The thriller "Citizen Vigilante", which tells the story of a businessman who brutally seeks revenge on migrant criminals, soared in the ratings of online services after Elon Musk released it for free on X for 48 hours. What is this film about?
Elon Musk. Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
The film Citizen Vigilante, starring Armie Hammer, was released in US cinemas on June 19. It was directed and written by German filmmaker Uwe Boll, often called one of the most controversial directors of our time.
What the film is about
According to the plot, American businessman Sanders (played by Armie Hammer) takes justice into his own hands and begins hunting migrant criminals in an unnamed European country. He gradually becomes a hero for a part of society, but the head of Interpol considers him a threat and gradually gets on the trail of the vigilante himself.
Photo: UweBollRAWNet / X
The director opens the film with a scene in which a Black man in a hoodie kills a mother in broad daylight in front of her young son. Later, another episode is shown: the rapist's parents insist that they raise their son in accordance with the values of the Quran.
Boll himself calls the film a "brutal political film" and claims that he was inspired by a high-profile case in Hamburg in 2016, when three teenagers found guilty of gang rape received suspended sentences.
According to the director, the German age classification system FSK (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft) refused to issue a certificate for the film, believing that it "incited violence against migrants." Boll tried to appeal this decision in court, but without success.
Critics gave the film a very harsh reception. Variety reviewer Todd Gilchrist called the film "a violent, messy and morally bankrupt provocative film, designed to exploit the viewer's lowest instincts," adding that the picture "is so stunningly bad, it feels like Boll is deliberately sabotaging his star's comeback."
For Hammer, this was indeed his first major role after high-profile accusations of rape and sexual assault. In 2023, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office declined to press criminal charges against him, and the actor himself denies all accusations.
Path to success
An unexpected turn in the film's fate occurred after Elon Musk asked for permission to publish it for free on his X page. According to the director, Musk contacted not him personally, but his podcast team Uwe Boll Raw. At first, Boll thought the message was a joke. However, after making sure that the request actually came from Musk, he agreed.
"I didn't talk to him personally. It happened very quickly. I don't know what he does every day, but his attention switches instantly. If we hadn't agreed, he would have just moved on," Variety quotes the director.
As The Guardian writes, Musk's intervention gave the film a special status in the "culture war", in which the billionaire regularly supports far-right anti-immigrant sentiments.
On Thursday, June 25, Musk published the film for free on his X page, where he has about 240 million followers. For the next 48 hours, the thriller was available to all users of the platform.
After this, the film rapidly gained popularity: it climbed to second place in the Apple TV rankings in the US and first place in terms of rentals on Amazon.
Soon, Quiver Distribution, which handled the film's distribution in the US, acquired the rights to its worldwide distribution (excluding the UK, German-speaking countries, South Korea, and Taiwan). In North America, the film is already available on iTunes, Amazon, Fandango, and Google Play.
The director admits that the decision to release the film for free on X has both pros and cons: "You get a lot of PR, but not a lot of money. In four to six weeks, we will understand if it ultimately brought a profit."
At this point, with a budget of $2 million, the film has earned about $600,000 on digital platforms.
After its unexpected success, Boll has already announced a sequel, the action of which will take place in the US or the UK. He admitted that the script has not yet been written, but expressed confidence that Armie Hammer would gladly return to the main role.
Keep watching Citizen Vigilante and we can start shooting Part 2 soon pic.twitter.com/wmf5MHMCwk
Interesting fact: Boll initially wanted to name the film The Dark Knight, but after, as he put it, a "friendly conversation" with Warner Bros. studio, which owns the rights to Batman, he was forced to change the title to Citizen Vigilante.
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