Nimrod Antal has been known as a brilliant music video and TV commercial director in Hungary and he quickly rose to prominence in the states in 2005 with his hit feature film debut Kontroll, which he followed in 2007 with the horror-thriller Vacancy. The helmer, who next directs Robert Rodriguez’s Predators, is the first to admit how blessed he is to only have a couple of feature films under his belt and already having had the good fortune of working with talent such as Matt Dillon, Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburne, who all star in his latest film, Armored, a high intensity action thriller about a robbery gone awry.
In the film, a group of security guards working for an armored truck company come up with a solid plan to steal millions from one of their own vehicles and in the process coerce a reluctant employee–Ty Hackett played by Columbus Short–to join their heist. Of course, things don’t go as scheduled when an unexpected witness gets in the way and forces every man to fight for their own survival. Some of the men will stop at nothing to stay alive and Milo Ventimiglia’s character, who is an officer in pursuit of the guys, finds out the hard way when he’s shot, kidnapped and left in the back of an armored truck for dead. But he’s not the only one who has suffered the wrath of the crooks trying to get away – Ty Hackett’s kid brother is also abducted when they believe Ty isn’t on their side anymore. The security guard snaps when his brother is taken and will do anything to get him back.
ComingSoon.net visited the Los Angeles set and had the opportunity to watch a powerful moment in the film when Columbus Short is helping his brother escape and bring Milo Ventimiglia to safety.
The scene we watched took place on a soundstage at Sony Studios which was made to look like an abandoned warehouse where the bad guys were hiding out. The attention to detail on the set was incredible. There was an armored vehicle riddled with bullet holes and in the back of the truck laid a pool of blood from where Ventimiglia’s character had been. You could also see the black smoke damage from an explosion Short’s character rigged as a diversion to get his brother.
In the scene, Short is trying to get his younger brother Jimmy to safety and away from Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne’s characters. Short drags Ventimiglia out of the truck and takes him to an area where he thinks he’ll be safe. Ventimiglia is literally pulled by his clothes to safety and definitely took a few hits along the way, but the actor didn’t seem to mind. As Short takes the wounded officer out of harm’s way, his younger brother Jimmy runs after them. Jimmy, who is played by Andre Kinney, is scared and just wants out of the situation, but Short is worried he hurt someone else in the explosion and wants to go back to the truck to look for other survivors.
When they’ve reached the area Short leaves the two at, he grabs his brother to make sure he’s alright.
Short: “Are you okay? Are you hurt? I’ll be back. Be a man right now.”
His brother looks sad and dazed at the same time. He doesn’t want to be left alone. It was an emotional moment where Short explains to Kinney’s character why he needs to go back.
Short: “You’re all I got. I’m coming back.”
Ventimiglia, who is severely injured and holding his gut trying to put pressure on the gunshot wound, tries to console the child.
“You’re going to be good kid. It’s going to be alright,” he struggles to say.
While on-set, we got a chance to talk to the director, Dillon, Short and Ventimiglia about the film hitting theaters on December 4th. You can read the interviews using the links below and be sure to watch the trailer here.
