July 19, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Johnny Martin
Culture Representation: Taking place in Tennessee and in California, the action film “Off the Grid” features a predominantly white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A scientist, who invented a revolutionary cold-fusion device, goes into hiding and is hunted when he refuses to give the details about how to make the device after he found out that the company that hired him wants to sell the invention as a weapon of mass destruction.
Culture Audience: “Off the Grid” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and mindless and extremely formulaic action movies.
In the idiotic action flick “Off the Grid,” a scientist goes into hiding from a technology company that wants his cold-fusion invention as a weapon of mass destruction. This entire schlockfest is a mass-destruction weapon against viewers’ intelligence. There is absolutely nothing original, clever or surprising in this junkpile excuse for a movie.
Directed by Johnny Martin and written by James Agnew, “Off the Grid” is basically a compilation of chase scenes, violent fights and explosions, with awful dramatic dialogue uttered by the movie’s hollow and generic characters in between the frequently unrealistic action scenes. The movie begins by showing a scientist named Guy (played by Josh Duhamel) in a vicious brawl with a hired thug named Marcus (played by Ricky Russer) in a remote dwelling somewhere in Tennessee. “Off the Grid” then shows what happens that led up to that scene and then circles back to the fight and continues the story.
Guy, who is also called Jack in the movie, is being hunted by Belcor Enterprises, a San Francisco-based technology company that wants Guy to hand over the details of how to make this cold-fusion invention. The movie is so poorly written, the details are vague about this invention except to say that Guy built a prototype that could fit into the palm of someone’s hand. Guy fled California and has been living “off the grid” in a converted Quonset hut in Tennessee, ever since he found out that Belcor wanted to sell this invention as a weapon of mass destruction.
Guy occasionally goes into the nearest town to get food and supplies. A general store clerk named Chase (played by Michael Zapesotsky), who is in his late teens, strikes up a rapport with Guy. Guy also catches the amorous attention of Josey (played by Maria Elisa Carmago), a bed-and-breakfast owner who also owns a bar near the store. Guy is polite but tries to keep an emotional distance because he wants to have a solitary life while he’s in hiding.
Marcus is the chief goon in charge of finding Guy and getting the secret details of how to make this invention, even if Guy has to be killed. Marcus leads a team of other mercenaries, but Marcus is very inept and a lot of bungling happens. For example, there’s a scene where Marcus and his cronies track down Guy and walk right into a dwelling that’s booby-trapped with bombs.
Belcor Enterprises is named after its sleazy leader Belcor (played by Peter Stromare), who is under extreme pressure to get control of this invention because Belcor promised some “Italian friends” that they would get a working design of the invention about six months ago. Belcor eventually orders Ranish (played by Greg Kinnear), who was Guy’s supervisor, to join Marcus out in the Tennessee backwoods to find Guy.
“Off the Grid” has lackluster acting performances and the type of soulless dialogue that sounds like it was written by cheap artificial intelligence. In a conversation between Marcus and Ranish about tracking down Guy, Marcus says to Ranish: “I’ll find him.” Ranish replies, “Not if he finds you first.” “Off the Grid” is time-wasting slop where you won’t find anything but horrible filmmaking—and you might lose some brain cells in the process.
Lionsgate released “Off the Grid” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on Jun 27, 2025.