The Belko Experiment (2017)

★★★
The Belko Experiment invites comparisons to Battle Royale, but rather than let the similarities be a crutch, it runs wild with its premise. The combatants, arena, weapons and powerful overseers are different from the Japanese classic, but with that we get new possibilities for where this story could go. It's really no different than finishing a great television series and then wanting to repeat the experience but not watch the same show all over again. Loved watching the Roddenberry/Berman universe of Star Trek? Check out Babylon 5 or the Battlestar Galactica reboot to get your fix. Liked Chuck Norris's The Delta Force? Then you have to see Executive Decision. Do you want the same kind of suspense that comes with a war of attrition featuring a large cast that will eventually be whittled down to a few? The Belko Experiment delivers.

In Bogotá, the Belko Corporation has one of its many worldwide office buildings. It is located in the middle of nowhere and features a largely American workforce. Mike Milch (John Gallagher, Jr.) is one of 80 employees to show up for work on a day when security has been switched out for a paramilitary force that is carefully scrutinizing everyone who goes into the compound. Once Mike is inside, we meet some of his coworkers. There's his love interest, Lenadra (Adria Arjona), who is also the object of lust for the smarmy Wendell (John C. McGinley), who apparently disregards any memo forbidding sexual harassment in the workplace. There's maintenance man Bud (Michael Rooker), who works in the dark passages underneath the building. Supervising everyone is Barry Norris (Tony Goldwyn), who leads this branch of Belko in its mission, which turns out to be cover for a more sinister plan.

On this day with the added security, the daily routine is interrupted by a voice on the intercom stating that the building is in lockdown. Metal shutters block all the doors and windows, sealing everyone inside. The emotionless voice (Gregg Henry) goes on to explain the conditions of a deadly game that increases in lethality as the day unfolds. Basically, the employees are required to kill each other. No reason is given immediately. There are cameras everywhere, and each employee has been implanted with an explosive device that will detonate if the employees fail to meet the goals of each round of killing. What follows is a game of trust and survival. Alliances form and characters who are well established are killed off. We get a variety of workers who handle the situation in different ways. Mike and his group want to cooperate to find a way out. Others are more aggressive. Friends turn to enemies. No matter what anyone does, though, the masterminds behind this experiment are always watching.

Placing the action in a corporate setting does more than just offer a cosmetic change from the movie's more acclaimed predecessors. The location gives us a worldview that differs from Battle Royale and The Hunger Games. Those two movies took place in largely open world locations, which made sense because their competitions indicated a global breakdown that prompted their creation and enabled their continued existence. Japan's B.R. Act was certainly not unknown to the outside world, especially given the press coverage that the event receives. Panem's annual Hunger Games is the punishment implemented by the Capital against its rebellious districts, which spanned a continent. The Belko Experiment's scenario, on the other hand, implies a shady ruling body operating in secret while the rest of the world hums along as it is today, oblivious to the research being conducted in, as we later learn, multiple hidden locations.

This gives us a different way of looking at the participants, and in doing so influences our analysis of them. Japan's population has come to accept the Battle's place on the calendar, with some even volunteering to go back into the arena. Panem's more advantaged districts train fighters to compete in the games because of the prestige and prizes that come with winning. Over at the Belko building, Writer James Gunn and Director Greg McLean have given us a cast of characters who live in a world without a deadly game. The office building's collection of cubicle drones, executives, janitors, maintenance men, cafeteria workers and computer programmers have no reference point. When the experiment begins, there is a large consensus to resist, though a few take a more pragmatic stance. The lack of any ongoing contest such as this ensures that the movie deviates enough from Battle Royale and The Hunger Games to establish its own identity.

The Belko Experiment gives the large cast of supporting characters plenty to do and say, making any loss of life unexpected even with the premise fully known to us. The location heightens the experience. The tight hallways and numerous corners create a claustrophobic battleground for the action. If there is one thing I would have liked to have seen, it would be an attempt to pull the final participants back to reality. After an hour of carnage between former friends and associates, the movie should have better dealt with the dilemma facing the remaining workers. It was too easy to turn some of them against their officemates. What did they think about their officemates and their captors? What did they think about their actions? The answers to these questions would have made this a psychological presentation as much as a visceral one.

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