Chechen siblings Aslan (Tommy Bastow) and Anya (Olivia Popica) grew up in orphanages, and left their home country when they were old enough, to start a new life in London. Anya wants to be a doctor like her parents, who died when she was young. She cleans houses to pay the bills while also studying on her own for the medical school entrance exam. Meanwhile, her brother Aslan is an amateur MMA fighter, but he struggles to earn enough money to help out. Aslan’s manager, Davy (Cameron Jack), arranges for him to throw a fight against the client of crime boss Julian (James Faulkner). However, Aslan can’t bring himself to go through with it, which causes Julian to lose a lot of money. Now Aslan owes Julian a large debt, which is going to take a long time to pay off at the rate that Aslan is earning money. However, Julian and his partner Mariah (Brooke Johnston) have another idea when they witness Anya get into a fight with some of their guards. They offer to pay Anya to fight in front of some wealthy VIP clients in Rome…an exclusive female fight club. Anya is a bit suspicious, and Aslan trusts them even less, but they don’t really have any other choice. The siblings take some precautions to ensure Anya’s safety, but it isn’t enough. When she arrives at her destination, Anya discovers that she is just the latest victim of these traffickers, who force women to fight in front of their rich clients, and when the girls can no longer fight, Mariah sells them off to Albanian sex traffickers. As Aslan desperately tries to locate his sister, Anya plots her escape, trying to rally the other women to revolt against their captors and make their way to freedom. However, there are more than a half dozen strong, well-trained guards watching them, including the ruthless Janek (Michael Bisping), who openly admits that he enjoys hurting women.
Never Back Down: Revolt is the fourth installment of the Never Back Down franchise, but the film doesn’t really have any connection to the previous movies, other than the fact that it involves MMA fighting. While the film opens with Aslan cage fighting, the majority of the fights in this movie actually involve the women. They are forced to beat each other up on a circular stage, surrounded by wealthy onlookers and the manipulative Mariah, who lured each of them there. If they refuse to fight, attempt to escape, or don’t follow the rules, Janek and the other guards are always around to keep the women in line—and they have no qualms about tossing these women into walls, slamming them in the stomach, or whether else they feel gets the message to submit across. Most of these women have already accepted their fate—they’ve been beaten down so many times, or have seen what has happened to the women who have tried to escape, and have given up even trying or fantasizing about leaving. Each of the women has a story similar to Anya’s of how Mariah promised them the world, only to kidnap them and force them to fight. Anya is the newest member of this fight club, and brings with her a new spirit of hope and revolt. But she can’t take on all these people on her own, and needs to rally the other women to help her take down the guards, Mariah, and all the rich folks using them for their entertainment. These women all know how to fight, they just need to turn those skills against their captors, rather than against each other.
At its core, Never Back Down: Revolt has a solid emotional and dramatic storyline, following this group of women trying to find the strength to save themselves and escape from their captors. It is devastating and heartbreaking what some of these women have gone through, and the emotional state it has left them in. There’s also the drama of a brother who is stuck far away, in another country, desperately searching for his lost sister, who is only in this predicament due to his mistakes. The film also has a lot of action—the fight sequences are raw and often brutal to watch. They feel quite real, especially those that don’t take place in a cage or on a stage, but rather in bathrooms, showers, and hallways, with all kinds of hard surfaces and objects to add to the brutal and bloody action. The blows are hard and you almost feel the pain as each punch lands or folks are thrown into concrete walls or ceramic fixtures. The film also has elements of a thriller, such as when Anya first arrives at her destination, and Mariah, Janek and the other guards pretend to be helpful and there for her, but she can sense that none of them can really be trusted, and starts to realize the danger she is in.
Sony’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great. The picture is clean and crisp throughout, even in some of the darker sequences. There is an excellent level of detail in faces and textures, helping to increase the brutality of the fight sequences. The audio track captures all the grunts and thuds, helping to really sell these fight sequences. There is also some nice use of the surround channel to make the film more immersive, whether it be the sounds of the crowd, or just the ambient noise of the city. Unfortunately, the release doesn’t include any supplemental material, except for trailers for three other Sony releases. It’s a bit disappointing as some behind-the-scenes look at how the fights were choreographed and filmed would have been quite interesting. The Blu-ray disc resides in a standard HD keepcase without a slipcover. An insert provides instructions on how to redeem an HD digital copy of the film.
What’s Included:
Film: (1:29:27)
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.00:1
- Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Subtitles: English, English SDH, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
- HD digital copy of the film, redeemable via Movies Anywhere or Vudu
- Previews
Three trailers for other Sony releases play back-to-back.- Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2:28)
- Don’t Breathe 2 (1:50)
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2:35)
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Blu-ray:
Digital (code may not be valid after 12/31/2022):
Extras:
Final Thoughts:
Never Back Down: Revolt is an action-packed fight film, with a solid dramatic/emotional story at its core. The film gives the viewer characters both to root for as well as to despise. Unlike the previous Never Back Down installments, which focused more on traditional MMA cage fighting, this film goes for a much more raw, brutal, no-holds-barred, and survival mode approach to the fights. These women are fighting for their lives, and both they and the guards will use anything they can get their hands on to beat the other senseless. Sony’s Blu-ray release features a solid technical presentation, but unfortunately doesn’t include any bonus material. The film is worth a look for anyone looking for a raw, action-packed fight film—there is no need to have seen any of the previous Never Back Down movies beforehand.
