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Quick Answer: Hardcore Henry takes obvious, substantial influence from video games. The film is shot entirely in the first-person perspective of its lead character, and the movie digs deep into the bag of gaming tropes for exposition and characterization. Because it feel so much like a video game but lacks audience interactivity, Henry ends up giving the distinct feeling of watching someone else play a video game.

Watching Ilya Naishuller’s Hardcore Henry (2016), it is easy enough to see that its most substantial influence comes from video games: the film is shot entirely in the first-person perspective of its lead character. Henry, an amnesiac retrofitted with combat-enhancing cybernetics and a conveniently nonfunctional voice-box, takes the audience on a rapid-fire adventure; he runs, jumps, parkours and rides the shock waves of explosions from one violent set piece to the next with virtually zero downtime. Hardcore Henry is not the first feature-length theatrical release to feature substantial first-person gun-toting action, but the most similar example that comes to mind was released over 10 years ago: Doom (2005), a movie adapted from specific video game source material. Henry is not ostensibly based on any specific first-person shooter, but because the film culls from a variety of video game characteristics, one might say it is an adaptation of all of them.

Hardcore Henry (2016)

The influence of video games on Hardcore Henry runs much deeper than the perspective. The movie seems actively focused on feeling like a game, digging deep into the bag of FPS (first-person shooter) and general action gaming tropes for exposition and characterization. Due to Henry’s muteness, all exposition is either overheard in the conversations of others or delivered without response toward the camera. While one could certainly name exceptions, this technique is the standard approach for the delivery of information in first-person shooters like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor. Furthermore, as in many video games, in Hardcore Henry there is no break in the action; rarely do more than ten seconds pass without motion, action, or gunfire. With these initial similarities highlighted, the question arises: are these details inherent to video games, or are they inherent to first-person narratives?

Still, many gaming influences in Hardcore Henry cannot be attributed to the first-person perspective. Take, for example, Jimmy (Sharlto Copley), the enigmatic scientist-type who only exists, it would seem, to tell Henry what to do next. This sort of narrator/director role is an indispensable element of video gaming: Halo has its Cortana, The Legend of Zelda has its Navi, and Metal Gear Solid has its Otacon. Only one of these examples is even a first-person game. Games tend to rely on a character to enumerate the player’s next steps, and Jimmy is that character for Henry. In their first encounter, Jimmy delivers a smartphone opened to a map image with a waypoint highlighted on it. This moment could only resemble video games further if the waypoint then moved onto the theater screen itself. It doesn’t, but still, as in so many games, a big arrow pointing at a destination replaces the necessity of real-life navigation.

The movie resembles a video game so consistently that it even has several “tutorial” moments wherein Jimmy or another character explains a simple action to Henry, who then does it. The list of gaming influences goes on and on: there’s massive wanton carnage, a story that would feel more at home in an interactive setting, a plot focused more on short-term goals than long-term ones and even encounters that could best be described as “boss” fights. Henry’s actions are both strategically and tactically rife with what one might call “video game logic.” For example, Henry shoots himself with adrenaline in order to return to a fight from utter defeat. Tactics like this ensure survival and nonstop action.

Hardcore Henry (2016)

In fact, one might as well ask, “How is Hardcore Henry not like a video game?” The list of responses is much shorter. For one, the camera is much shakier than a FPS viewpoint tends to be, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Indeed, most of the movie was shot on a GoPro attached to a facemask to realize authentic first-person perspective. Since it is a film, Henry’s actions tend to be more varied and unusual than a video game’s more limited set of opportunities and controls. For example, most video games wouldn’t have the option to garrote an enemy with one’s own reinforced optic nerve. These two details, however, are just about the only ways in which Hardcore Henry isn’t like a game, apart from the necessary fact that the audience is not dictating Henry’s actions.

Hardcore Henry is a tentative step into an untapped source of audience immersion, but what might have been immersive ends up detaching the viewer instead. Because it is so much like a video game without interactivity, Henry ends up giving the distinct feeling of watching someone else play one, a fact that multiple reviews have observed. Certainly, there is an audience for this; spectator gaming has a substantial following, as evidenced by the relative popularity of Twitch and YouTube gaming commentary channels. Odds are, however, that if you aren’t interested in watching strangers play real video games with commentary, watching a stranger playing a fake game without commentary will be a hard sell.