GIMME 'SHELTER:' STATHAM'S LATEST IS THE GOOD STUFF

By Jon Abrams

May 10, 2026

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Certain chords always work on me. There’s said to be a science behind it, but damned if I can understand exactly how it works.

My sister was a music major in school. She says what I respond to is a type of chord progression called the arpeggio. Remember that there are only so many musical notes, really only a few: It’s all in how they’re arranged, in how they’re played. What sounds most pleasing to me might not be what’s most pleasing to you, since each one of us has our own ear. Each one of us has our own wavelength, our own life experiences, our own soul.

To pick an example at random, I love punk music, but I prefer the Stooges to the Ramones, though as much as I love the Stooges, I don’t hardly care for one of their biggest influences, the Doors. I adore the Clash, but I don’t have much time for the ska bands they influenced. But I fucking love Public Enemy, who were influenced by them. (Maybe none or these are the most timely examples I could have picked, but you get the point.) I’m one of those people who says “I listen to everything,” but of course I don’t listen to everything. I like what I like, and who necessarily knows what that’s going to be?

Goes without saying: If it’s that way with music, it’s going to be the same with movies, if not more so. Then again, maybe I’m a little more predictable when it comes to movies. For example, or to the point:

It’s a good bet I’m going to like an action movie where a grizzled, retired face-smasher lives alone, save for one or a few trusted animals, until his reverie is disturbed and he has to spring back into action.

It’s not a guarantee. The variables matter, to me anyway. Who’s starring? Who’s directing? Who’s playing the bad guy? What’s the tone? Arch? Overly somber? Where’s it set? How’s it look? How’s it sound? How long is it? What kind of animals are we talking about? Is there a dog? Does somebody hurt the dog? They better not hurt that goddamn dog.

continued… 

SHELTER isn’t a movie that reinvents the wheel, but it plays the right chords, to my ear, anyway. It stars Jason Statham as a recluse to the extreme. He lives in the Scottish Isles, alone, except for Jack, a German Shepherd. He lives on supplies delivered by boat. The man who brings them is accompanied by his young niece, Jessie (a lovely performance by Irish child actress Bodhi Rae Breathnach). Jessie attempts to get through to the loner, whose name we don’t learn for quite some time, but he’s harsh and cold, even to this charming and bold young person. She has more luck getting to know Jack (played effectively by an animal actor named Yara).

When a vicious storm at sea sinks the supply boat, killing Jessie’s uncle and nearly drowning her, the loner finally shows some humanity by saving Jessie’s life and letting her stay with him. Since their supplies are limited, he has no choice but to risk a brief trip to civilization, which is all the time the people he’s been hiding away from need to locate him and to send a kill squad.

Reminder: This is a character who is played by Jason Statham, so it isn’t something that is going to go well for the kill squad.

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At this point, the audience finally learns who Statham’s character is and why he has been living in isolation. I won’t go into detail, not because it’s particularly the kind of spoiler that would ruin the viewing experience, but more because it almost doesn’t matter: The plot isn’t the thing, here. It’s in those chords, man.

I am a viewer who responds to the story of a man hiding out from the world who is forced back into his old ways of mayhem. The ne plus ultra of this genre is most likely UNFORGIVEN, though that film was hardly the first story of its type and surely very far from the last. But UNFORGIVEN was about a man losing any hope of finding humanity and reverting back to his darkest nature. SHELTER is ultimately telling a lighter tale. It’s about a hard man, if not softening, finding a real reason to fight. I guess it’s less UNFORGIVEN than a less evil version of THE PROFESSIONAL (or LEÓN, if we are doing that).

SHELTER is solid work from Ric Roman Waugh, a stuntman turned filmmaker who I have been following at least as far back as 2013’s SNITCH. His game is only accelerating. There’s no need to oversell it: This is an hour and a half or so of action and atmosphere, a story that is direct and effective. The cinematography by Martin Ahlgren is particularly convincing in the early goings: That island and that ocean look cold. You can feel that sea air, and I could have sworn that I spotted a cameo from the beach from UNDER THE SKIN, although that could just be a function of how frigid that coast looks.

The feel of the film warms as goes its hero: As Statham’s character starts to fight to protect this little girl, his fury brightens the film, which travels between locations with proper urgency. It’s interesting to me to consider where this sits in the career of Statham as an action star. Off the top of my head, this is one of a handful of films that this hardworking performer has made where he plays the sole guardian of a young girl: There’s the underrated SAFE (2012), the more accurately rated HOMEFRONT (2013), and both instances of THE MEG (2018 and 2023). Are there more? Does this LONE WOLF AND CUB archetype have some personal meaning to Statham? I don’t know about his offscreen life and I don’t see it as my business, but I do find it fascinating that this is a recurring theme in the Stathamography.

Generally speaking, I tend to see Statham as more of an heir to Stallone and Schwarzenegger than to Bruce Willis or Kurt Russell, but Stallone and Schwarzenegger, in their own ways, starred in vehicles that were powered more by vanity than anything else. This isn’t as cutting as it may sound: What I mean is, those guys made movies that were about their star power, even the best of them, like the ROCKY and TERMINATOR films. Guys like Bruce and Kurt were freer to pursue more idiosyncratic avenues. Statham makes plenty of movies that focus on foregrounding his toughness, but I really speak to these movies where he plays the protector, where he plays his edges against the innocence of younger costars. In these films he is maybe more of a sui generis modern action star like Keanu Reeves than a throwback to the days of Sly and Arnold, which is what Statham’s HOBBS & SHAW colleague Dwayne Johnson has fashioned himself to be. Keep going down this road, Mr. Statham. It's the good stuff!

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