Landfall (2017 film)
Landfall is a 2017 Australian thriller film directed by Travis Bain. The film follows young couple Dylan and Maisie's attempts to survive a home invasion that occurs in the midst of a tropical cyclone. The film premiered on November 26, 2017, in Melbourne, Australia, and was released on January 27, 2018.
| Landfall | |
|---|---|
![]() English-language film poster | |
| Directed by | Travis Bain |
| Written by | Travis Bain[1] |
| Produced by | Travis Bain Shawn Brack Vernon Wells |
| Starring | Rob Stanfield Kristen Condon Vernon Wells Daryl Heath Bailey Stevenson Andy Bramble |
| Cinematography | Nick De Gabriele |
| Music by | Samantha Van Der Sluis |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | MultiVisionnaire Pictures |
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| Box office | Unknown |
Plot
With a Category 4 cyclone soon set to make landfall, couple Dylan (Rob Stanfield) and Maisie (Kristen Condon) decide to evacuate their beachfront home and travel inland for safety. Before they can leave, an ambulance parks outside their house and three men in paramedic uniforms—"Paul" (Daryl Heath), "George" (Andy Bramble), and "Ringo" (Bailey Stevenson)[lower-alpha 1]—forcibly enter, asking to see "Gordo." An alarmed Dylan tells the men to leave but, after threatening to call the police, is held at gunpoint by Paul, who insists that Dylan tell him where Gordo is.
It soon becomes clear that the three men were involved in a four-man robbery of the local hospital—with their colleague "John" having been shot and killed offscreen during the escape, and Ringo having sustained a bullet wound to his right leg—and were scheduled to meet Gordo at his house to drop off the stolen goods. Oddly, their loot consists only of an unnamed and unseen item in a small plastic cooler box sealed with biohazard tape, with the only other clues to its nature being Paul's repeated insistence that the box not be shaken, dropped or opened, and not moved unless absolutely necessary. When Dylan repeatedly insists that no one called Gordo lives on the property and a quick search of the house confirms this, Paul decides to detain Dylan until he and his team can establish the correct meeting location and complete the drop off. Several texts and a missed phone call to Gordo's phone only result in the ambiguous message reply that Gordo is "on his way." Maisie, who had been hiding in another room, is also taken hostage after Paul deduces that someone else is present in the house and loudly threatens to kill Dylan if they do not reveal themselves.
With both Dylan and Maisie stating at gunpoint that neither of them knows who Gordo is, Paul produces a rain-soaked handwritten note from Gordo detailing his address/the drop off location and claims that it reads as number 11—the address they are at. However, Ringo and George point out that the smudged writing means the address could be either number 11, 17, 21, 22 or 27 on the street. An increasingly unsure Paul, having previously met Gordo but never been to his house, orders George and Dylan to venture out into the storm to check the other possible addresses on the street, keeping Maisie as a hostage.
Events at Number 17
George and Dylan visit number 17 to inquire after Gordo but are told no one by that name lives there. However, sighting George's paramedic uniform, the occupant (Shawn Brack) asks if they can treat his elderly father's (Tony Bonner) wounded arm. While initially friendly, the combination of George's lack of medical knowledge, Dylan's writing of "SOS" on a wound dressing, and contradictions in the pairs' story makes the father and son increasing suspicious. This culminates in George drawing a gun and a scuffle breaking out, during which George shoots both the father and son before being himself shot by Dylan. Dylan, having suffered a serious grazing bullet wound to his left ear, returns to number 11 to rescue Maisie.
Return to Number 11
While Dylan is initially able to covertly contact Maisie, her inebriated state (caused by drinking medication-laced brandy, which she had mixed to drug Ringo) causes her to pass out. Paul notices Dylan and forces him back into the house by threatening to kill Maisie.
When questioned as to where George is, Dylan lies that George ran off and was likely an undercover cop who has called for backup. Paul is doubtful and, noting Dylan's wounded ear, threatens to kill Dylan before being interrupted by two police officers, Constables Wexler (Vernon Wells) and Grace (Anthony Ring), knocking on the door. Holding Dylan hostage, Paul directs Maisie to see off the officers. The officers, who are investigating the hospital robbery and following up reports of the stolen ambulance being sighted in the neighbourhood, are made wary by Maisie's disjointed answers and her intoxicated state and ask to search the property. During their search, Ringo regains consciousness (having previously passed out due to drinking medication-laced brandy served by Maisie) and kills Grace. Wexler is subsequently cornered at gunpoint and forced to surrender. Paul smashes the officers' radios, chastises Ringo for breaking the team's "don't kill cops" rule, and orders him to watch Dylan and Maisie in another room.
Paul, having previously encountered Wexler years ago and been violently interrogated by him on suspicion of sexual assault, handcuffs Wexler and proceeds to beat him with a phone book. A fight between Ringo, Dylan, and Maisie distracts Paul, during which Wexler escapes his handcuffs and incapacitates Paul. Wexler then ties up Paul and Ringo but informs Dylan and Maisie that the storm is now too intense for anyone to leave. With the phone lines knocked out by the storm, the five have no choice but to wait until the storm passes. Wexler, who had previously feigned ignorance of Paul's identity, reveals that he has in fact been hunting Paul for years, as the woman Paul was suspected of raping was Wexler's daughter (who was permanently traumatised by the experience and later killed herself). Wexler identifies Paul as his daughter's rapist based on a walrus tattoo on his chest (the only identifying information his daughter was able to recall) and proceeds to blindfold and torture Paul with a Swiss Army knife.
Frightened by Wexler's actions, Dylan and Maisie attempt to escape in their car but discover that the battery is dead. The pair then decide to steal the ambulance Paul and his team arrived in, and Maisie distracts Wexler while Dylan searches Ringo for the ambulance keys. However, an ensuing altercation between Wexler and Dylan allows Paul to trap Maisie's head in a scissor lock and force a distraught Dylan to free him and Ringo. Once free, Paul states to Wexler that he never raped his daughter before shooting and seemingly killing him.
Suddenly, the near-constant noise and wind ceases and the air becomes completely calm, indicating that the storm's eye is passing over the house. Shortly after, Paul spots a severely wounded George making his way back to number 11 along the fence line. Maisie is sent out to rescue George, with both barely making it inside before the eye moves on and the cyclonic wind resumes. Once inside, a weakened George states that Dylan shot him, but Dylan again lies that George is an undercover cop, and Maisie claims that George has a phone on him that he has been using when Paul is not looking. While initially doubtful, Paul finds a phone in George's breast pocket that shows Paul's prior missed call and messages to Gordo and "Gordo's" reply. George insists he has never seen the phone, but Paul, now convinced that George intended to double-cross the team, fatally shoots him.
Final Act
A despondent Paul decides to arrange a drop off with another buyer and orders Ringo to kill Dylan and Maisie. Wexler briefly regains consciousness and struggles with Paul before being shot dead when Dylan and Maisie hesitate to help him. When Ringo hesitates to kill the couple, Paul goes to shoot them himself but is shot by Ringo. Ringo then expresses his longstanding hatred of Paul due to Paul's distrust and mistreatment of him and reveals an identical walrus chest tattoo, confessing that he raped Wexler's daughter with the intent to frame Paul. When Ringo goes to see what is in the cooler box—he being the only person on the team who did not know what they were stealing—a dying Paul tells Dylan and Maisie to run.
Ringo opens the cooler box and is met with an increasingly overwhelming white light, and Paul reveals that the content is "a radioactive isotope" stolen from the hospital's radiology department and supposedly capable of being turned into a dirty bomb. The unstable and now disturbed isotope quickly turns critical and explodes, destroying the house and killing Ringo and Paul. Dylan and Maisie only just manage to escape the blast in the stolen ambulance.
"Six Hours Earlier"
The film then cuts to six hours earlier, and a series of flashbacks reveal several story-altering details.
Number 11 is shown to have actually been Gordo's house, with Dylan and Maisie having arrived sometime prior to the opening events of the film to rob Gordo (Dell Beckman). Their actions were prompted by Maisie's sister fatally overdosing on drugs sold by Gordo. After surrendering his stash, Gordo was tied up and gagged by the couple, knocked unconscious, and hidden in the bedroom wardrobe. He is shown to have regained consciousness and crawled to the kitchen just in time to witness the cooler box being opened by Ringo and dies in the explosion.
George's claim that the phone was not his is shown to have been true—the phone was Gordo's. Maisie took the phone from the unconscious Gordo after Paul's first text to him, replied to Paul, and then pocketed the phone before she was taken hostage. She later placed the phone in George's breast pocket while carrying him back to the house in order to dispose of the evidence and take advantage of Paul's increasing paranoia.
End Scene
Dylan and Maisie are next seen at a beach disposing of Gordo's drug stash. Maisie tearfully looks at a locket picture of her sister and hopes that their revenge on Gordo means she is at peace. The couple then continues inland, intending to take a vacation using the money they stole from Gordo.
Cast
- Rob Stanfield as Dyan
- Kristen Condon as Maisie
- Daryl Heath as "Paul"
- Bailey Stevenson as "Ringo"
- Andy Bramble as "George"
- Vernon Wells as Constable Wexler
- Anthony Ring as Constable Grace
- Tony Bonner as Trevor (father at Number 17)
- Shawn Brack as Kevin (son at Number 17)
- Dell Beckman as Gordo
Production
Landfall was largely shot in and around one location, a rented beachfront home in Innisfail, Queensland. Principal photography took place over four weeks in two two-week blocks, with the first block based on Vernon Wells' schedule and the second block used to film scenes not requiring Wells. All cyclone sequences and weather effects were a mix of practical effects and CGI special effects. Physical debris was thrown at actors during shots, with CGI used to depict the cyclone itself.[2] The film was wholly crowdfunded.[3]
Release
Landfall was released on digital and video on demand on January 27, 2018. MultiVisionnaire Pictures acquired distribution rights for the film in mid-2019 and released it on DVD and Blu-ray in early March 2020 in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[4] A special edition of the film with director's commentary and other special features was released on Blu-ray on March 17, 2020. The film is currently available on Vimeo[5] and 7plus[6] streaming services.
Reception and Awards
Dan Cachia of the Mr. Movie's Film Blog considered the film to be one of the best "Aussie genre" films of 2017 and heavily praised its dialogue.[7] Simon Foster, though critical of the "increasingly convoluted" plot, similarly described the dialogue as "Tarantino-esque" and favorably compared the film to Schumacher's Tresspass, commending especially the performances of Heath, Condon, and Stevenson.[8]
Landfall was selected to open the 2018 Oz International Film Festival (Melbourne) and won in the categories of Best Feature, Best Director (Travis Bain), Best Actor (Vernon Wells), Best Actress (Kristen Condon), and Best Supporting Actor (Tony Bonner).[9][10] The film won the ASIN Award for Best Director (Travs Bain) and Certificate of Highest Achievement for Best Composer (Samantha Van Der Sluis) and Best Feature Film at the 2018 Australian Screen Industry Network Awards (Brisbane).[11] Landfall won in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director (Travis Bain), Best Actor (Vernon Wells), and Best Sound (Samantha Van Der Sluis) at the 2019 Low to No Film Festival in Vegas.
The film has an average rating of 5.2/10 on IMDb based on 103 reviews.
Inaccuracies
The film depicts a Category 4 tropical cyclone making landfall in a beachfront residential area with minimal damage. In reality, a cyclone that makes landfall at Category 4 strength invariably results in widespread destruction. For example, the infamous Cyclone Tracy (Category 4 (Aus scale); Category 3 (SSHWS)) destroyed over 70 percent of Darwin in December 1974, and the 2006 Cyclone Larry (Category 4 (Aus scale); Category 4 (SSHWS)) and 2011 Cyclone Yasi (Category 5 (Aus scale); Category 4 (SSHWS)) caused damages exceeding US$1.1 billion and US$3.6 billion, respectively.
The film portrays radioisotopes (purportedly stolen from a hospital's radiology department) as being 'safely' stored within a sealed esky and exploding with enough force to destroy a house after the esky is opened. While hospitals do routinely use radioisotopes (see nuclear medicine), and amounts of such material sufficient to create a dirty bomb could conceivably be stolen from a hospital, this material must be stored in purpose-built, lead-lined storage options to prevent radiation exposure (i.e., an esky would not prevent radiation exposure). Further, while criticality accidents do occur (though very rarely in healthcare), numerous other factors are required for radioisotopes to create an explosion of any size (injuries and death due to severe radiation exposure, though rare, are far more common).
Notes
- Pseudonyms that correspond to the first names of three of The Beatles bandmembers: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
References
- "Landfall 2017". Screen Australia. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
- Dave Griffiths (November 2018). "Kristen Condon and Bailey Stevenson Talk Landfall". Heavy Magazine. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- Peter Daniels (9 December 2021). "Award-winning film maker Travis Bain revitalising Australian film industry". Port News. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
- "Landfall". MultiVisionnaire Pictures. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
- "Landfall". Vimeo. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
- "Landfall". 7plus. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
- Dan Cachia (28 November 2017). "Landfall (2017)". Mr. Movie's Film Blog. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- Simon Foster (21 November 2017). "Landfall". Screen-Space. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- Dave Griffiths (November 2018). "Kristen Condon and Bailey Stevenson Talk Landfall". Heavy Magazine. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- Dave Griffiths (3 December 2018). "Travis Bain's thriller 'Landfall' wins multiple awards". IF Magazine. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- "Australian Screen Industry Network Awards. 2019 Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
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