So Good You’ve Probably Never Seen It: On The Line (2022)

                                                

One thing is for certain, you won’t see the twist coming in this film. Let me provide the normal warning, watch the film before reading this blog as all my content posting content spoiler alerts. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s dissect Mel Gibson’s thriller directed by Romuald Boulander. Boulander is a 46 year old French director cracking through the American film world for the first time with On the Line. The movie starred some lower level celebrities, Kevin Dillon, brother of Matt Dillon played a minor role in the film. William Moseley from the Chronicles of Narnia trilogy and The Royals series was featured in the supporting role. The rest of the cast was filled with French supporting actors such as Nadia Farès. The film was distributed by Saban Capital Group headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The film has a rating of 5.4 on IMDB which I think is a little low for the lower budget on the film. It was shot in France. I’m going to recap this film in this blog and give it a proper grade. Again, if you haven’t seen the film, watch it and start back up with the synopsis. 

Synopsis

The film follows a long-time late-night radio host named Elvis who’s heading to work. He’s a bit enigmatic and eccentric, and is known for his outrageous and offensive humor. His behavior on this particular night would lead you to believe that something special is going to occur on tonight’s show. While he’s in the lobby a young man comes in and tells him he must go on air and tell people he’s christ. Obviously crazy, Elvis convinces him to go home and put it on YouTube instead, it will reach more people. He then tells the new security officer to lock up.

He heads upstairs where he’s met by his co-host Mary and his new switchboard operator Dylan. The first thing he does on air is play a bit of a mean prank on Gary who seems to not handle the joke well. They begin to answer calls from viewers. Eventually, a caller named Gary comes on. He’s talking to Elvis, contemplating if he should commit a crime. The crime is revealed to be breaking into a home, which he does while on the air, and he holds a woman and young girl hostage while inside. This ends up being the home of Elvis. Elvis begins to try and wonder why this is happening to him while he plays along with Gary’s game. Gary, asks Elvis to go up to the top of the building and jump off. Elvis goes up and fakes his suicide, while Dylan confirms that Elvis jumped. But a drone comes to prove they faked it. In anger, Gary reveals he was a former security guard who quit after the former switchboard operator Lauren killed herself after being humiliated by Elvis on air. Elvis finds out from the police that nobody was at his home, and that’s when Elvis finds the security guard killed. Gary is in the building, and has rigged the entire building with explosives. Elvis and Dylan must play along to Gary’s cat and mouse game. He’s able to see what’s happening on the cameras, but isn’t in the camera room. They find out that he’s on air in the studio. They go upstairs and Gary begs Elvis to kill him on air. It’s revealed that this was all a prank on Dylan. Dylan is obviously stunned and disgusted by this joke that went way too far. He backs up and isn’t paying attention and he slips downstairs hitting his head and killing himself. Devastated, and coming to grips with his career being over, Elvis goes outside to the car where his boss wants him to listen to what's happening on the radio as they announce Dylan’s death. However, the studio says happy birthday, and it turns out to be a prank on Elvis the entire time. 

The BreakDown

A twist, within a twist. Just when you're shocked by finding out the entire movie was an elaborate prank that had a tragic end, you find out the tragic end was the actual prank the entire time. Despite the absurdly ridiculous ending that took away from what was a thrilling film, I still found some enjoyment in the ending. Regardless of how you feel, it is the first time I’ve seen a thriller end that way, especially one with Mel Gibson as the lead. I will always rate originality higher than a decent movie replicating ten films before it. Maybe because he’s a little out of his mind, and a bit of a piece of shit in real life, Mel Gibson was the perfect lead for this role. He almost balanced on the line of psychotic break and overflowed with excitement like most content creators tend to do on their platforms. It’s a sort of performative faked enthusiasm. It almost feels like the movie wants to have a split reaction to the ending. When you watch the film back, you can tell everyone’s behavior is over the top and unserious. You don’t notice it the first time watching, but the ending makes complete sense when you notice their behavior. 

Danny’s Magical Scene

Maybe it’s because I’m deathly afraid of heights, but the scene when he’s standing on the edge of the building contemplating jumping had me in a state of anxiety. It was unsettling, especially when he looks down and momentarily loses his balance. There’s a couple moments watching this back that seem crazy that Elvis went so far to pull off the prank. Standing on the edge of a building, climbing an empty elevator shaft. 

Final Grade: 6/10