A dystopian world where people with powers are ostracized. Health care costs are skyrocketing. Those who are ostracized struggle to find work. Welcome to the world of Code 8.
Lincoln City is the fictional setting that is definitely Toronto but could be a cross of Los Angeles and New York. Lincoln City has 4% of the population with superhuman abilities. The people with powers is a loose analogy to immigrants. They build things and then get tossed aside when the building is completed.
Connor Reed (Robbie Amell) is a Class 5 electric with a sick mother (Kari Matchett). Connor takes odd construction jobs. The jobs aren't enough to raise the money needed. Given that the money raised for the making of the film was through crowd sourcing, having the plot be about raising money is appropriate.
Psyke is the drug of choice, a cross between marijuana and cocaine. Knowing Connor can make more money working for drug dealers, he gets into the van driven by Garrett Kent (Stephen Amell, cousin of Robbie). You can tell them apart because Connor has no beard and Garrett has a beard.
Connor sinks further down into the rabbit hole of the drug world. His mother is getting worse. As if Connor doesn't have enough problems trying to save people, he is platonically drawn to Nia (Kyla Kane), a healer.
Sung Kang (good cop) and Aaron Abrams (bad cop) are the ones chasing Connor and the psyke dealers.
Character development isn't the main focus; dialogue is secondary. Action, flying drones, mind reading, guns, shootings, fights, and the shock from being charged electrically. This is what you expect in the Code 8 world.
That said, the story is told reasonably well for this genre. The immigration element is pretty obvious told in a way to humanize those who are ostracized through no fault of their own.
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Code 8 sparked a sequel along with a spinoff series. The upcoming sequel Code 8: Part II will be the answer to that trivia question of Netflix's first original English-language Canadian film. This is a lot better film than Jusqu’au Declin | The Decline (Netflix's first French-language Canadian film).
I confess to finding out about Code 8 from Part I of the 3-part series Making the Case for Canadian Film from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Code 8 will be worth the watch if this type of film appeals to you.
Code 8 is currently on Netflix.
video credit: YouTube/Vertical Entertainment US
photo credit: Code 8 film
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