Upgrade poster

Upgrade (2018)

Film · 1h 40m · Rated R

Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

A paralyzed man's AI implant grants superhuman abilities for relentless, gritty revenge in a pulpy, high-octane thriller.

Suspenseful. A full-attention watch at full speed. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Netflix.

Upgrade parents guide

No surprises for an R: some innuendo or implied sex and brutal violence.

Scare
Mildly scary
A few tense or eerie moments.
Jump scares
A couple
One or two sudden jolts.
Gore
Graphic gore
Blood and wounds shown clearly.
Violence
Brutal violence
Our top level for violence.
Sex and nudity
Mild
Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
Language
Strong
Frequent strong profanity or slurs.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is Upgrade scary?
Only a little. Upgrade has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
How gory is Upgrade?
Graphic gore and brutal violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
What is Upgrade rated, and is it OK for kids?
It is an R, with brutal violence, frequent strong language and graphic gore. Keep it for adults.

What is Upgrade about?

A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhance his body. Now able to walk, Grey finds that he also has superhuman strength and agility — skills he uses to seek revenge against the thugs who destroyed his life.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

There is a twist, and that is all we are saying.

Cast and crew

Directed byLeigh Whannell
StarringLogan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson, Melanie Vallejo, Benedict Hardie, Linda Cropper

More like Upgrade

Upgrade is on our Revenge, AI and robots, Dystopias, Thriller on Netflix and Sci-fi on Netflix lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

Lists with the same feel: Most violent and Edge of your seat.

Five more like Upgrade

Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.

Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.