How Godzilla Film, Parenthood, and Car Accident Shaped the Style of Onslaught by Adam Wingard

Adam Wingard Returns Home With Onslaught

For Onslaught, director Adam Wingard brings us back home, where he is at his most comfortable and competent. In a sense. This film, directed by Adam Wingard, where the lead role is being played by Adria Arjona, also brings him back to his roots. After directing such big blockbusters as Godzilla vs. Kong, it is a change of pace, going back even further to the smaller-scale filmmaking that his early works were defined by. And on a much more literal level, this is also taking him back to where the director first grew up.

The director, Wingard, was raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a secretive community created to house scientists who were working on the Manhattan Project at the time it was built. The city was developed as a planned unit development under the umbrella of a government agency, which is why such a level of secrecy was maintained. The history of Oak Ridge bears a lot of resemblance to many of the secret-conspiracy themes that are present in Wingard’s movies. Among other things are the themes of government conspiracies as depicted in Wingard’s earlier film. The Guest, which revolves around an armed soldier who gets himself integrated into a typical American family, and that film is not the only thing that has those kinds of themes in his Godzilla vs. Kong movies, which were also big blockbusters. These films gave a wider context to Monarch, which is the secret government group that tracks and investigates giant creatures, among other duties. Wingard brings together the theme of secrecy and espionage through the lens of Onslaught, which is a more intimate and localized kind of story.

Onslaught delivers a thrilling mix of soldiers, agents, and a terrifying creature.

The film Onslaught begins with a title sequence that uncovers the history of the U.S. government’s clandestine secret, which is partly disguised under black bars. This sequence is an indicator that Adam Wingard is once again exploring the conspiracy-driven subject matter that marked his earlier works. It also points to his continuation of the genre-blending style of action movies, which he had started to make his mark in Hollywood with.
Celeste, a war veteran and mother of two, portrayed by Adria Arjona, is stranded in Moriarty, New Mexico. That’s the protagonist of the story, who gets left behind by the people in power, and she shoots at jack-o’-lanterns just for fun at a gun range, the only way a girl can have fun nowadays!
An unexpected twist in the plot is an evil Nazi scientist (who is a familiar figure to Wingard, and Dan Stevens portrays him) and a secret group that is working on a machine that can bring warriors who have been killed back to life and transform them into super warriors.
One way or another, the film quickly shows its style and does so in a very graphic way—the bloodshed, the massacres, the machine guns, and also a terrifying creature wielding a huge knife are some of the movie’s ​‍​‌‍​‍‌highlights.

Why Adam Wingard Chose Onslaught Over Godzilla x Kong 3

Onslaught was not always going to be Wingard’s next film at all. Wingard was initially very intent on coming back for the third installment after Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire turned out to be the franchise’s highest-grossing film over the more than 70 years since it began. He had already begun discussing the third movie with Legendary and even left some hidden hints in The New Empire about where he thought the storyline should head. A couple of Bernie’s podcast’s episode titles were, in fact, in Wingard’s own way of giving little clues about the story for the sequel.

Legendary and Wingard eventually talked about the matter and decided on a contract that would see Wingard return as a director. But first, Wingard insisted on doing R-rated Onslaught that Legendary thought was unreasonable. Wingard described the decision to take another Godzilla movie directing job just after finishing two as a tough one for him personally. On the other hand, his dream of producing his smaller independent film project after having deferred it for a decade finally could be realized. So, he went with Onslaught and gave himself an opportunity to walk back and, again, engage in the kind of personal filmmaking he had always loved.

Adam Wingard Was Intended to Be a Reminder of Who He Really Is

To Wingard’s recollection, he even warned his agent that he would possibly produce Onslaught when, in fact, Legendary warned him that if he refused to take up the job for the Godzilla x Kong sequel, then the next filmmaker would be chosen directly. The movie director also realized that one day he might have to witness another person taking over the franchise, which he had contributed to. He compared such a situation to attending a former girlfriend’s wedding, and even he himself admitted that the situation was quite bad.

However, Wingard said that he had no regrets about his decision. “That was the best decision I’ve ever made, as I wanted to remind my audience again about the type of filmmaker I am,” he said. Lately, the director explained that since he finished The Guest, Wingard has mostly worked within the style of a preexisting IP and its franchise. He noticed that after some time viewers may forget his unique style, or maybe, due to various directions his career moved, they never really understood it fully. That is why, via the film Onslaught, Wingard decided to make a picture that would precisely show what an Adam Wingard movie is like. Besides that, he was not interested in having the highest ticket sales at the box office, so he was focused on making a film with his favorite elements: music, the right tone, and the mixing of genres in a way that is quite surprising. Film-wise, Onslaught for Wingard was basically a film meant to serve as a reminder to the audience of Wingard’s capabilities.

Adam Wingard’s Life Experiences Have Influenced His Directorial Style

At the same time that Adam was in the director’s chair for the Godzilla movie, Wingard co-directed a live-action Japanese manga film named Death Note and Lionsgate’s new, divisive take on Blair Witch. Even after leaving the Godzilla x Kong movie, Wingard still had major franchise projects, such as the sequel to Face/Off, which he was working on with Barrett for Paramount, and a Thundercats movie for Warner Bros. That would have been a mix of live-action and animation in the pipeline.

In fact, for a while, Wingard thought that one of those big-budget projects would become his next film. However, two major events made him change his point of view: he became a father and was hit by a car while crossing the street while he was on the set of Face/Off 2. “Few people can say that,” Wingard joked. These changes brought about a major shift in his professional aspirations. He came to understand that his postponing of his personally significant projects would no longer be justifiable. According to Wingard, he currently considers each movie a potential legacy project. Even if he continues working on studio pictures and major franchises, he would like to be strongly connected to those projects personally and to change the way of movie development. He sees Onslaught as the first sign of his new filmmaking direction.

The Onslaught Story Was the Right Project for Wingard

Wingard immediately realized this was a project he needed to do. He was so moved by the similarity between the Onslaught storyline and his life story that he was even ready to make a movie about a father struggling with alcoholism.

“I always wanted to be doing a movie about a father, or a non-biological father who gets the opportunity to be with his son for a while, that type of movie,” Wingard said, describing how a common theme of a film gave it an emotional base so that they could then work around it for the bigger picture.

They went back to the guest-like world setting and placed the film in Moriarty, NM, with Wingard thinking that the personal element was what guided them towards the suitable narrative. Wingard said that there is no movement on Face/Off 2 with him and Barrett, who described it as “a mutual parting of ways.” He also said that they have been quite close for a while about their direction for a Face/Off legacy sequel.

He stated that after spending about five years working on the project, they felt they had gotten close to the whole movie only to find out finally that it wasn’t going to work after all. He added it was a bit of a disappointment, but Wingard did not wish to expose their version so that elements of it could still potentially be reused by others in the future iteration of the project.

Adam Wingard Wanted Onslaught to Breathe

Certainly, among the key points that make Onslaught so powerful is its unyielding, non-stop pace. The film, just over 90 minutes, does not waste much time, going from scene to scene very quickly. Wingard explained that the filmmakers’ approach partly came from his experience with two Godzilla movies where every frame and every second had to be scrutinized and cut down, if necessary, at the most minute level. “When everything becomes so staccato, you lose the big picture, you know?” He said.
After doing Studio Blockbuster, Wingard said he felt like a movie that gives room to be slow and introspective would be the next thing for Wingard!

It was John Carpenter, the filmmaker he most admires, whose films they live by, including The Prince of Darkness, The Thing, and Halloween. Wingard said Carpenter’s films have a “hangout vibe,” in which viewers aren’t always hit over the head with action or dialogue scenes. Even when the stories get slow, they are still engaging because the viewer is simply spending time with the main characters. With this in mind, Wingard wanted the movie “Onslaught,” which, besides moving a lot, still allows characters and storylines to take their time and breathe.

Adam Wants Onslaught to Be Allowed to Have Their Time

“I think this film definitely allows that quite a bit more,” said Wingard. The trailer park is one great example. The movie doesn’t waste time with the colorful characters living next door to Arjona’s Celeste, like Eric Wareheim’s small-town police officer, Reginald VelJohnson (who played a retiree), a Die Hard veteran, and others. Wingard believes quieter scenes are good for building up the world. There are moments with Celeste just sitting down, music on, wind coming through the trailer park, and tension gradually being built up. Even without action, such sequences remain engaging and enrich the depiction of the setting.

Wingard was actually afraid that Onslaught could be the very first of his movies to hit the 120-minute mark, which he keeps very carefully in line with every one of his projects. Musical numbers and other scenes are so many that he feared it would make the movie even longer in length. Unexpectedly, the final shooting script amounted only to a mere 86 pages, so that Wingard was free to let himself expand on certain scenes.

“I mean, usually, your scripts are a lot longer than the film, and then I feel like you’ve got to hurry through certain things,” he mentioned. Also, an influence, Wingard cites, comes from anime he watched as a kid and how this developed the instinct not to slow things down much more. Wingard added that, even while Onslaught slows down, he claimed, something beneath the surface was always going on. That is a movie that is constantly developing, yet not too fast, and it will never overload the viewers.

Adam Wingard Ends Onslaught a Bit Elsewhere

Adam Wingard’s subtle handling of Onslaught has also been reflected through the intimate ending of the movie. The specifics are better left untouched for the benefit of those who will see the film. In contrast to ending with a big spectacle, Wingard was more inclined for the movie to be gradually closed and reflective. “I wanted to go away with the story not being a huge crescendo. I liked the idea where it kind of goes meditative again rather than ending with one last explosion of action,” he remarked.

As the film hits movie theaters, Wingard also hinted that maybe he is not ready to leave this universe. According to him, it is still an open terrain to write further stories about super soldiers, small towns, or secret government bases with dangerous truths as their secret agenda. For a director who always enjoys conspiracies alongside his genre blending, that is a direction that looks pretty natural to him.