Directed by J.J. Perry in only his third Directorial outing following 'Day Shift' in 2022 and 'The Killer's Game' in 2024, although he has acted and performed stunt work and co-ordinated stunts and fight scenes in numerous feature films, TV movies and TV series over the years. This film is based on the Red 5 Comics graphic novel of the same name by Scott Chitwood, Paul Ens, and Wayne Nichols. The film has languished in development hell since 2008 when it was first announced that Tobey Maguire would Co-Produce 'Afterburn', and since then Antoine Fuqua, Tommy Wirkola and Jung Byung-gil have all been attached to Direct with J.J. Perry hired to Direct in early 2024. It was released in the USA in mid-September, cost US$57M to produce and has so far grossed US$833K.

Here, then we learn through the opening credits that six years ago a solar flare decimated the worlds technology, turned cities into gang ridden wastelands, toppled governments, and the rule of law no longer exists as we once knew it. We are first introduced to Jake (Dave Bautista) who pre-flare days was quite possibly the world's most acclaimed treasure hunter - there was nothing that he couldn't find, track down, and retrieve from land and sea. Then when the flare hit, he turned his very particular set of skills to working for the wealthy elite to continue his treasure hunting exploits for a hefty fee, with which he could fund his eventual escape from all the worlds ills on a sailing boat which he would live on, and sail around the world at his leisure. 

One such client is August Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), the self-proclaimed King of England, retrieving valuable pre-flare objects, which as the film opens sees Jake retrieving a prized Stradivarius Violin dating back to the late 17th or early 18th centuries from an abandoned and overgrown penthouse somewhere in London. As he blows open the vault to retrieve the violin and exits he is greeted by five men all dressed in Police uniforms, who threaten him unless he hands over the case. Jake says joking, 'you're not the real Police are you?' to which the goons respond with a definitely not. A fight ensues and Jake takes them all out without breaking a sweat. 

In exchange for having his men finish the necessary repairs to Jakes dream boat, August requests him to travel into France to retrieve the Mona Lisa with the help of Drea (Olga Kurylenko), a member of a rebellion against the tyrannical warlord General Volkov (Kristofer Hivju) who rules over part of northern France with an iron fist, aided by his right hand man Gorynych (Daniel Bernhardt). Whist Jake is initially very reluctant, he agrees and is parachuted into lawless France and is left to locate Drea. 

He locates Drea and she escorts him to a makeshift church inside an old warehouse led by Father Samson (Kevin Eldon), who is also a member of the rebellion. Meanwhile, one of Volkov's henchmen Bird Skull (Phil Zimmerman) has spotted two very dodgy looking characters weaving through the crowd and track down Jake and Drea to the church. Bird Skull pulls up with a small army in tow, and demands that whoever is inside, come out. Father Samson tells Jake and Drea to take his specially modified all terrain buggy that is fully bullet proofed and get the hell outta dodge, while he goes outside. Needless to say Father Samson is gunned down, while Jake and Drea escape and successfully evade numerous goons on motorbikes, in pursuit vehicles and in tanks. Later, Bird Skull is standing in the town square being questioned by Volkov and Gorynych, and is summarily executed on the spot for allowing two people to evade capture from his small army, and the might of his military hardware.

Chased by Volkov's forces, the two discover it in a vault at Ouvrage Simserhof, a fort on the Maginot Line. It's revealed that the Mona Lisa that Jake is after is actually an American atomic bomb, sister to Fat Man (the atomic device detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki) and Little Boy (used in the bombing of Hiroshima), sought by both August and Volkov. 

As Drea and her men are loading up Mona Lisa onto the back of a truck, they are approached by Volkov and Gorynych aboard their train which pulls up outside the vault. Opening fire and killing almost everyone, Volkov has Mona Lisa hauled up on to his train. 

After Volkov captures the Mona Lisa, Jake boards his train, and sets about killing most of Volkov's henchmen single handedly and with relative ease it seems. He steals the bomb's stop plug, as Drea detonates several blocks of C4 explosive to the support structure of a viaduct, causing the railway bridge to collapse as the train is on it. Drea looks on from a safe distance as the train collapses into the valley below and explodes in several balls of flame killing Volkov, and his remaining goons. Drea mourns the loss of Jake, as he appears behind her and the pair embrace. 

Jake brings the stop plug to August and urges him not to recover the bomb from the gorge where it had ended up. August keeps up his end of the deal and Jake sets sail with Drea with whom he had fallen in love. In a mid-credits scene, August visits a vault where he keeps his prized artefacts, and hangs the stop plug on the frame of the real Mona Lisa.

'Afterburn' is just like any other post-apocalyptic man on a mission who gets the girl in the end, action spectacle thrill ride that we have seen countless times before. The characters are cardboard cut outs, the CGI effects are questionable, the performances are exactly what you would expect, the script is mediocre at best, and the plot formulaic. At a run time of 145 minutes, if there is nothing better to see at your local Odeon you can opt for this one, leave your brain at the door, and sit in an empty theatre (as my movie buddy and I did) and be reasonably entertained, but be prepared to forget about it as soon as you exit the theatre. 

'Afterburn' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-