“Our goal with Nobody was not to get crazy,” claims Ilya Naishuller, the Russian-born filmmaker behind 2015 action fest Hardcore Henry. If you’ve seen Nobody’s bonkers debut trailer, in which Breaking Bad’s Bob Odenkirk unleashes Wick-ian levels of ultraviolence on the Russian mafia, you – like TF – might be questioning that ‘not crazy’ part. “Well, in terms of the action, I think we reach a solid 8 out of 10,” Naishuller laughs. “And considering we have Bob in there doing crazy things… we could probably even go for 10.” That’s more like it.
Where Nobody does aim to dial down the crazy is with the “grown-up” story underpinning the bone-crunching action. Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell – a suburban family man who’s humiliated when he fails to defend his family during a break-in. But Hutch is far from a cowardly nobody. He’s a man with a dormant set of particular skills, and fears what might result if he lets his simmering rage bubble to the surface.