A former government killer is forced out of hiding while protecting an innocent teen girl. Shelter is a polished actioner with the seasoned Jason Statham as the film’s anchor. But with all the heavy-handed beatdowns and a battering of foul language, too, audiences are given a beat-by-beat formulaic story they’ve likely seen before.
As a young man, Michael Mason was trained for something special. And he was very good at it. In fact, he was considered the best.
But then, one day, Mason hit a metaphorical wall when his tightly strapped down conscience finally perked up its head and said, “No more.” No more blindly following orders. No more killing without consideration or thought. No more wholesale destruction. Just, no more!
Of course, a specialized Black Kite operative like Mason doesn’t just say no thanks to the British government. If he’s going to cease his secret missions, he has to somehow fake his own death and disappear. Completely. And that’s exactly what Mason did, choosing a solitary life off the grid and away from cameras. His new home is on a secluded islet off the Western Isles of Scotland.
It’s not a full life—solitary drinking, petting his dog, playing games of chess with himself and gazing at the ocean are about the gist of it. But it’s a life.
Other than that, Mason stays out of sight. Even Jesse, the young girl who delivers food and supplies to Mason with her uncle by sea, rarely catches a glimpse of the mysterious recluse. Though she tries.
But then a storm changes everything.
While delivering Mason’s supplies, gale-force winds blow in and not only capsize Jesse’s uncle’s trawler—killing her uncle instantly—but they leave Jesse tangled in a fishing net and struggling for life. Mason is against involving himself, but the former killer decides to risk his life to save the innocent girl.
That decision changes all that Mason has carefully planned. Repairing Jesse’s badly damaged foot requires medicine and bandages. Those mending supplies require a trip to the mainland. And that trip, despite Mason’s caution, puts the enigmatic hermit within sight of local cameras.
Within hours, the wrong government official sets eyes on the right images. Within days, MI6 is buzzing and orders are flying. And in under a week a crack team of heavily armed specialists are heading to Mason’s obscure little isle with orders to shoot anyone and everyone on sight.
It quickly becomes clear that in order to save Jesse—a young girl who he really shouldn’t be responsible for—Mason will have to throw aside his own safety. He’ll have to rely on well-sharpened skills and go to war with an enemy who never sleeps and never stops pursuing with deadly force.
However, if there’s one thing Mason is good at … it’s war.
Mason may be a killer who doesn’t hesitate to slash, shoot or gut as the situation may require, but he’s also a man who doggedly stands by his choices once he makes them. And in this case, he determines that young Jesse must survive. So he will do anything it takes to shelter her. Mason repeatedly puts his life on the line in that effort. In doing so, the former Black Kite killer begins to forge an emotional connection he hasn’t experienced before.
At first, Jesse isn’t sure she can trust this tightlipped and unflappable man. But with time, she comes to trust him completely, and she steps up to protect him, too. (We find out that Jesse’s parents died and her uncle selflessly took her in. But she has no other family.)
Jesse and Mason talk about Jesse losing her mother to cancer as a child. Mason laments that the young girl had to go through that pain at such a young age. But he encourages Jesse to stand strong in the face of life’s adversities. “Don’t let it break your spirit,” Mason earnestly tells Jesse.
Later in the film, Jesse worries that she’s becoming more like Mason, since she wishes, in hindsight, that she had the fortitude to shoot an evil person. Mason assures her that she is nothing like him. “I’ve seen who you really are,” Mason tells the girl.
Jesse says she wants to stay by Mason’s side as a family and live a normal life. But Mason makes it clear that the only way he can protect her is to put himself in the line of fire while sneaking her to freedom. “I have to save you,” Jesse declares. “You saved me already,” Mason replies.
None.
One scene in a dance club highlights several women in lowcut and form-fitting outfits.
As you might expect, the biggest portion of this film’s negative content comes in the form of bloody deadliness and other kinds of destructive violence.
Early on, for instance, a massive storm smashes Jesse’s uncle’s boat into the roiling waves and throws her out of the rowboat she’s rowing. While Jesse struggles and begins to drown, we see the girl’s deceased uncle staring out the window of his capsized trawler. Mason later drags the unconscious girl into his boat and performs CPR to revive her.
Soldiers turn up to kill Mason with automatic weapons: When they’re discovered by the former killer, the men shoot and strafe the area. Then, one by one, they are killed in caustic ways. A man is caught in a trap that forcefully drags him out to sea. Another has a large hook jammed into his chin, and he’s hoisted into the rafters of a shed. A man falls from a great height. Another is doused with fuel and set on fire. Men are stabbed and shot.
That initial attack and defense is repeated throughout the film in a variety of dance-like fight scenes. Men are tazed, shot in the forehead by sniper fire, stabbed repeatedly with knives and shot pointblank by pistols. Innocents get caught in the crossfire, falling to the floor with gouts of blood.
Mason and solo attackers also battle in up close mano a mano contests that smash bookshelves, walls and furniture. They thump each other with fists, pipes, hammers, chains, large chunks of wood and any other solid object they might lay a hand on. In one altercation, Mason uses a heavy chain and pipe to viciously break a man’s neck.
Car chases are also in the mix, with blown-out windows, automatic gunfire and flipped vehicles. A bloodied killer heartlessly shoots police officers and a citizen who stops to give him aid. There are several gunfights that rip up the surrounding scenery.
And, of course, Mason is shot, stabbed and battered throughout. We see a farmer stitching up a wound. Jesse talks of her mom’s painful death to cancer. We also see her torn and swollen ankle from the boat crash.
The dialogue contains five f-words and two or three s-words. We also hear multiple uses of the words “b–tard,” “h—” and “d–n.” Jesus’ name is misused twice.
Mason and another adult character drink glasses of vodka at different points in the movie. We see people at a dance club holding mixed drinks and glasses of wine.
Early on in the film, MI6 director Manafort is called to testify at a political inquiry about a human rights-violating surveillance program that MI6 put into effect without government approval. Manafort is told he’ll have to resign, but the British prime minister assures him that he’ll be given secret support to operate from the shadows.
At this point, actor Jason Statham has enough rock-fisted, tough-guy flicks on his resume that he’s almost an action-adventure subgenre unto himself.
What kind of film is it?
It’s a Statham movie!
Ah, gotcha.
In that vein, Shelter is very much a Statham movie. The driving action is polished and well-choreographed. Statham stoically delivers his one-man-army, hard-hitting, good guy role with brio. And as a bonus, the innocent young girl that Statham is sheltering is believable and likeable, too.
On the other hand, the film is so beat-by-beat formulaic and similar to other films in this specialized “subgenre” that scenes from Shelter could be snipped out and slipped into any of a dozen other pics à la Statham, and no one would ever notice. Of course, that also means that the neck snapping, blood spurting and f-bomb chucking are all pretty much boilerplate Statham as well.
Maybe with the actor’s next pic, I’ll just fill in my review conclusion with a simple but definitive: It’s a Statham movie! And like a not-so-secret code, you’ll know.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
