Take Cover

There’s no doubt that talented snipers are a valuable part of any military apparatus, but how does one make a film about them? Most of what they do is sit around and wait. Nick McKinless’ latest caper addresses this by pairing its snipers up with spotters, creating a tight professional bond which resembles the core of the buddy cop movie. In Scott Adkins and Jack Parr, who previously starred together in 2021’s One Shot, he has found actors who enjoy a similar chemistry in real life, and it pays dividends.

When we meet them, Sam and Ken are perched on a rooftop waiting for their target to arrive. When he does, he’s greeted by an excitable crowd, and there are several security professional present. None of these people spot the assassins, however. Instead, it’s a glamorous blond woman, apparently the target’s girlfriend, who catches sight of a muzzle flash and swings her body into the path of the bullet. The snipers get their man anyway, but Sam is rocked by what he has seen. Throughout his career he has been telling himself that he only kills bad guys. He can’t believe that somebody would do that for a bad guy. Forced to reappraise a career he has never thought deeply about before, he decides to retire, but you know how it is – first he has to take on one last job.

There is practically nothing in the plot of this film that viewers won’t have seen before, yet it works, largely due to the combination of engaging characters and expertly delivered action. Adkins does a remarkably good job of making Sam feel like a real, genuinely troubled human being in spite of the clichés, in large part because he is willing to let go of vanity and present us with someone who is highly skilled by not very bright. Sam, however, is probably brighter than Ken, who, problematically for a spotter, finds his head turning automatically every time someone with breasts walks by. By the time they have established themselves in the suite where they are staying on their final mission – and where they will subsequently find themselves pinned down – they might easily have been killed in any number of ways. Fortunately for them, their enemy is of similarly limited intelligence, thinking only in terms of bullets and hand to hand violence.

This being a Scott Adkins film, it’s hand to hand violence that most viewers will be looking for, and despite the restrictions on movement created by a sniper watching the suite, McKinless manages to provide a good amount of it. First we get to see our heroes’ gymnastic abilities, as they seek to get out of the line of fire, but a series of fights ensue as briefly trusted individuals turn out to be highly skilled foes, and as various assassins are sent up in the lift. The action is inventive and well choreographed, so it will keep you on the edge of your seat even though, most of the time, you can be pretty confident of what the result will be.

There’s a nice supporting turn from Madalina Bellariu Ion as a masseuse who finds herself caught in the middle of it all, and she provides a good foil for Sam in scenes where they are trapped and he is focused on trying to justify himself. These slower stretches give McKinless room to play with the pacing, building tension and then ramping up the action without wearing viewers out. They also give Adkins an unusual amount of time to demonstrate his dramatic chops – much improved since his early works – and this makes it easier to care as the story develops.

Though it is by no means deep, and some aspects of it are so knowingly cheesy as to be comedic, Take Cover is nicely put together and a lot of fun to watch.