Major Grom (2017 film)
Major Grom (Russian: Майор Гром) is a Russian 2017 short superhero film directed by Vladimir Besedin based on comic character Major Grom.
| Major Grom | |
|---|---|
 Official Poster | |
| Directed by | Vladimir Besedin |
| Produced by | Vladimir Besedin Fyodor Kan Artyom Gabrelyanov |
| Written by | Artyom Gabrelyanov Vladimir Besedin |
| Based on | Major Grom by Artyom Gabrelyanov Jevgénij Fyedotov |
| Starring | Aleksander Gorbatov Ivan Fominov Anton Kuznetsov Ilya Zhinilo Danila Yakushev |
| Music by | Roman Seliverstov |
| Cinematography | Arseny Kan |
| Edited by | Aleksandr Bulygin |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Channel One Russia |
Release date | |
Running time | 29 minutes |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
The plans to make a film was announced on Comic-Con Russia in October 2015, when Bubble Comics announced the creation of its own film division: Bubble Studios. The script was completed on 23 February 2016. The filming process was started in mid-August in Saint Petersburg and continued until 28 August 2016.
The short film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on 11 February 2017 as test footage for a full-length film production to be released in 2018. It later became available for general public viewing on 21 February 2017 through Bubble Comics' YouTube channel[3] and on the site Life.ru, the latter gaining more than 1.7 million views on the first day of the film's release there. On 9 March 2017, it was screened on the Russian television station Channel One.[2][1] On 21 July 2017, the short film was screened during the San Diego Comic Con and included a Q&A session with its creators — Vladimir Besedin, Artem Gabrelyanov and Roman Kotkov.
The plot of the film about the major of the MVD of St. Petersburg, Igor Grom, trying to stop the robbery of the bank, save the hostages and arrest a gang of three bandits hiding their identity under the masks of characters from the Soviet cartoon Puck! Puck!.[4]
Plot
Three armed men, dressed in red sports suits and disguised as villainous hockey players from the popular Soviet cartoon "Puck! Puck!", break into a fictitious "Rosgarantbank" in St Petersburg to rob it. They intimidate visitors and try to find the manager who must have the keys to the bank safe. Unable to find him, the leader of the gang grabs a little girl and threatens to shoot her if the manager does not come to him in a few seconds. As a result, a man appears from the opposite side of the room, claiming to be the manager and wearing the manager's badge on his chest. The leader sends another member of the gang, nicknamed "The Psycho", with the "manager" to the safe. They approach the door, the man looks for the keys and opens it. The bandit first roars in anger, not seeing a mountain of money in front of him, but later finds the money inside a separate depository for cash savings and gold. In the euphoria from a lot of money, the robber begins feverishly putting everything into a cart. After a while, he is trying to have the manager himself help him with carrying the money. "Psycho" approaches him and sharply notices that his face does not coincide with the manager's photo on the badge. Having been exposed, the man attacks the robber and knocks him out.
Nervous because of the long absence of "The Psycho", the "Leader" sends the third member of the gang, "Buster", to see what he is doing. "Buster" finds "Psycho" unconscious on the floor inside the safe room, and tries to bring him to life when the "false manager" appears from the shadows, subduing him. The "manager" comes out of the vault and meets the bank guard, who is very surprised by what is happening. The "manager" introduces himself as major of the Police Igor Grom, and he asks the security guard to not get in the way and wait in a safe place.
The action of the film flashes back to the beginning of the robbery, showing Grom trying to withdraw money from an ATM, which takes away his credit card and goes out of order. While the robbers take visitors hostage and search for a manager, Grom calculates possible options for neutralizing the criminal band, but realizes that an open confrontation with armed robbers will end badly either for himself or for some of the hostages. At this time, he notices the real bank manager creeping out of the shelter and decides to pretend to be him, taking his clothes and badge. After that, the action returns back to the present time. "The leader" is trying to hide the panic that arises because of the loss of his comrades. Suddenly, a cart with the disarmed "Psycho" and "Buster" comes up to him, then Major Grom comes out. The furious "Leader" starts to shoot from all the weapons that he has in the direction of the major, but the later manages to hide behind the wall in time near the same ATM he was trying to withdraw money from, which conveniently returns his credit card to Grom. Nevertheless, the robber continues to fire on the bare wall until he runs out of ammunition. In panic, he decides to retreat with the money he has been able to steal. Grom meets another guard, a twin brother of the first one, and asks the twin guards to look after the criminals, while he goes after the "Leader".
While Grom talks to the guard, the "Leader" jumps into a getaway car and tells the driver, another accomplice of the robbery nicknamed "Vodila" (Russian slang for "Driver"), to leave the bank as soon as possible, but he starts to waste time. They drive off just when Grom leaves the bank, but they can not go far away - at the intersection the car is knocked down by a garbage truck. The Driver turns out to be badly wounded, and the "Leader" gets off only with a couple of scratches. He climbs out of the car and runs towards the hotel under construction. Major Grom catches up with the villain, and between them begins a fight, at the end of which the contused Grom loses. While Grom comes to, the criminal runs up the stairs to the top of the building. To shorten the path, Grom climbs onto the statue of Poseidon and jumps from it to the third floor. The pursuit continues and every time the hero overtakes the "leader", the later manages to escape. In the end, however, Grom manages to capture the criminal.
The action is transferred to the news studio, where TV presenter Anna Terebkina tells the audience about the rendered robbers, the capture of which is the merit of Major of the MVD, Igor Grom.
Before the beginning of the credits, a scene is shown showing the Plague Doctor—Major Grom's archnemesis from the comic series—lighting a match and throwing it to the ground, after which a bright flame flares up, leading up to the events of the full-length film.
Cast
- Aleksander Gorbatov as Igor Grom
- Ivan Fominov as Gang Leader
- Anton Kuznetsov as Psycho
- Oisel More Despaigne as Buster
- Danila Yakushev as The Driver
- Anatoly Koshcheyev as guard
- Vitaly Alshansky as bank manager
- Yekaterina Kulikova as mother
- Ulyana Kulikova as daughter
- Olga Dibtseva as love with the cashier
- Mariya Ulyanova as cashier
- Pyotr Selkin as cashier man
- Evgeniya Shcherbakova as Anna Terebkina
- Arseniy Kozhemyakin as honor guard
- Andrey Ankudinov as honor guard
- Ilya Lovkiy as policeman
- Pavel Goncharov as policeman
- Yevgeniy Dyadyuk as policeman
- Ilya Koletsky as policeman
- Anatoly Sveshnikov as policeman
- Pyotr Logachev as policeman
- Leonid Voron as general
- Sergey Korenkov as a colleague of Grom
- Ruslan Katsagadzhiev as a colleague of Grom
Production
The role of Igor Grom was also offered to actor Grigory Dobrygin. In the beginning, the original version approximately ran at 7 minutes, but in the production process it became clear that the script has become too long, increasing the runtime to 25 minutes.
For the fight scenes in the bank a special filming technique was developed, in which filming was done at 360 degree shots, previously not used neither in Russia, nor in the rest of the world. The film takes place in the Rosgarantbank branch, a fictional Bank from the "Major Grom" comic book universe.
The entire interior of the bank was built from the ground up: everything from the racks and cabinets to ATMs, design letterhead and bank cards. The total amount of money made for the film to fill the bank vault exceeded $5 million.
The 5-meter Statue of Poseidon in an abandoned hotel was manufactured and installed specifically for the film. In order to shoot the car chase scenes, the producers blocked the whole block in the city center. Alternative route for public traffic has been developed. Especially for the film, the production team redesigned the look of the Russian police and developed a new, unique service uniform, service cars and equipment.
A prequel comic book called "Major Grom. The Chance" has been published.
Music
The score was written by composer Roman Seliverstov.
To write the music for the film, the composer and the director, Roman Seliverstov and Vladimir Besedin, locked themselves in studio in Staint Petersburg for almost 2 months. All works on the soundtrack for the 25-minute film took 5 months. The orchestra was recorded at Abbey Road Studio One. The composition was the same musicians that worked on the soundtrack for the movies "Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars", "Harry Potter" and many others.
References
- "ВИДЕО. Майор Гром. Анонс" (in Russian). Channel One Russia. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- Varkov, Denis (3 March 2017). "Фильм "Майор Гром" покажут по Первому каналу" (in Russian). Kanobu.ru. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- МАЙОР ГРОМ – Официальная премьера фильма / MAJOR GROM – Official movie premiere. Youtube (21 February 2017).
- Shaybu! Shaybu! (Soviet cartoon, Short, Sport)