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Code 8 (2018)
Good news for sci-fi fans: the movie Code 8 is now streaming on Netflix. Code 8, which imagines a world where people born with superpowers have been exploited for their labor and pushed to life on the fringes, started off as a short film in 2016. After that, stars (and cousins) Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell used the short to help generate fan support for a feature length version of Code 8. That’s right, the number one movie on Netflix today was made entirely with money from crowdsourcing site Indiegogo. It’s just one nice story about the power we have when we band together to make something happen.
Code 8 is set in an alternate history where people started exhibiting superpowers in the early 20th century. These “Powers” were not exalted as heroes, but forced to put their abilities to use. As industrialization evolved to mimic superpowers, Powers found themselves relegated to the working class. Code 8 follows one Power, a 26-year-old man named Connor Reed (Robbie Amell), as he struggles to save his sick and dying mother. Pushed to the brink, Connor teams up with some criminals and uses his abilities as an “Electronic” to break the law. Code 8 also stars Sung Kang, aka Han from the Fast & Furious franchise, as Detective Park, a good cop on Connor’s trail. Arrow star Stephen Amell gets to indulge his dark side in the film, playing Garrett, a Power with telekinesis who grooms Connor to be a criminal.
As of Monday, April 13, Code 8 is the number one movie on Netflix in America. That means it’s more popular than Gerard Butler’s Angel is Fallen, Netflix’s dreamy rom-com Love Wedding Repeat, and mega-hit The Hangover. Why is Code 8 so popular? Maybe it’s because it’s a gritty bit of escapism for folks struggling with trying times. Or maybe Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell were on to something. You can’t make a movie via crowdfunding unless your movie is one that people actually want to see.
