‘The Wrecking Crew’ Director Ángel Manuel Soto Breaks Down That Final ‘Oldboy’-Inspired Fight Sequence, Hints at Sequel Plans: ‘Everyone Wants to Make It Happen’

There's an update regarding a sequel to Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa's new action movie. The two larger-than-life personalities brought their real-life friendship to the small screen in The Wrecking Crew. It didn't take long for The Wrecking Crew to become a streaming hit on Prime Video, so now it's time to discuss sequel plans.

via: Variety

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for “The Wrecking Crew,” now playing on Prime Video.

At the end of “The Wrecking Crew,” there’s a long, bloody fight that finds Dave Bautista‘s James Hale dispensing with a collection of gun-toting, knife-wielding yakuza warriors as he walks down a narrow, glass-encased hallway. Bautista stabs and shoots his assailants in an operatic eruption of violence that is done in a single, extended shot. It’s all very reminiscent of one of Park Chan-wook’s signature action sequences.

“I wanted to do an homage to ‘Oldboy,'” Ángel Manuel Soto, the director of the action-comedy, says. “I wanted to give Dave’s character a moment to be badass. When I first saw that movie, that sequence shifted everything in me.”

For much of the film, James and his half-brother Jonny (Jason Momoa) have been playing defense as they unravel a conspiracy to construct a casino on Hawaiian home lands. Yakuza have invaded Jonny’s home and thugs in a helicopter have ambushed the brothers as they drive down a busy freeway. In between, the duo have squabbled and even beat up each other as they work through their childhood trauma. But when James’ wife Leila (Roimata Fox) and the brothers’ cousin Nani (Frankie Adams) are kidnapped by developer Marcus Robichaux (Claes Bang), the two men shift into another gear.

“Before the finale, every time something happens to them, they’re being attacked,” notes Soto. “After they reconcile, after they’re vulnerable, they can go on the offensive. Every fight they get in, you see who they are. You see how tactical James is. You see how nihilistic Johnny is. When they work together, initially it’s total chaos. But when they get over their baggage, they’re completely in sync.”

They need to be operating on the same level, because Robichaux isn’t just some pencil-pushing crook. As the brothers discover, he’s highly skilled in martial arts, getting the better of an overly confident Jonny.

“If you’re judging the book by his cover, you think this guy is like, whatever — he doesn’t scare me,” says Soto. “But there’s a moment earlier in the film where you see him without a shirt and he has some crazy tattoo. That’s when you realize he has a past. And then on an earlier visit to Robichaux’s house, James picks up a picture, and there’s a shot of his many black belts from all different disciplines.”

During their initial encounter, Jonny picks up a loaded grenade that sits on Robichaux’s desk. It seems like he puts it back on the table, but it turns out he’s swiped the weapon allowing him to blow up the boat that Robichaux plans to escape in, killing the man who murdered the brothers’ father, Walter.

“We wanted that payoff,” says Soto. “Johnny’s arc goes from selfish to selfless. For us, it was very important that Jonny is being selfless in that moment, by putting himself in danger for the love of the family that he thought abandoned him.”

“The Wrecking Crew,” which premiered last Friday on Prime Video, was heavily inspired by “Lethal Weapon” and “48 Hours,” action comedies that Soto loved to watch as a movie-obsessed kid.

“I wanted the spirit of those movies and the memories I had of those movies to flow through me,” Soto says.

Those films inspired sequels (in the case of “48 Hours,” that’s not a good thing), and Soto thinks “The Wrecking Crew” deserves a follow-up. Plus, there’s plenty of narrative string left dangling at the end of the picture. Jonny opts to burn the page with the name of his mother’s killer that the Syndicate gave him in return for taking care of their yakuza problem, but has he actually decided to leave the avenging to someone else?

“That’s a beautiful moment on the beach where they burn the paper because it’s like they’re letting go, but there’s no way in hell Jonny is gonna let his mother’s killer roam free,” says Soto. “I think he memorized the name.”

Plus, the brothers have killed Nakamura, a member of a prominent Japanese crime family, which Soto hints could lead to repercussions.

“He’s not the boss,” Soto says. “He’s son of the boss. He probably sent the black sheep of his family to Hawaii to take care of stuff, because he’s trouble. But, man, if you kill the boss’ son, I don’t think it’s gonna go well for you.”

Soto says Momoa and Bautista would love to get back in the saddle and Jonathan Tropper, the film’s screenwriter, is already noodling on ideas for “The Wrecking Crew 2.”

“We left a lot of open-ended moments on purpose so we can solve them with a sequel,” Soto says. “Everyone wants to make it happen.”