Project Power: A Pill for the Soul
The 2:17 AM Static
Okay. Okay. My heart is still doing this weird thrumming thing against my ribs, like a trapped bird trying to find a way out through bone. It’s 2:17 AM and the silence in my apartment is heavy, pressing against my ears. I just finished *Project Power* on Netflix and my brain is basically just static right now—a mix of white noise and adrenaline. I was supposed to go to bed an hour ago, had the alarm set, the pillows fluffed. But you know how it is. You’re scrolling, eyes half-glazed, and you see a cool poster. Jamie Foxx looking intense, eyes burning with that specific kind of cinematic grief. Joseph Gordon-Levitt looking… well, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt—scruffy, earnest, perpetually tired. And you just hit play. You hit play on a whim. Next thing you know it’s two hours later and your living room is a mess of blankets tangled around your legs, empty snack wrappers crinkling on the floor, and you’re questioning the very nature of power. Or maybe that’s just the lack of sleep talking. The line between reality and fiction has never felt thinner.
The Premise: Russian Roulette with DNA
Honestly, I spent the first twenty minutes just trying to figure out if I was into it. The whole premise, right? A pill that gives you a random superpower for five minutes. It’s the ultimate party drug from hell, the ultimate gamble. Some people get bulletproof skin, some get super strength, some can camouflage into the wall, and some, well, some just explode into a gory mess of bone and biology. It’s Russian roulette with your own DNA. And I’m sitting here on my couch, the blue light of the TV washing over me, my cat Arturo giving me side-eye from the other cushion like I’ve betrayed him by not sleeping, and I’m thinking: this is either going to be brilliant or incredibly dumb. There is no in-between. It’s a concept that sounds like it was dreamt up by a teenager doodling in a math notebook, but it’s played with such deadly seriousness that it forces you to pay attention.
| Property | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Title | Project Power |
| Platform | Netflix |
| Time of Viewing | 2:17 AM |
| Core Concept | Superpower Pills (5 min duration) |
| Location Vibe | Humid, Sticky, Neon New Orleans |
The Human Torch: A Study in Fire
Then it happens. The scene. The one that’s just burned onto the back of my eyelids like a brand. Jamie Foxx’s character, Art, he’s got the main supplier guy cornered in a gritty, smoke-filled warehouse. The guy’s taunting him, posturing, talking about how he took the pill, how he’s got the power now, how he’s a god. The tension is thick enough to choke on. And Art just… he doesn’t even flinch. He looks tired. He looks like a man who has seen too much. He douses his own hand in what looks like lighter fluid, the clear liquid glistening in the dim light, flicks a vintage Zippo, and just sets his entire arm on fire.
I literally leaned so far forward I almost slid off the couch. Arturo definitely did slide off, shot me a look of pure betrayal and indignation before stalking off to the bedroom. But I couldn’t look away. The flames are roaring, this insane orange-blue cloud that seemed to have its own physics, and the bad guy is laughing, thinking he’s won, thinking he’s witnessing a suicide or a breakdown. But Art just walks through the fire, completely unharmed, and grabs him. The flames die down instantly, extinguished by will, and his skin is perfect. Not a single burn. Not a blister. That shot. That’s the one that’s stuck. The quiet confidence in his eyes as he becomes a human torch, the way the fire didn't consume him but seemed to obey him. It wasn’t just a special effect; it felt like a statement. Like, *my* power is so much deeper than your cheap five-minute high. My power is legacy.
The College Flashback: The Black Can Crash
It reminds me of this one time in college, I swear. The sheer unpredictability of power. My roommate Dave got his hands on these crazy energy drinks from some sketchy online store, the kind that came in a black can with a neon green skull on it. It looked like toxic waste in aluminum. He dared me to chug one. I did. And for about fifteen minutes, I felt like I could lift a car. I was talking a mile a minute, thoughts racing like Formula 1 cars, I was cleaning the entire dorm room with manic efficiency, I felt invincible. I thought I had unlocked some secret cheat code for life, some biological override. Then… crash. Worst feeling of my life. Shaking, nauseous, my heart felt like it was trying to jackhammer its way out of my chest, a rhythmic pounding that scared me more than the energy did. That’s what this movie feels like, that initial insane rush of ‘what if?’ followed by the horrifying realization of the cost. The come down is inevitable. Anyway, Dave ended up puking in the shower so the metaphor holds up perfectly.
Releted post - The New Mutants: A Blendered Brain at 1:37 AM
The Lobster Paradox & Corporate Greed
But okay, let’s be real for a second. The more I think about the plot, the more my sleep-deprived brain starts to poke holes in it. The whole origin story, tied to a genetic mutation found in a… lobster? A power-giving lobster? A crustacean holding the key to the next step of human evolution? I was fully on board when I was watching it, nodding along like ‘yes, of course, a deep-sea creature holds the secrets to the universe,’ wrapped up in the neon visuals and the pulsing score. But now that I’m typing this out, the sun starting to peek through my blinds, it sounds kind of ridiculous, right? A lobster? Or am I just overthinking it? Maybe the point isn’t the lobster. Maybe the point is that corporations will always find a way to commodify everything, even our own bodies. They took a miracle of nature, stripped it of its wonder, and sold it in five-minute increments on the street. I don’t know. I thought I loved that whole backstory, but now… was it actually kind of dumb? I can’t decide. I’m too tired to decide if it’s genius or just a B-movie script with a Netflix budget.
Production & Budget Breakdown
| Category | Details / Estimates |
|---|---|
| Production Budget | Est. $80-100 Million (High-End VFX heavy) |
| VFX Complexity Code | Code: "FIRE_ARM_LVL_5" / "BIO_LUMINESCENCE" |
| Jamie Foxx Fee | Est. $12-15 Million (Actor + Producer role) |
| Location Shoot | New Orleans (Extensive location shooting) |
| Sound Design | Heavy Bass / Concrete-rattling effects |
Frank: The Superpower of Suffering
And Joseph Gordon-Levitt! Frank the cop! He’s just this guy, a regular cop who’s so beaten down by the system, watching his city rot from the inside, that he starts taking the Power to level the playing field. But he doesn’t get anything cool like fire powers or invisibility. He gets… the ability to not feel pain and to take a punch. Which is useful, I guess, but it feels so… sad. It’s like the universe gave him the superpower of being even more of a workaholic. It’s the power of the grunt, the pawn, the body shield. There’s this scene where he’s just getting pummeled by this huge guy, his face is a bloody pulp, swelling shut, bruises blooming like dark flowers, and he just keeps getting up. I was wincing, actually covering my eyes for a second. It wasn't cool; it was just brutal. It felt so real, this desperate scramble to just keep up, to not be useless. It’s a commentary on how much we ask of the people who protect us—that their superpower is just the capacity to endure more pain than anyone should have to.
| Role | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Art / Major | Jamie Foxx | Fire powers, The Father figure. |
| Frank Shaver | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | The Cop, Power: Pain Invisibility. |
| Robin | Dominique Fishback | The Heart of the movie, Power: ???. |
| Biggie | Rodrigo Santoro | The Villain / Power: Camouflage. |
| Directors | Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman | Known for "Nerve" (High energy style). |
The Atmosphere: Invasive Chaos
The whole at-home experience was weird for this one. Usually, I love pausing a movie to grab a drink or check a notification, it’s my OTT-given right, my little rebellion against the director’s pacing. But with Project Power, every time I paused, the world felt… off. I’d pause it mid-car-chase to go refill my water, and the silence in the apartment was just jarring. The movie’s got this relentless, humid, New Orleans vibe, this constant bass thrum in the score that vibrates in your teeth, and when you take that away, you feel the loss. The big screen would have been loud, I guess, the subwoofers rattling your popcorn, but there’s something about having that chaos just feet away from you, in your own personal space, that makes it feel more… invasive? In a good way? It’s like the movie broke into my house and started messing with my furniture.
Then there’s the girl, Robin. She’s not a superhero, she’s just a kid trying to survive, selling the pills to make money for her mom’s medical bills. She’s the heart of the whole damn thing. And there’s this moment, this tiny little moment, where she swallows one of the pills to hide it from a bad guy. My stomach just dropped. It’s such a small act, but it shows so much. She’s not thinking about superpowers, she’s thinking about survival. And later, when she uses her power—her one specific, inherited power—it’s just perfect. It’s not flashy. It’s just… right.
The Landscape of Power: Competitors
In the world of "power" movies, *Project Power* stands in a crowded alley. It’s not the first film to ask what happens when normal people get abilities. It has loud, flashy cousins and gritty, dark neighbors. Here is how it stacks up against the titans of the genre.
| Competitor | Platform | Why it's a Rival |
|---|---|---|
| Limitless (2011) | Theatrical / VOD | The OG "Drug gives powers" movie. While Limitless is about success and intellect, Project Power is about survival and physicality. Both deal with the cost of the "boost." |
| Chronicle (2012) | 20th Century Fox | Found footage, grounded, terrifying. While Project Power is a Hollywood action flick, Chronicle shares the DNA of "what happens when kids get weapons in their blood." The realism of Chronicle haunts the edges of Project Power. |
| Unbreakable (2000) | Touchstone Pictures | The grounded, gritty tone. Project Power attempts to bring that same street-level reality to a blockbuster scale. Unbreakable asked if heroes are real; Project Power answers by selling them on the corner. |
Conclusion: Fried Synapses
So yeah. My brain is fried. It’s a movie about a drug that gives you powers, but it’s also about a father’s love, and police corruption, and corporate greed, and the city of New Orleans, and genetic lobsters. It’s a lot. It’s a beautiful, messy, loud, sometimes-stupid lot. And I think I loved it? I’m pretty sure I loved it. The image of Jamie Foxx walking through fire is going to be haunting my dreams for a while, I can already tell. It’s the kind of movie that feels like a fever dream you had after eating spicy food, but you wake up missing the burn.