The future. Trace restores vintage cars for wealthy clients. One night, his wife’s self-driving car malfunctions and crashes in a shady inner-city area, where they are attacked by a gang of savage killers. She dies and he becomes paraplegic. A young tech mogul offers him a new life with an experimental A.I. implant Stem, which allows him to move again. Also, much to Trace’s surprise, Stem comes with the voice in his head. Upgrade is the latest film by Leigh Whannel, known for Insidious & Saw enterprises. The film is a relatively straight forward vigilante movie, with Stem taking over Trace’s body to show off impressive skills enabling him to hunt down the killers. However, Trace realizes such comes with certain moral sacrifices and the consequences. A solidly entertaining film with considerably more gore than you typically see in cyberpunk and dystopian science fiction… it is a Blumhouse production after all. (Jongsuk Thomas NAM)