One Last Shot brings the Jake Harris trilogy to an explosive close, with Scott Adkins returning for another relentless, one-take-style action spectacular. I caught up with director James Nunn and actor Steven Cree to talk about completing the trilogy, the challenges of shooting extended takes, and Cree’s sheer joy at getting to live out his childhood dream of starring in a proper old-school action movie.
James, how does it feel to be bringing Jake Harris’ story to a close with One Last Shot?
James Nunn: Yeah, I’m really happy that we’ve been allowed to do it, to tell you the truth, because Jake Harris is one of the best characters I’ve ever come up with and, with the writers, ever written for me. We had so much fun on the first one that we scrambled together some ideas to make a two and a three, which we wrote at the same time.
We knew we were making two and we hoped we would get a three, so we seeded the plan for three as we were writing two. He’s just such a fun character.
I mean, it is Jake Harris, of course, but it’s Scott Adkins. It was written for Scott, and having made many movies with Scott now, I know him so well that he really just pours out onto the page. I can just see him as this character. They’re kind of one and the same.
So it’s just a joy to be able to put a close to the trilogy. Not only is it a Scott movie, but these are ensemble movies, and we absolutely lucked out to have Dolph in the movie, one of the biggest names we’ve had in the franchise.
Then we have the incredible Steven playing the final boss of the trilogy. You can watch this movie in isolation and you will enjoy it, but if you watch one, two and three, Steven’s plan starts way back two movies ago. It’s nice to have created my own little universe.
So I couldn’t be happier with it.
Steven, did you approach Elliot as the villain of the piece, or was it important for you to understand why he believes he’s justified in what he’s doing?
Steven Cree: Oh no, I didn’t approach him as a villain at all. I definitely don’t. Probably most villains think — I mean, just in life — no one ever thinks they’re the bad guy. No one ever turns up on a first date and says, “By the way, I’m toxic. I’m a narcissist. I’ve fucked up all my… I’m the bad guy.” Everyone thinks they’re the good guy. With Elliot, it was really important to me, and in the discussions beforehand with James as well, to ground this in as much truth as possible. When you’re doing a genre piece, there’s a fantastical element to it and he takes it to extreme levels, so you have to try to ground that in a place of: what’s the truth in this and what actually is his cause?
We were incredibly lucky to have our military adviser on this, Tom Lee, who fought in Afghanistan 10 years ago. When I spoke to him about it, he was like, “I totally understand Elliot’s cause.” When you’re out there and you see your friends dying, as Elliot talks about, and you come back home, you’re like, “Well, what was it all for? What did we achieve?” Especially when the Taliban were just handed power back straight away. Is it money? Were we just used as pawns? I’d also seen this documentary about Vietnam where a guy was talking about coming back from Vietnam and seeing the American people protesting against him. He started seeing the American people as his enemy. That stuff was really great fuel for me because Elliot really believes what he’s saying. He’s conflicted as well.
He knows he’s taking it really far, but he feels justified in his cause. As he says, who are the bad guys and who are the innocent people?
Yeah, I think he’s probably my favourite — I would say antagonist rather than villain — because I think he’s the most interesting character. Throughout the movie you’re almost thinking, “Maybe Jake should work with him,” but then there’s the whole killing-people thing and you’re like, “Well, he’s really not that great a guy.” I think he’s more broken than anything, just from feeling betrayed by his country.
Steven Cree: Yeah, of course. He definitely takes it a step too far, without a doubt. But his reasoning, when we’re going up the stairs and I’m trying to convince Jake of the cause, I think his disillusionment comes from a place of feeling completely and utterly used and being lied to — being hugely lied to.
Exactly. So James, at this point you and Scott must be like a well-oiled machine. Does he instinctively know what you need when you’re doing these extended takes?
James Nunn: Yes, he’s very good. He’s very aware of where the camera is, as is Steven. We rehearse, so between the rehearsals, the camera operator and everyone else, they know where they have to be to get a good shot on themselves.
But also, as I say, they’re designed for him. We know going in what we want him to do. I think he feels that as well. I don’t think he has to go too far out of his natural being to get there, from a character point of view — although maybe he would argue differently!
Equally, he’s played the same character three times now, so he’s already got the backstory from two movies ago and can just go, “Right, I’m there.”
What was quite interesting on this one, for fans of the franchise, is that the difference between movie one and movie two is 12 hours. The difference between movie two and movie three is probably about six hours. Jake Harris, as a progression, should be getting more and more tired, more and more beaten up and more and more blasted. When he turns up in three, he’s wearing the costume he finished number two in, and he’s still got that same depleting energy.
Funny story: Scott actually came directly from another set. I think he’d wrapped for two days and then came to my set and we started shooting, so he physically was absolutely shattered.
He said, “Is this going to be a problem? Because I’m so tired.”
I was like, “If anything, it’s just going to make it better because I’m just going to ask you to act tired anyway!”
I think he was able to harness that and build it into his performance.
So yes, we are a well-oiled machine. We’re always talking, we’re good friends, and I’m sure you’ll get another joint out of us one day.
Steven, you’ve worked in all kinds of different genres. How different was performing in an action movie where it’s designed to look like one continuous take?
Steven Cree: Completely different and incomparable to anything I’ve done. Completely thrilling. There are two jobs in my life, at this stage after 25 years, that will mean so much to me. When I was 27 years old, I did the musical Cabaret in the West End of London. Growing up, I always wanted to do musicals. That was my dream when I was a kid.
Another dream when I was a kid, and another passion, was Jean-Claude Van Damme movies — which you’ve got on your hat right there! AWOL is one of my favourite movies of all time.
So I certainly didn’t think, at 45 last year, that there would ever come a point in my career where I would play the bad guy in a proper old-school-style action movie with Dolph Lundgren and today’s Jean-Claude Van Damme being Scott Adkins.
Then you have the extra element of the one-shot aspect, which makes it so hard to execute. It’s really challenging but so thrilling. It was electric on set. It was like Christmas Day as a kid.
I couldn’t wait to get into work every single day, and I mean that sincerely.
James Nunn: He was actually coming in on his days off (laughs)!
Steven Cree: I just wanted to be there! Stunt people and the actions they execute are just incredible. Scott is an action man, stuntman and actor rolled into one. On acting sets sometimes there can be a bit of ego about, and on this, to me, there was no ego. Everyone was just like, “We want to make the best thing we can here, and if we get hurt in the process, we get hurt in the process.” It was just such a completely enriching experience for me.
So, just quickly from both of you: how would you like the film to resonate with audiences?
James Nunn: We’re always trying to make them bigger and better, and I would love for audiences to watch this one and go, “That was the best one.” They all hold a special place in my heart, and we don’t just make them for me and Scott and Steven. We make them for the fans and we make them for the audience. I really want to log into IMDb next week and for this one to be the highest-rated. That would absolutely make my day. It very rarely happens, and it rarely happens with a threequel. But a lot of people think this maybe is the best one, myself included. We go to town with the action, and I really hope we can live that dream.
It’s got my support! Steven?
Steven Cree: Whatever happens with it, genuinely, I’ve been in films before that have been massacred or terribly reviewed. Horror fans in particular can be brutal! Whatever happens with this, I feel so grateful, happy and indebted to have had the experience. But obviously, you do make these things for entertainment purposes, and I hope people love it. I hope people are thrilled by it. I hope people are watching it thinking, “How the fuck have they done the ATV? How the fuck has he dived onto the boat? How the fuck has he done that?” (laughs) because when I watched it for the first time, that final 45 minutes, I was like, “Jesus!” I was laughing out loud sometimes because it was so big and thrilling and exciting — and I was in it and knew what was coming! Because of the one-shot aspect, it’s like you’re on an hour-and-a-half-long rollercoaster ride and you don’t know what’s coming.
100%. Also James, I’m having a bit of a James Nunn week because I just watched Wildcat the other night as well, which is awesome. So that’s two great movies in a week!
James Nunn: Thank you. Have you done Hungry yet?
No, I haven’t done that one yet. I’ve got to catch up.
James Nunn: Yeah, give it a go. Hungry is number two on Sky at the moment. It only came out two weeks ago.
I don’t know if it’s here yet because I’m in Canada. I live in Toronto.
James Nunn: Oh, cool. I didn’t know that. Amazing. Love Toronto as a city. You should be at TIFF! Isn’t TIFF going on?
I know! I’ve just moved house, though, so I’ve got a new place and we’re settling in. It’s just kind of chaos right now, so I’ll go next year.
James Nunn: It might be on the iTunes Store or something like that. I think you can purchase it in Canada.
Oh, okay. I’ll check it out then. All right, guys. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat. It was great to talk with you both and all the best.
James Nunn: Thank you. Cheers.
Steven Cree: Cheers, man. All the best. Take care.