Project Silence

Story: Jeong-won (Lee Sun-kyun) works for the presidential candidate who enjoys the most popularity at the moment. He is on his way to the airport because his daughter Kyung-min (Kim Su-an) is supposed to fly to Australia to study there. However, due to the enormously dense fog that evening and a reckless driver, there is a mass pile-up on the bridge to the airport. In addition, there is also a military convoy transporting some specially bred dogs. The dogs get free during the accident and doctor Yang (Kim Hee-won) wants to bring them back under his control. The dogs have been implanted with a chip, with which it is possible to make them react to a specific target. Yang uses this to lure them back to their cage. When a helicopter is then supposed to pick up the cage, there is an incident and the helicopter crashes. This leads to a malfunction in the dogs' chips, and they now randomly attack everyone who is stuck on the bridge. Escaping them seems difficult because an explosion has created a cloud of toxic gases. Jeong-won now tries to bring his daughter to safety, and by using his high position he is also eager to find out as quickly as possible what is actually going on. A rescue team is already on its way, but the bridge could collapse at any moment...

Review: Right from the very beginning, there is no doubt that "Project Silence" is a disaster movie. At least that's how it seems, because the tension generated by the dense fog and a live-streaming sports car driver pushing through the traffic at enormously high speed has some "Final Destination" vibes to it. However, there is only one major fender bender, and everything seems to end disappointingly mildly. Of course, that's not what you want to see in a movie of this kind. But then there are the lab-bred dogs, which of course get free, but are surprisingly peaceful too. It takes another chain of unfortunate events to trigger the real catastrophe: those very human-attacking dogs that were created as super soldiers. The biggest problem of "Project Silence" is of course its story. It seems as if the producers took the plots of several B-movies and hammered them together, come hell or high water. It's only thanks to the directing job, the well-done images, and the actors involved, that the movie doesn't end up completely outrageous.

But we're not quite done with the clichéd story yet. Of course, the hero must have a daughter who has become estranged from him, as he only lives for his work after his wife died. And if you need a spoiler alert for the fact that father and daughter get closer again in the course of the fight for survival, you've probably never seen any movies. The most original factor is that there are one or two surprises in the political skirmish regarding disaster management. But story-wise, there isn't that much more to mention here. It's also a pity that "Project Silence" sometimes tries to go in the direction of a horror movie - after all, bloodthirsty dogs are the focus of the story -, but the level of suspense simply isn't enough for that. In addition, the movie mostly avoids violence. Even though we more or less get to see how people are bitten to death, it all stays rather vague. Unfortunately, the dogs never pose the kind of threat that they should according to the script. This makes the fight for survival pretty superficial and not very gripping.

But it's nice to see Lee Sun-kyun ("Sleep"), who took his life at the end of last year, one more time in a movie, especially since he is able to breathe life into the flat script. He plays a rather unheroic father who is forced by the events to take the reins and lead the small group that survived the dog attack to safety while simultaneously trying to hide the fact that the government is responsible for the project. In the beginning, though, Jeong-won himself didn't know anything about the high level conspiracy, so the most interesting aspect of the story is his inner turmoil of not committing political suicide while getting off the bridge alive and ideally saving a few other people besides his daughter. There are also a few side characters, but they stay pretty bland. Only Ju Ji-hoon ("Ransomed") stands out a bit. He is the funny supporting role, but he manages to avoid just being annoying and insignificant. Nonetheless, the script doesn't allow for much more.

On another note, there seems to be one person dumber than the next. A lot of decisions are inexplicable, sometimes people just stand around stupidly instead of doing something, and a SWAT team is not able to defend itself against the dogs even though they have firearms and protective gear. Most characters also love to put themselves in unnecessary danger simply to make the movie more thrilling. Most of the time, it just makes you facepalm, though. But maybe you don't expect so much anyway after you find out that the dogs in the cages were on their way to some location where they were supposed to be euthanized. Why this means that these highly dangerous killer dogs have to be transported is just one of those B-movie necessities. At least the special effects don't look so bad. Especially when it comes to animals, bad CGI can often destroy the illusion, but most of the time it works here. Explosions and ripping steel cables etc. also give "Project Silence" the appearance of a properly produced action spectacle.

Most of the points mentioned in this review must have sounded quite negative. However, director Kim Seong-hun, who has already created the great "A Hard Day" along with lead actor Lee Sun-kyun, and who besides a bridge already dealt with a tunnel in a disaster movie aptly titled "Tunnel", shows once more that he is able to create beautiful images and an appealing movie in general. Because as already mentioned before, otherwise the movie would have little to no chance of being watched by a large audience with its rather ridiculous story. The arc of suspense also ensures that something always happens and that we also get an appropriately atmospheric finale. Despite everything, though, things stay at a barely above average level at best. Still, with its almost 100 minutes, "Project Silence" is not longer than necessary, and delivers solid genre food. Quite entertaining, but you could certainly spend your time better as well.

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