A man must rescue his sister from a band of psychopaths with a mission in this indie action thriller from Micah Lyons.

It is the year 2035. A new strain of COVID-19 has decimated most of the population, leaving only 29 million inhabitants. Rex is the leader of a group of locals who decide to track down infected people and put them out of their misery. Upon learning that there are infected homeless people inside of an abandoned school, Rex’s eldest son Slater is hellbent to prove himself. At first, Rex is reluctant as Slater tends to be a loose cannon. However, Rex ultimately gives him the chance to prove himself.

Slater decides to recruit his childhood friend “Hap” to help him with his mission. However, Hap is trying to lay low and live a good life with his wife. When he refuses, Slater warns him that if he tells anyone or attempts to interfere, he will make life hell for his family. When Hap discovers that his estranged sister Courtney is one of the infected homeless inside the school, he decides he must rescue her, even if it means taking on his one-time childhood friend.

Jack-of-all trades Micah Lyons did something very brave. Using virtually a minimal crew of actors who double as crew, he made this film during the first major wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and it is a story about a deadly strain of the virus decimating most of the world population. While the film is set during this period, it takes away from most films set in the future where we see some sort of technical advantages. Instead, we get a throwback of an 80’s action film that just happens to be set in the future. But is that a bad thing? Not really.

David Ford pulls off a pretty good performance as “Hap”, our reluctant hero of the film who is very flawed. An ex-military, he is estranged from his sister Courtney because she had a very bad history that caused the rift. However, he shows that “big brother” persona upon learning her life is in danger. To make matters worse and bring a twist to things, the main villain of the film, Slater, is Hap’s childhood friend. Played well by Swayde McCoy, Slater is also a flawed character in the sense that he does what he does because he wants to prove to his father that he has the ability to do it despite being somewhat of a loose cannon.

While he has limited screen time, former pro wrestler Kevin Nash makes an impact as Rex, Slater’s father and gang leader who feels he is a mission to kill any infected person with no remorse. He appears in the opening scene of the film, where he is confronted by Slater to take on the mission of killing infected people inside an abandoned school. There are some pretty good action scenes for what is being worked with and even look out for the director himself as a thug who gets his from Hap.

Lockdown is a bit different from what many are used to in terms of “futuristic action films”, but given the resources and dedication from Micah Lyons and his team, this is actually pretty watchable, thanks to David Ford’s performance and a few twists and turns in the film involving some of the major players.

WFG RATING: B+

Uncork’d Entertainment presents a Breath of Life Productions film. Director: Micah Lyons. Producer: Micah Lyons. Writer: Micah Lyons. Cinematography: Micah Lyons. Editing: Micah Lyons.

Cast: David Ford, Stephanie Kae Smith, Swayde McCoy, Jason C. Campbell, Klancy Baker, Elijah Lynch, Brock Lynch, Kevin Nash.

The film will be on DVD and on Digital on February 1 from Uncork’d Entertainment.