It’s been almost one month since Elevation hit theaters in North America, but that won’t be the last we see of Anthony Mackie and George Nolfi together. In an interview with ComicBook.com back in November, Nolfi said that he and Mackie plan to do several more films together. He raved about their creative compatibility, saying it is the kind of thing you have to hold onto once you find it.
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Elevation is a post-apocalyptic action thriller released on November 8th only in theaters. Nolfi admitted that Mackie wasn’t actually a great fit for the script at first, but after working with the actor twice before, he looked for ways to make change things around. He said: “We had an amazing time on The Adjustment Bureau… I was like, ‘This guy is so professional and he’s so much fun to work with, he comes on set and everybody lights up. I want to do it again.’ On that set, we talked about the movie The Banker, which was a conception at that point. Real story. We did that, we had a great time, great result.”
“So, when I got the script for [Elevation], it was written for a different age, different gender, different race – everything,” Nolfi went on. “I was like, ‘Hey, what do you guys think about making this an Anthony Mackie movie?’ I called him, I pitched the idea, and he said, ‘I trust you, I’m in.’ Like, ‘Make the script good, I’m in.’”
To Nolfi, having a great collaborator can make or break a film project because it makes all the other challenges of the process worth it. He said: “It’s so hard to get anything done in Hollywood – and get it done in a way that isn’t arduous and awful. When you find somebody who you can work with that way, you know…”
Here, Nolfi dropped the real great news about his plans for the future. He said that he and Mackie “are going to do three, four, five, six more movies together.”
What is Elevation About?
Elevation takes place in a near-future post-apocalyptic setting. The story starts about three years after mysterious, predatory monsters called Reapers began emerging from sinkholes around the world and hunting down humans, driving the species close to extinction. Survivors must stay at high elevations to avoid the Reapers. Mackie plays Will, a widower living in Colorado with his son, Hunter (Danny Boyd Jr.) who has a lung disease. With supplies growing scarce, Will takes a desperate journey to find more air filters for Hunter – and perhaps a way to kill the Reapers.
Elevation is currently 55 percent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.4 out of 10 among 40 critics. It was generally praised as a fun but predictable action movie. That takes Mackie and Nolfi back to their roots – the two first collaborated on Nolfi’s directorial debut, The Adjustment Bureau, released in 2011. While that was a sci-fi thriller, The Banker (2020) was more of a period drama.
There’s no word yet on when Elevation may be available to stream or watch at home, but it is still showing in some theaters throughout North America. Mackie will be back in theaters on February 14, 2025 for Captain America: Brave New World.