Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special-event releases. A version of this review originally ran on March 13, 2017, in conjunction with the film’s premiere at SXSW.

Charlize Theron became an action star with her role as Furiosa in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, but before that, she spent decades fighting for roles in a genre that favors men. She played support in The Italian Job and Reindeer Games, and leads in Aeon Flux, Snow White and the Huntsman, and its sequel. But Theron has never been given a solitary spotlight in a revved-up thriller of her own. That changes with Atomic Blonde.

The film feels like the culmination of Theron’s action-film resume. This time, she’s teamed with John Wick director David Leitch to create a spy thriller with equal parts Cold War intrigue and ‘80s synth pop. Though the film adamantly favors style over substance, there’s more than enough style in every scene to make the film work, thanks in no small part to lush visuals, smart choreography, and extreme commitment on Theron’s part. Fury Road established Theron as an action star, but Atomic Blonde cements it.

What’s the genre?

Atomic Blonde is an unapologetic shoot-’em-up wrapped in an ’80s Cold War spy thriller. Its pulpy plot has plenty of twists and turns, but its raison d’être is a bundle of high-concept action scenes. The similarities with Leitch’s John Wick are flagrant.

Atomic Blonde is also technically a comic-book adaptation, based on Antony Johnston’s The Coldest City. Here’s a book trailer for reference: 

What's it about?

In 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin wall, Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is an MI6 agent sent to East Germany to recover the List, the film’s MacGuffin. The List includes secret agents’ identities and other things that would be very dangerous in the wrong hands. Which is to say, everyone — US, UK, USSR, and France, to name a few — wants the List.

Broughton’s on-the-ground contact is David Percival (James McAvoy), a reckless agent who has been undercover in Berlin for a long time. (He’s aptly described as “feral.”) There are a handful of other notable characters in Berlin, such as Sofia Boutella as a local French operative, but the film largely sticks to Broughton, Percival, and a gaggle of people who get their asses kicked.

The film is largely told in media res, with Theron recounting her mission to officials from MI6 (Toby Jones) and the CIA (John Goodman).

What’s it really about?

Atomic Blonde is largely about showcasing intense, well-choreographed fight scenes, more often than not crafted with music-video precision to ’80s British-pop dance tracks. Leitch, whose non-directorial credits include stunt work on virtually every action film in the last two decades, and cinematographer Jonathan Sela (John Wick) emphasize the visuals above everything else. The moments between fights are bathed in bright neon lights amid the bluish hues of Berlin, and the scenes linger long enough to highlight a stunning attention to detail. Even with a scene as simple as Theron getting out of the bathtub and pouring a drink, the film gives each step some impact, and dresses each frame so it’s interesting without sensory overload. Usually.

Atomic Blonde is also, arguably, about creating an extremely badass female action star in a genre with few contemporaries.

Is it good?

Very. Atomic Blonde largely serves as a vehicle for Theron, who is credited as a producer, and joined the project even before Leitch did. She absolutely kills it. Theron adds a subtle layer of emotional depth to a character who is a ruthless, unquestionably talented agent. (In a Q&A following the film’s premiere, Theron said she trained alongside Keanu Reeves, who was preparing for John Wick 2 at the time — and that they sparred together in preparation.) It’s almost the inverse of her role in Mad Max: Fury Road: she starts in control of the situation, then fights to maintain that control.

The fight scenes, particularly one on a staircase (a bit of which is teased in the trailer) are notably longer than brawls in most action films, but they never drag. Credit belongs as much to editing as it does to the choreography. The soundtrack works surprisingly well for a personal-playlist movie — songs like “99 Luftballoons” and “Killer Queen” give battles a toe-tapping intensity. I don’t know why George Michael’s “Father Figure” works so well over a brutal close-quarters encounter between henchmen, but it does.

Though Theron is very much the center of the film, her primary foils — McAvoy and Boutella in particular — clearly relish their over-the-top roles. Jones and Goodman, playing suits for their respective governments, are great in everything they do, but here, there just isn’t much material.

The film only falls short in its story. While the original John Wick started with a simple premise, then added subtle hints of a mysterious world hiding just off stage, Atomic Blonde almost immediately snares itself in a tangled web of intrigue. The twists are compelling enough to propel the movie from one action setpiece to the next, but they never coalesce into a satisfying whole.

What should it be rated?

Unquestionably R. Though the film isn’t gory, the violence is intense at times. The filmmakers don’t shy away from showing the grotesqueness of bruises. There’s a bit of nudity and what I imagine the MPAA will call “intense suggestive moments of eroticism.”

How can I actually watch it?

Atomic Blonde hits theaters July 28th. 

Expectations were high for Sony’s E3 showcase this week. Last year, Sony arguably stole the show with games like Detroit: Become Human, Days Gone, God of War, Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, a new Call of Duty, The Last Guardian, and a VR thing for Final Fantasy XV, to name a few. 

So what did Sony show as the future of PlayStation this year? Detroit: Become Human, Days Gone, God of War, Spider-Man, a new Call of Duty (this time in World War II), a remaster of The Last Guardian predecessor Shadow of the Colossus, and another VR thing for Final Fantasy XV.

Yeah.

That isn’t to say Sony had a bad event — far from it, in fact. E3 is designed to generate excitement not just for this year, but for the years to come. Sony wants to sell the idea that you’re investing in a platform for the long term. That big projects should appear one, two, or even three years in a row, isn’t unprecedented. But with so many repeats this year — and so few surprises — it’s hard not to see this year as a rare miss for a company that’s been pretty dominant at the show for some time. 

Sony is far from the only company with repeat performances. Every major company with an E3 event has a game or two that never seems to graduate. The Xbox exclusive Crackdown 3, for example, was first shown off in 2014. As for Ubisoft’s Beyond Good & Evil 2, hell, that project was first announced in 2008. It’s nine years old and still has no release date. 

And all those games that Sony repeated have seen major improvements from last year. Detroit’s gameplay was demoed last year, and this year Sony unveiled more of its main storyline. Father-and-son parable God of War, meanwhile, showed more of the frenetic combat and some massive-scale monsters. Spider-Man, the capstone of the night, now looks playable. 

To be fair, there were plenty of games that weren’t reruns. Sony announced a number of VR titles in quick succession, including Skyrim VR, a virtual reality port of a game that is legally required to be mentioned at least three times every E3. There was also a new Uncharted chapter and some Destiny 2 teasers.

But even those games, exciting though they may be, are familiar in their own right — sequels and remakes. They looked good, sure, but the big piece that Sony lacked — and one of the big reasons people have loved their past E3 showcases — was surprise. There were no new IP, big or small. Indie games had little to no presence onstage this year — a stark contrast from years past. Monster Hunter World, a new entry in the massively successful Japanese franchise, stands out as an impressive showing, but it’s also a game coming to Xbox One or PC.

The biggest surprise, in fact, might’ve been what Sony didn’t show. Standouts like Hideo Kojima’s I-don’t-even-know-how-to-describe-this Death Stranding (first seen last year) and The Last of Us Part II (unveiled at PlayStation Experience last December) were completely MIA. And after Microsoft spent over an hour trying to convince the world we’re ready for a 4K Xbox, Sony said nary a word about the PlayStation 4 Pro, its own 4K console that’ll be (at least) $100 cheaper by the time Xbox One X comes out. A big question has been how developers will use the hardware to enhance the visuals of its games, and after this week, we still don’t have a good answer.

Then again, it’s not as if Sony needs to “win” every E3. In this generation of gaming, the PlayStation 4 is clearly ahead of the competition, with Xbox One still playing catch-up in sales and Nintendo doing its own thing entirely with the Switch. And with events like December’s PlayStation Experience, the company has been creating other stages to showcase its offerings. But E3 is still the big one. Sony can afford a risk-averse year to refine, to say, “We wowed you last year with a lot of surprises, now give us a moment to clean these up a bit.” But that’s a rarity.

God of War. Spider-Man. Horizon Zero Dawn. A new Call of Duty. Choose-your-own sci-fi adventure Detroit. Big-budget zombie game Days Gone. A VR thing for Final Fantasy XV.

That was Sony from E3 2016. This year, the company showed off… well… God of War. Spider-Man. Another Horizon Zero Dawn. A new Call of Duty — now in World War II. Choose-your-own sci-fi adventure Detroit. Big-budget zombie game Days Gone. And a VR thing for Final Fantasy XV — this time fishing.

That isn’t to say it was a bad show from Sony — far from it, in fact, as each of those games have taken the year to really improve themselves. There was also a new Uncharted adventure, a remastered Shadow of the Colossus, and some Destiny 2 exclusives. Here’s everything you might’ve missed.

There was, alas, nothing for Vita.

Welcome to Bethesdaland, a creepy cartoon wonderland full of Bethesda games. As part of its E3 press conference, the company showcased all its not-so-cheerful upcoming properties in an uncomfortably festive light. Doom and Fallout in VR. A more arcade-style Quake championed as a $1 million esport. Some creepy-as-hell horror in The Evil Within 2. A new story in the world Dishonored 2. And capping off the night? A whole new take on Wolfenstein.

There was, alas, no new Fallout Shelter this year.

Electronic Arts kicked off E3 2017 with a brand new Madden NFL story mode starring Mahershala Ali and ended with a very, very long look at Star Wars Battlefront II’s multiplayer. In between was A Way Out, a split-screen prison break game from the creators of Brothers, a very fast and furious new Need for Speed, and a tease of Bioware’s new sci-fi franchise, Anthem, which we should learn more about tomorrow.

There were, alas, no Sims this year.

This weekend, The Fate of the Furious bested The Force Awakens to claim the mantle of biggest worldwide debut. The not-so-subtle superhero franchise is cherished for escalating over-the-top action sequences that mirror the low-key hyperrealism found in early Marvel films. (At one point in the latest film, Dom practically gets his own first-generation Iron Man suit.)

The latest film is lousy with nigh-believable moments, including Dwayne Johnson physically redirecting an ice-skating torpedo while hanging out of the door of a speeding truck. But the Fastest-and-Most-Furious award goes to the “zombie-car sequence” in Manhattan.

Cipher: “[Target] every chip with a zero-day exploit.”

Random minion: “There’s over a thousand.”

Cipher: “Hack ’em all… it’s zombie time.”

In the scene, supervillain and 23-dimensional chess player Cipher (Charlize Theron) has her team simultaneously hack more than a thousand smart cars in New York City to create a swarm of remote-controlled vehicles that charge through the streets like World War Z zombies.

The franchise already lives in a world dictated by rag doll physics and loose logic, but the zombie-car scene pushes new boundaries: “cars have computers, computers can get hacked, ergo all cars can be instantly hijacked and driven remotely.” The idea isn’t completely unprecedented — smart vehicles have been shown to have vulnerabilities that can be exploited under the right circumstances — but the speed at which so many vehicles are hacked and driven like video game avatars is a 12 out of 10 on both the fast and the furious scale.

On the eve of the premiere, I talked with director F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton, The Italian Job) about the origins of this particular sequence.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How did the “zombie-car” scene come about?

It started with a conversation with my writer [and longtime Fast collaborator], Chris Morgan. You know, when you come to a Fast movie — and I’m sure this happened to Justin [Lin] and to James [Wan], it’s a question of, “How do you top the previous movies?” And that was [Morgan’s] idea that was floating around, and we massaged it and massaged it, and we ended up with the “zombie-car” sequence. It’s one of my favorite action sequences of all time — not just because I was involved in it, but because it was so creative and inventive. It’s timely. With the Fast series, you’re used to seeing people behind wheels. Now you see these weaponized cars with no one behind the wheel, being controlled by Charlize Theron from a billion-dollar jet. That’s insane.

How much of that was initially storyboarded, and how much could you play with and develop on the set?

You have to prepare, just for safety purposes, when you have cars raining from the sky — cars falling from 100 feet, and there’s pedestrians, actors, things like that, you have to figure that out. So the engineering, the coordination, the safety to get special shots like that takes quite a bit of preparation. We storyboarded it, we [previsualized] it. We also did things that happened on the fly that worked out well, but we definitely planned methodically to try and make it work. But more specifically to make it safe.

Do you remember any key scenes that were improvised?

It’s moments like, “Who’s in the foreground, and what they’re doing?” There are coffee shop patrons in some of the shots. There are people in parking structures. I’ll give you an example: the guy who’s walking to a car, and all of a sudden, it starts up and drives up on its own. Some of that happened on the fly. So many of the actors interacting with the cars as they’re being remotely controlled happened on the fly — “Wouldn’t this be funny if… fill-in-the-blank.” A lot of the action — car crashes, car carnage — was definitely meticulously planned.

There are two moments in particular I’m curious about. One is this crazy power-slide where the cars all make a sharp turn in sync. And then there are the vertical cars piling up. How much of that is practical vs. computer-generated?

You know, the mantra for this movie was “real, real, real, real, real.” The great majority of everything we did was real. There is some movie magic, but when I speak to my stunt coordinators and my second-unit directors, and things like that, the key is to figure out how we can do this in-camera so the audience feels like they’re getting a real show.

[In the case of the intro sequence, where Dom drives a vintage car backward, on fire,] we actually did that for real — we actually spun the car around, actually racing it backward, and you know, the fire. Again. There’s stuff you augment for safety, but that’s real. As a matter of fact, you’ll see it on the behind-the-scenes stuff, kind of extra material, but in order for them to drive at that speed backward, we had to make adjustments to the car.

This isn’t your first car-focused action film — not even the first starring Charlize Theron and Jason Statham. Looking back on the decade or so since The Italian Job, what’s changed in terms of action movies?

A lot has changed. Technology has changed. The cars are a lot bigger. [Laughs] They’re no longer Mini Coopers squeezing down stairwells. We have Lamborghinis racing on ice being chased by submarines. So it’s slightly different than Italian Job, but the goal is the same, just on steroids. How can we take the audience on the ride, take them around the world, have them fall in love with the characters, and have a lot of fun?

SXSW has been an absolute mess of open bars, breakfast tacos, and weird weather patterns. But there was also a live Vergecast — also a mess, although the very best kind of mess.

We’re doing one more live show here in Austin, and if you’re around, we’d love to see you! Come by National Geographic’s Further Base Camp (née Vulcan Gas Company, at 418 E 6th Street) on Tuesday, March 14th at 12:30PM local time. Doors open at noon, and yes, there’s an open bar.

Not in Austin? Can’t find parking? We hear ya. That’s why we’ll be live streaming The Vergecast. Keep an eye out on our Facebook page around 1:30PM ET / 10:30AM PT. If you missed our first SXSW show, you can download it on iTunes / wherever podcasts are found, as well as rewatch the episode below:

P.S. Our friends at Recode have also been doing live shows from the space — check those out, too!