PROJECT SILENCE (탈출: 프로젝트 사일�스) (2024)

Genre: Action/Drama
Director: Kim Tae Gon
Cast: Lee Sun Kyun, Ju Ji Hoon, Kim Hie Won, Moon Sung Geun, Ye Su Jeong, Kim Tae Woo, Park Hee Von, Park Ju Hyun, Kim Su An
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: PG13 (Coarse Language and Intense Sequence)
Released By: Encore Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 11 July 2024

Synopsis: Stranded on the Airport Bridge on the verge of collapsing, all survivors become targets! Due to sudden deteriorating weather conditions, visibility on the Airport Bridge is severely impaired, leaving people stranded and at risk of the bridge collapsing due to a series of chain collisions and explosions. Amidst the chaos, the canine subjects "Echo" from the military experiment "Project Silence," who were being transported in secret, break free, and all human survivors become targets of relentless attacks. Various individuals find themselves stranded on the Airport Bridge for different reasons - a government official from the presidential office (LEE Sun Kyun) who was seeing off his daughter (KIM Su An) at the airport; a tow truck driver (JU Ji Hoon) who was on his way to a multi-collision scene; an elderly couple (MOON Sung Geun, YE Su Jeong) who were returning from a trip abroad; sisters (PARK Hee Von, PARK Ju Hyun) who missed their flights, and Dr. Yang (Kim Hie Won), the researcher responsible for Project Silence - and a desperate struggle begins for them to escape to safety. In the wake of the worst chain of disasters, an extreme fight for survival begins!

Movie Review:

Project Silence is a CGI-heavy fest that stars the late Lee Sun-Kyun (Parasite) who committed suicide in December 2023 after a series of drug allegations. As for the movie which is touted as a disaster action flick, the movie by Kim Tae-gon is anything but silence.

The story has it that Cha Jung-Won (Lee), a bureaucrat and aide to the upcoming Presidential candidate is sending her daughter, Kyung-Min (Kim Su-an) to the airport. However, as fog engulfs the bridge leading to the airport, a multiple-vehicle pile-up happened after a reckless sports car stopped in the middle of it.

Besides the pair of father and daughter, there’s a tow truck driver, Jo Park (Ju Ji-Hoon) and his beloved dog, Jodie, a pro golfer Yoo-Ra (Park Ju-Hyun), her manager-sister Mi-Ran (Park Hee-Von) and also an elderly couple (Moon Sung-Keun and Ye Soo-Jung) trapped on the collapsing bridge. We will come to the collapsing part later.

The biggest threat of all is a pack of mutated killer canines on the loose. The dogs are part of a government secret plan to create hunting dogs to be deployed for wars. The researcher, Dr Yang (Kim Hie-won) in charge of the experiment is also trapped with Cha and the gang. The device used to control them seems to be wonky and their only hope is the SWAT team deployed to rescue them.

Project Silence to be frank is more of a creature flick than a straight up disaster movie. The aforementioned collapsing bridge is a result of a rescue effort gone wrong so it doesn’t really count as a natural disaster of sorts. Taking a cue from John Carpenter’s The Fog and Frank Darabont’s The Mist, the perpetual foggy atmosphere allows Kim Tae-gon to stage a handful of creepy moments however, he seems to lack the patience to deliver the necessary thrills, scares and relied heavily on the CG created canines for the most part to showcase the madness. Bear in mind, it’s also an effective way to hide the less than convincing visual effects.

Aside from the canine attacks, most of the character development focused heavily on Cha and his rebellious teenage daughter. Having just lost their wife/mother to cancer, the exchanges between father and daughter is at best icy until this unfortunate incident which ironically allows them to mend their near broken relationship. On top of it, Cha’s boss, Jung Hyun-Baek (Kim Tae-Woo) might be connected to the deadly experiment given the heavy hinted political conspiracy. Of course it doesn’t take a genius to figure things out.

Another obvious problem is the tone. Instead of being a dark comedy, Project Silence is too serious for the whole time except Ju Ji-Hoon who threw in a couple of laugh-out-loud moments as the movie’s sole comic relief. In addition, there is the obligatory dementia-stricken spouse, a pair of squabbling siblings and the selfish researcher, characters that don’t really matter to the whole affair.

Still, Project Silence is the sort of mindless CGI entertainment that Hollywood used to churn out. The pacing is relentless while the action scenes are relatively well-choreographed. As compared to other superior creature and horror flicks liked The Host and Train to Busan, the movie lacks the essential ingredients, treatment to make it a memorable effort. Characters are flat and the computer generated hounds simply lacks the terror and bite to scare the wits out of us. The surprising tame PG13 rating doesn’t help in showcasing the brutality too.

Movie Rating:

(Ju Ji-Hoon shines in this somewhat entertaining but mediocre creature flick)

Review by Linus Tee