Will Smith leads two starring roles in the action-thriller, Gemini Man— depicting a retired elite assassin (Henry Brogan) who is suddenly targeted by a younger version of himself. Gemini Man explores philosophical topics about morality and nature v. nurture in a high-energy pursuit between a man and himself.
The contact with the version of your older self, it’s intriguing, it’s scary. I’ve heard people ask a lot of times, ‘If you could go back to your younger self and give yourself some advice, what would it be?’ And Gemini Man actually creeps into that experience. It brings up existential questions about how to live a life.
Will Smith
However, the real magic occurs behind the story line.
Gemini Man is the first movie to feature a 100% digital human character. To make the two worlds collide, Ang Lee (director) and Jerry Bruckheimer (producer) made a movie so immersive, it could only be truly captured in theaters with specialized equipment. Lee shot the movie at 4k resolution, 3D and 120 frames per second as opposed to the typical 24fps. These factors translate into one of the clearest, most visually dynamic, and digitally realistic movies the audience will see. Even for those watching in theaters that are not equipped to project the film in those formats, the movie will still have a marked difference.
“I think taking people to a new world, a new possibility, a new existence, is exciting. Gemini Man has an exciting story to tell, but first, we had to create a digital world, a movie world, to make that story possible,” said Lee.
Gemini Man will be released nationwide on Oct. 11, but has been in the making for more than ten years. The movie was pitched in the early 2000s, but the necessary technology had not yet been invented. Finally, artists at Weta Digital (work includes Lord of the Rings, Avengers and The Jungle Book) could create the young Will Smith using photography from his old movies, age reversal technology, and the science of aging to provide a realistic digital human.
“We know who he is, and what he looked like as a young man, so there’s no wiggle room. We have to make sure that we get every bit of his performance right. We had to scour every single piece of footage we could find and every photograph of Will at the age of 23,” said Guy Williams, visual effects supervisor at Weta.
Gemini Man raises the bar for visual storytelling and redefines what a truly immersive movie-going experience is.
See Gemini Man in theaters this Friday.
