‘Project Silence’ is all bark with little bite
The 2024 South Korean disaster film Project Silence has everything – a collapsing bridge, CGI killer dogs, car crashes – but a cohesive narrative. Led by late actor Lee Sun-Kyun, the film lands as a rote rehashing of dystopian action films, with a corrupt government, innocent civilians caught in disaster, and a lot of dark lighting. The film, directed by Kim Tae-gon, will wow with its practical and digital effects, but is overly convoluted.
The primary protagonist Cha Jung-won (Sun-Kyun) is a presidential aide and Deputy Security Director solely concerned with two things: his daughter Cha Kyeong-min (Kim Su-an), who is about to leave for college abroad, and Jung Hyun-Baek (Kim Tae-woo) winning the presidency. The film opens with him advocating not to initiate a rescue mission to save captives held by an unknown enemy to keep the public's favor and not take risks. "Our duty is to support the half of the nation that supports us," he declares. Harsh! This selfishness extends to all other areas of his life, viewers find out, as he leaves a gas station without paying and slights attendant Joe Park (Ju Ji-hoon). He is taking his daughter to the airport, but their journey will never reach its conclusion – a thick fog shrouds the airport bridge, and dangerously limits all visibility. As they drive they crash and get caught in a car build-up, a thrilling jolt as each vehicle swerves, skids, and slams to a stop. There are many casualties, but the worst accident of all is the one that has released the Echoes: dogs bio-engineered to hunt down humans.
We learn from their creator, Doctor Yang (Kim Hee-won), that the Echoes were initially developed to respond to human voices and commands via an implanted chip, but the government forced Yang's hand to develop them into killing machines. The project was faulty, and the dogs in transport were failures the government was attempting to hide—until all hell broke loose.
This obscuring of the truth from the general public and the inner moral conflict of those occupying seats of power is a core throughline in the film. When admitting to Jung-won that he is the creator of the dogs, Dr. Yang emphasizes "It's not my fault, [the government] made me." Jung-won corresponds with Hyun-Baek over the phone as his knowledge of the situation develops, and decides which facts and falsehoods he wants to share with the group of survivors he bands with – including his daughter, a golf player, her manager, an elderly couple, and gas attendant Park. Park is the standout of the film as the shaggy-haired, eccentric outsider. Ji-hoon's delivery elevates the character from mere comic relief to the most engaging presence onscreen – his protectiveness over his dog Jodie, questioning of the status quo, and moments of badassery are rendered as real as possible.
The motley group members are entertaining to watch, but lack interiority. The hurried setups before all the characters enter the bridge are not enough for their stories to hinge on. This is passable for the secondary characters, but plagues Jung-won and Kyeong-min as well. The slight rift between them is explained by the death of Jung-won’s wife from a terminal illness – who is mentioned once, and shown in a video clip once more – and Kyeong-min is supposedly rebellious because she’s ‘interested in rapping.’ Does she ever rap in the film, or is it ever discussed beyond a throwaway line? No. We watch their father-daughter progress in the predictable ebb and flow of the film, with very little to question or ponder along the way.
But all of these characters are really to fill in the gaps of the main show: the CGI dogs and crumbling bridge, of course! That the film stays stationary at the bridge is to its detriment, as the flashing back and forth between the various survivors fending off dogs makes the action often confusing – the spatial rendering of the film establishes the landscape poorly, other than when the characters are inside various dilapidated vehicles. The dogs themselves are also curious villains, eliciting both sympathy as victims of the government and terror as killing machines. One particular dog, E-9, is established as the “main dog” for reasons explained further into the film, and when it shifts to her perspective it’s at its most interesting. For all that the film emphasizes corrupt government, the dogs are the clearest example – but it never takes full advantage of them as the technical epicenter of its narrative.
Outside of the CGI the film still has some stunning practical sets that are utilized well, and the general action is constructed decently enough to keep one's attention. But when the film closes on an open-ended note setting up a successor, it feels unearned. A sequel would hardly fix the issues with Project Silence, and there’s enough to enjoy (and more to criticize) that its existence is plenty on its own.
