Four months in, and the 2022 movie season is already looking better than 2021, certainly in the case of blockbusters. Films such as The Batman, RRR, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, and even Jackass Forever remind us of the cathartic power that the big screen holds, especially after months of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it’s Michael Bay’s turn, with Ambulance, a remake of Laurits Munch-Petersen’s 2005 Danish film Ambulancen (which I haven’t seen, as it can’t be found in any capacity online). Since the release of the Transformers films, Bay’s filmmaking style has been vilified by the masses, as nothing but visual noise of constant headache-inducing explosions, rapid editing, and low angle shots, and with reason. Save for Dark of the Moon, Bay’s Transformers movies are indeed headache-inducing chaos; lots of spectacular explosions to make up for the thinly-written scripts that barely want to focus on the goddamn robots instead of the boring human dramas nobody cares about.
But if you look past Transformers and watch Bay’s other films, you’ll find some of the most creative action movies ever made. In an era in which every single modern action movie looks and feels exactly the same, Bay’s movies each have a distinct look, and always attempt to innovate in some capacity. With the Transformers: The Last Knight, Bay took two ARRI IMAX cameras to configure them on a 3D rig. Now with Ambulance, he seems to have found his new favorite toy: drones. Going up and down in a dizzying fashion, Bay and cinematographer Roberto De Angelis have crafted a new style of hyperkinetic action that’s best experienced on the biggest screen possible.
With a simple premise executed brilliantly, Ambulance is easily Michael Bay’s best movie since Bad Boys II. He doesn’t need to focus much on the plot, since it’s so straightforward, and instead diverts his attention to some of the greatest Bayhem he’s ever done. The gist is simple: War veteran Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is in need of money to cover for his wife (Moses Ingram)’s surgery. He seeks help from his brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), who talks Will into participating in a bank heist that will leave him with over $8 million. Of course, the heist goes horribly wrong, which causes Will to shoot a police officer (Jackson White), who immediately needs medical attention. Once the ambulance arrives, with EMT Cam Thomson (Eiza Gonzalez) inside, Danny and Will steal the ambulance and try to escape from the authorities and FBI Agent Anson Clark (Keir O’Donnell), who has been on Danny’s tail since he took over his father’s operation.
It doesn’t feel like it, but Ambulance is one of the quietest films Bay has done since it contains only two big explosions. Instead of solely focusing on the spectacle, Bay always ensures that the utter chaos feeds the characters’ anxiety throughout their endless game of cat-and-mouse with the LAPD. He patiently sets up the drama between the two protagonists, by contrasting brief flashback sequences with them playing basketball together as children, to them butting heads with each other in the present.
Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen II are superb as two brothers in constant tension with one another. Will is the calmer, more reasoning protagonist, who is forced to break the law to save his wife’s life, while Danny’s behavior makes him an unpredictable force in the eyes of his brother and the law. Gyllenhaal has played many twisted antagonists in his illustrious career, most notably Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler, and has tons of fun in Ambulance playing a character who feels massive stress from beginning to end, and keeps wanting to cause trouble for the thrill of it. And amidst all of the chaos, Bay still manages to throw in the most moving scene of the year, with Will and Danny singing to Christopher Cross’ Sailing to calm down from everything else going around, even if it lasts but a fleeting moment. This is where their brotherly love shines the most, and drives the emotion that will fill subsequent scenes until its thrilling final battle.
Eiza Gonzalez gives a career-best performance in Ambulance, sharing electric chemistry with Abdul-Mateen II in a scene where they operate on the wounded police officer, as the ambulance is trying to cut through the endless police car, while three doctors on Facetime are giving instructions. It’s probably the most “Bay” scene of the movie (he even manages to get two doctors on a golf course, because it makes for a semi-relaxing aesthetic in the mind of the viewer), as it blends adrenaline-fueled tension, rapid editing, a fast pace, and some unflinching gore thrown in. Why not?
The actors feed in most of the tension, but the film’s action sequences are unlike anything Bay has ever crafted. Lorne Balfe’s thumping score makes the IMAX theaters resonate, while De Angelis’ drone-heavy cinematography makes its frenetic action feel more vivid and breathtaking. Every single time a drone shot would occur, I’d gasp in pure awe. No other filmmaker but Michael Bay would attempt what he’s doing with a drone here; constantly flipping his long tracking shots and always intercutting them with in-your-face close-ups of the main actors. Pietro Scalia’s editing does get a bit cluttered at times due to the film’s breakneck pace, but the drone shots immediately bring it back in movement. It’s weird how most of its drone shots are poorly integrated into the mix, and yet keep taking our breath away every single time. It just feels different, and when you’re feeling something so powerful and cathartic in front of a ginormous screen, it can bring you to tears. And I did cry over one single (and rather insignificant) shot where the drone sweeps on the highway, while Christopher Cross’s song “Sailing” blasts on the speakers, the image will be forever etched in my memory as the greatest drone shot in a movie ever. The power of the big screen (and drone shots) in all of their glory.
So when are we going to call Michael Bay an artist? I’ll just go ahead and say it: the action scenes in Ambulance are a work of art. Remove the drone shots from the equation, and you still get the most unique action of an American film so far this year. Bay places his cameras at the oddest locations, and yet he’s able to maximize their full potential through tightly choreographed machine gunfights (the minigun scene allows Bay to have multiple mini-explosions in one scene), hyperactive car chases, and constant anxiety-inducing shouting matches between Gyllenhall, Abdul-Mateen II, Garret Dillahunt’s Captain Monroe, and O’Donnell’s Anson Clark. There is lots of action during Ambulance, which may feel a tad excessive, but it never does, nor does it feel exhausting. The 136-minute runtime flies by rather quickly, as we’re strapped in our seats the entire time, with our eyes transfixed at Bay’s opera of constant carnage, as if we’re being shot with pure adrenaline for the entire runtime and are never allowed to take a breather (we’re not. The “Sailing” scene is quite literally the only moment of calm during the entire movie).
If you’re not a fan of Michael Bay, Ambulance likely won’t change your mind about him or his supposedly headache-inducing work. However, if you’re looking for an action film that feels markedly different from the dominant Marvel content-machine, or most soulless IP-driven Netflix movies that are released today, then Ambulance may be the movie for you. Bay even went on record saying that he didn’t even watch the original movie to make the movie his own. In every conceivable way, Ambulance is a Michael Bay film, but its Bayhem feeds in the tension felt by the protagonists. The film’s action sequences are intricately choreographed and paced, the drone shots are a thing of beauty, plus Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya-Abdul Mateen II, and Eiza Gonzalez all give impeccable performances. If you can do a triple feature with RRR and Everything Everywhere All at Once, you will see the holy trinity of early 2022 brain-melting and emotionally powerful movies. Ambulance is my personal favorite of the three, and fully makes the case that Michael Bay is one of our greatest living action filmmakers working today, and we’re lucky to have him make full-fledged theatrical experiences designed to be experienced on the biggest screen you can find.
