Upgrade

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.

Upgrade lands as a lean, enjoyable genre exercise that earns most of its goodwill from a sharp premise and dark humor, though critics were notably split on whether Leigh Whannell successfully balances the film's satirical ambitions with its pulpy thrills — with some finding that tension energizing and others finding it deflating. The gap between the strong crowd-pleasing response and the more cautious critical middle ground suggests the film works better as a ride than as the pointed techno-satire it occasionally reaches for.