the belko experiment villain

• Office Horrors
• 2010s Villain
• Human Villain
• Villain Debuted in 2016
• Group Leader

Barry Norris

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Hey, listen up, everybody, whoever's doing this, they're having a little fun at our expense Barry Norris

Barry Norris is one of the two main villains from the 2016 movie The Belko Experiment. He's not the only one, but the second most important antagonist in the movie.

Biography [ ]

He's the CCO of the Colombia branch of Belko Industries, a cheap management industry for other companies, in which trackers are often installed on their employees, and one day upon arriving at the Belko Industries building, Barry noticed that there was an odd amount of security in the building, but he did not give much importance to this and continued with his normal work day with his co-workers, until someuntil someone started talking through the building's loudspeakers and instructed the employees to kill 2 of the 80 employees in the building within the next 30 minutes, or else 4 would die, and then metal doors were deployed in all possible exits of the building, which at first Barry and a few other empolyees taked that as a joke, but after passing the indicated 30 minutes, 4 employees died, apparently from shots to the head, but Barry discovered that the true cause of their deaths was the detonation of the trackers that they had implanted, which means that whoever was behind all this was someone with a higher rank than Barry. After Barry's discovery, everyone gathers in the cafeteria, while Barry tries to ask the security guard for gun control which he refuses, but then the person who was giving the announcements says that they now had 2 hours to murder 30 employees, or 60 of them would be killed. Then a great hysteria began in the workers, and they divided into groups, some who were looking for a peaceful solution, led by Mike Milch, and those who believed that the only way to survive was by following the instructions and killing 30 of them, led by Barry. While Mike's group tried various ways to try to escape the building, Barry's group tried to keep the weapons, but Mike and the security guard stopped them, which annoyed them very much, but then Barry's group took revenge on them and they killed the guard and used their keys to keep the weapons, with which they gathered almost everyone in a room of the building, and there they decided who to execute and began to kill them one by one, but a building employee who had been overlooked left the building without power just before Mike died, and the employees who were about to be killed managed to escape, so Barry's group began to search for and murder employees at random, until 29 people had already been killed, and then the mysterious voice that spoke through the loudspeakers announced that their time was up, so 31 more employees died, and then the mysterious voice said that now the one who had the most murders would be the one who would survive, and began to say the numbers of each employee, Barry being the one who had killed the most people with 11 murders, and then everyone started murdering people and trying to avoid being murdered, until only Mike and Barry were alive, and after a fight Mike killed Barry.

Victims [ ]

• Samantha Arcos: Shot in the head with pistol.
• J. Ferguson: Shot in the head with pistol.
• Luis Costa: Shot in the head with pistol.
• Helena Barton: Shot in the head with pistol.
• Nameless Empolyee: Shot in the head with pistol.
• George Contorinis: Shot in the head with pistol.
• Victoria Baro: Shot in the head with pistol.
• Louisa Luna: Shot in the head with pistol.
• Emily Gardon: Shot in the back with pistol.
• Jim Long: Shot in the stomach with pistol.
• Nameless Employee: Shot in the back with pistol.
• Lorena Checo: Neck broken.
• Roberto Jerez: Smashed with elevator.
• Vince Agostino: Shot in the chest with pistol.
• Dany Wilkins: Shot in the head with pistol.
• Leandra Florez: Shot in the chest with pistol.
• 1 Axel Palmer
• 2 The Rent Killer
• 3 Jack Frost

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The Belko Experiment

"All employees, no matter what you're doing, please stop and lend me your full attention."

The Belko Experiment is a 2016 horror thriller film directed by Greg McLean ( Wolf Creek ) and written and produced by James Gunn . Its premise has been summarized as " Office Space meets Battle Royale ".

The film revolves around Belko Industries, a non-profit organization that facilitates American companies in South America. 80 Americans work abroad for the company at a building in Bogotá, Colombia, doing what seems on the surface to be a normal corporate job.

One day, after all the employees arrive to work, a voice on the intercom gives a simple order: two employees must be killed in the next half-hour, or there will be "repercussions". The employees' shock and disbelief at the request turn to horror when the extents of the repercussions are made clear, after which everyone is then locked in the building and forced to participate in a deadly game of kill-or-be-killed.

Gunn was inspired to write the film's screenplay in 2007, with the main premise coming to him in a dream . Although the film was greenlit with Gunn attached to also direct, he ultimately turned down the opportunity and moved onto other projects. In 2014, a producer from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer called Gunn expressing interest in making the film; while he was too busy working on Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) to direct it, he agreed to produce it while being given full creative control.

The Belko Experiment contain examples of:

• Actual Pacifist : Raziya, the Muslim woman, witnesses a bunch of Belko employees (including Vince) stomp one of Barry's gunmen to death (in self-defense, no less) and can only scream for them to stop.
• All for Nothing : Lampshaded by Mike. He's the only character who points out that if this is real, there's no way they will ever let anyone live to tell about it.
• All There in the Script : The names for the majority of the characters.
• Anyone Can Die : Of the 80 employees, only Mike survives.
• Apologetic Attacker : A completely heartbreaking one from Vince to Raziya right before he shoots her.
• Ax-Crazy : Subverted. Nobody is killing out of sadistic pleasure, just self-preservation.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work : The only way to survive is to kill others. Everyone admits it is evil and wrong, but some care more about survival.
• Big Bad : Barry is the one who decides to start hunting people and only grows more unstable as the movie progresses.
• Big Brother Is Watching You : The entire building is under total observation, so anyone attempting escape or trying to remove the bombs in their heads will not get past them.
• Blasphemous Boast : Barry refers to the Voice as "our new god".
• Closed Circle : The building is sealed, and any attempt to escape is met by armed guards.
• Cluster F-Bomb : Several characters drop a few here and there, but Marty takes the cake. Every other sentence out of his mouth contains the F-word even before things get real.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies : There are 80 characters, and 79 need to die within 88 minutes of movie — deaths are very common.
• A woman scared by Raven picks up a fork to protect herself and goes into a fighting stance. Barry calmly walks over to her and gives her much needed hug while gently taking the fork from her hand.
• Cool Old Guy : Bud.
• Cruel and Unusual Death : Lots. Heads exploding by implanted bombs, face smashed with an axe, hacked to death with cleavers, crushed by an elevator...
• The Cynic : Leandra, which ironically puts her worldview more in common to her boss Barry's realism than her friend Mike's idealism.
• Deadly Game : The Belko workers are ordered to kill their co-workers, and threatened with death should they refuse. The announcer outright refers to it as a "game".
• Decoy Protagonist : More like "Decoy Final Girl". Dany Wilkins was genre savvy enough to survive the majority of the game by hiding and avoiding Barry and his crew. The movie builds it up that she might survive the game but made the mistake of getting on an elevator, which led to her getting shot by Barry.
• Dead Star Walking : Michael Rooker doesn't even last a half hour, in addition to being the first employee killed by another employee.
• Defrosting Ice Queen : Dany's supervisor, an older blond lady, all-business demeanor comes across a tad harsh. Later on, that same woman is seen helping an injured young Keith walk down a flight of stairs.
• Downer Ending : Mike survives, but many of his friends and co-workers, including his girlfriend, are dead, and the experiment isn't over as he and many others who survived are once again forced to compete in another round.
• The Dragon : Wendell is by far the most Ax-Crazy of Barry's group. He kills Evan simply for throwing keys to the ground and shows absolutely no emotion or remorse with killing after that.
• Elevator Failure : Barry gets trapped in an elevator when Roberto is crushed by it , getting it stuck in place.
• Elder Abuse : The very first group Barry chooses to execute is anyone over the age of 60.
• Entitled Bastard : The Voice and his cronies have Mike brought before them after he "wins" and arrogantly expect his cooperation when they start grilling him about the psychological effect of what he just experienced. He refuses to play along and kills them all.
• Even Evil Has Standards : Nobody approved of Wendell stabbing Evan for the cardinal sin of throwing the armory keys down the stairs. Terry is downright horrified and even Barry is shown to be visibly annoyed.
• For Science! : The ending explains that it's all just a sick sociology experiment.
• Face Death with Dignity : During the execution line up in the lobby, while others are screaming, crying, begging and damning Barry and friends to hell, one woman just simply takes a deep breath and closes her eyes before she's shot.
• Face–Heel Turn : Several characters undergo one either due to panic, desperation, or just raw pragmatism — some quicker than others.
• Foreshadowing : During Mike's fight with Barry, they knock over an introductory voiceover PowerPoint of Belko Industries, which mentions that the company has forty offices. When Mike ends up becoming the final survivor of the film, the ending reveals that each Belko office had a survivor of its own.
• Gaining the Will to Kill : As the time limit gets closer, some characters begin to realize killing the others is their best chance to live.
• Gentle Giant : Vince Agostino is friendly guy and accommodating boss who takes time to teach new hire Dany the ropes. On more than one occasion used his great strength to move someone to safety; like a wheelchair bound lady. Unfortunately, by the final stage he completely flips his gourd.
• Gorn : Plenty. There are multiple gruesome deaths with gory bodies on full display.
• Hero of Another Story : The ending shows 39 other people that won their own "game."
• Hidden in Plain Sight : All of the monitoring equipment and scientists are hidden in a huge, dilapidated aircraft hangar that is on Belko property for some reason that apparently nobody has ever bothered to look in.
• I Have a Family : Invoked multiple times by multiple people. Even the most murderous of the group call out and set aside those with children under 18 and spare them from execution. Until game 3, anyway.
• Improvised Weapon : Lots. A wrench, a hammer, a tape dispenser, a rolling pin, a fork, a podium, the blade of a paper cutter, molotovs, kitchen knives, cleavers...
• Instant Death Bullet : Multiple scenes with a handgun being fired into a crowd and people just fall over instantly dead.
• Laser-Guided Karma : Lonny accidentally kills Bud in a fit of panic when he just trying get Lonny to calm down. Then Lonny gets accidentally killed by Dany when he desperately tries to force her to keep quiet about whole mess.
• Lottery of Doom : Multiple people consider this the morally correct way to let it play out. Don't kill anyone and just wait to see who dies.
• Made of Indestructium : The shields that seal the doors and windows don't even heat up , let alone melt, after prolonged use of an acetylene torch.
• MegaCorp : Belko Industries, a non-profit company. With body armored security guards and a fully stocked armory. Oh, and the mandatory murder. It's indicated the entire company and its many offices are just a front for the titular experiment.
• Mr. Fixit : Bud. When the AC is disabled, he is absolutely confident he can fix it no matter what "they" did to it.
• The Needs of the Many : Characters make this argument several times. Assuming the rules are followed, killing 30 means 50 survive. Otherwise only 20 survive. Mike counters that, even setting aside the morality of complying with this mandate, there's no way in hell that killing 30 people will actually save anyone, because there's no way anyone pulling this kind of "social experiment" would let anyone live to tell of it. He's right.
• No Name Given : A huge majority of the employees are never named and simply serve as fodder.
• No Social Skills : Subverted for Wendell. His creepiness toward Leandra not withstanding, Wendell is shown to get along rather well with the rest of his coworkers at the beginning of the film.
• Older Sidekick : Chet to Marty. He seems to just go along with whatever crazy nonsense Marty comes up with.
• Ominous Multiple Screens : The final shot of the film is a camera zooming out on a panel of dozens of screens, showing other "winners".
• Only Sane Man : Out of all the Belko employees, Mike is the most rational. When the "experiment" is first announced, Mike immediately attempts get everyone to calmly evacuate. The majority thinks it's just some kind of prank, to which Mike admits that it is likely but still insists on leaving just to be on the safe side.
• Pull the Thread : Lampshaded. Multiple characters notice and mention that the security guards were replaced with armed soldiers, but nobody actually seems to care.
• Read the Fine Print : Marty makes a comment about Belko being able to do anything they want because of the absurd contracts they were required to sign to begin working there, and asks if anyone else actually read it before signing. Nobody did.
• Retired Badass : Barry and Wendell. When discussing whether or not they should start killing people, someone makes mention that "some of us aren't trained Special Forces killers" and gestures at them both.
• The Reveal : Mike is the sole survivor of the film...but the screen at the end shows that 40 other people survived the experiment, a majority of them covered in blood and holding weapons, and a voice announces the commencement of "stage 2" .
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge : After becoming the last man standing, Mike manages to kill all the guards and scientists running the experiment as revenge for what they did.
• The Belko employees are given one already-insane choice at first: kill two fellow employees in a half-hour's time, or "face repercussions" (which are revealed to be double that amount of employees being killed ).
• This is then one-upped by the next choice the employees get: kill thirty coworkers in two hours' time, or Belko will kill sixty .
• Sanity Slippage : Barry, who goes from the most collective to flat-out doing an execution in the lobby and then just going on a killing spree when Belko states that the person with the highest kill count will survive .
• Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere : The Belko building is in an extremely rural part of Colombia, and all exits are sealed off.
• Sequel Hook : The film ends with the reveal that Belko is a huge corporation with many, many locations... all of which were performing the same experiment. A disembodied voice states that "stage two" has commenced, implying that all of the survivors are going to be placed in another experiment, not let free as promised.
• Shoot Everything That Moves : Employees with guns employ this method when they lose control.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog : Dany, the new hire on her first day, is built up throughout the film as a possible Final Girl , as she survives various situations and has several scenes devoted to her sub-arc. She gets killed nonchalantly by Barry towards the end.
• Sinister Surveillance : Someone is watching what's going on in Belko...
• Spotting the Thread : The first indication that something is off is the security has been replaced by heavily armed guards and all of the Colombian employees are being sent home for the day.
• Spy Cam : Used liberally. Multiple are hidden in every room of the Belko building.
• The Stoner : Marty. Heck, his first scene is of him smoking a joint in the bathroom. Once the situation takes turn for the worse, however, he exhibits behavior akin to getting high with mushrooms instead of marijuana.
• Stupid Evil : Exhibited in the ending. Mike is the sole survivor, and is brought before the Entitled Bastards responsible for the murders of his coworkers to... do a questionnaire on the experience . It doesn't end well for them, as Mike easily disarms and dispatches them . Even though they're just the decoys for the real masterminds, they're still exceptionally stupid.
• Took a Level in Badass : Mike goes the pacifist route initially, but at the end systematically kills those running the titular experiment.
• Tap on the Head : Subverted. Lonny taps Bud with a wrench to get him away. It caves in his skull and kills him.
• There Can Be Only One : "Game" three is that only the one employee with the most kills gets to leave.
• These Hands Have Killed : Patty when she stabs Antonio to save Mike. A deleted scene expands upon it further.
• Villains Want Mercy : The Voice has the nerve to beg for undeserved mercy when Mike holds him at gunpoint. Mike gives him what he deserves.
• Violence Is the Only Option : Characters attempt to dig the explosives out of their heads, make phone calls, blowtorch their way out, and hang banners asking for help. Eventually the only option is to kill each other.
• Water Source Tampering : Marty, unable to comprehend that the game is actually happening , begins trying to spread a theory that they are all hallucinating due to "something" in the water.
• Wham Line : The final line of the film. "End stage one. Commence stage two. "
• One could argue this is the whole point of the experiment.
• Leandra was among the most cynical of the group, yet when she had a pleading Terry (whom earlier came within a hairbreadth of shooting Mike AND her) on the ground and every right to split his head open, Leandra shows Terry mercy.
• Workplace Horror : A thriller where only one employee is allowed to live at the end of the workday.
• Would Hit a Girl : Women are attacked and killed just as indiscriminately and brutally as the men.
• Your Head A-Splode : All Belko employees had a tracking chip implanted in the back of their necks, ostensibly to prevent kidnapping. They also explode when conditions aren't met.
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Who Got Murdered the Worst in ‘The Belko Experiment’?

Apparently there are 1,001 ways to die in an office building

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Share All sharing options for: Who Got Murdered the Worst in ‘The Belko Experiment’?

By Andrew Gruttadaro and Claire McNear

This is a post about death scenes in the film The Belko Experiment , and therefore is riddled with spoilers.

In The Belko Experiment , 99 percent of the characters die. It begins when an unknown voice tells the employees of Belko Industries, an American company based in Bogotá, Colombia, that if they don’t kill three of their coworkers, six people will die. But that’s only the beginning. The voice’s demands get larger, and as John Gallagher Jr.’s character notes — while all the other characters tell him to cool down even though a guy’s head just exploded — no one in the building is going to be allowed to live. The bodies start dropping in quick succession after that, partly because coworkers start murdering each other in extremely gross, inventive ways and partly because the voice keeps making people’s heads explode.

The Belko Experiment (which was penned by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn) positions itself as a horror movie that philosophizes on human nature, but really it’s just a movie that takes twisted enjoyment in cubicle-based murder. While things do get a little too grim at times — the slow-motion scene in which photos of a man’s children splay out of his wallet is wildly unnecessary — it’s clear that there’s no point in clutching your pearls with this one. Gunn and director Greg McLean didn’t take things seriously, so why should we? To that end, two Ringer staffers put together a ranking of which characters got murdered the worst in The Belko Experiment .

Honorable Mention: Dany Wilkins (Melonie Diaz)

Claire McNear : Real talk: There are two obvious strategies for survival here. The first — landed on by poor Melonie Diaz, who arrives at Belko for her first day of a new job just in time for the murder plot to be explained over the loudspeakers — is to hide. It’s a big building! Find a nice place to sit in the bowels of the basement and chill, as Diaz does for much of the movie. But then she makes the Certified Dipshit Move™ of leaving the basement, trading it for the elevator shaft — which seems like a second great call until, well, it isn’t.

So Diaz decides to get in the goddamn elevator and go to another floor. The doors open, and bam: The COO, Tony Goldwyn, shoots her in the forehead. She could have been saved if she had gone with the other obvious survival strategy, which no one, not one single Belko soul, attempted, because they are dumb: Play dead. Seriously, rub some blood on yourself and settle in for a nice nap while your psychotic coworkers Battle Royale each other. This is not exactly a time for checking pulses, and the building’s many cameras wouldn’t know the difference. I am available to help write any sequels; you can call my agent, who is a cat.

10. All the People Whose Heads Exploded

McNear: About halfway through the movie, there’s somewhere in the neighborhood of three uninterrupted minutes of people’s heads exploding. Heads pop off of nearly all the remaining non-principals, plus a fair share of people you’ve developed some attachment to. It’s capped by Josh Brener, of Silicon Valley and The Big Bang Theory fame, sitting up and delightedly asking if it’s over, at which point his skull explodes. It was at this moment that a couple in the theater where I watched the movie got up and walked out.

9. Wendell Dukes (John C. McGinley)

Andrew Gruttadaro : You know how I know Wendell, the guy former Scrubs star John C. McGinley plays in The Belko Experiment , is a pervert? Well, first, because his name is Wendell. But more importantly, because at one point Adria Arjona’s character Leandra calls him a pervert and he snaps, “DON’T EVER CALL ME A PERVERT!” Uh, methinks the pervert doth protest too much. As a clear villain in the movie, Wendell was destined to die horribly, and he does. First, Leandra puts a bullet in his leg — very painful, I bet — then slams a cafeteria table onto that same leg. Then, while he’s like, “Oh, I can’t really move this table off of me because I was just recently shot,” Leandra picks up an ax and drives it right through the center of his face. McLean is kind enough to give the audience a quick glance of the ax connecting with Wendell’s dome, and you know what? I now taking sleeping pills because of the image of John C. McGinley’s face concaving while blood geysers from a newly created crevasse.

8. Evan (James Earl)

Gruttadaro: Evan, the security guard, is the greatest character in The Belko Experiment . He isn’t blindly moral like Gallagher, but he also isn’t way too ready to start sacrificing coworkers like McGinley or Goldwyn. He’s just a measured dude understandably sad that all of his work friends no longer have heads. So the most tragic part of the movie is when Evan takes a kitchen knife to the gut and bleeds out in a stairwell. It’s definitely not the worst way anyone dies in this movie — though that knife does go to hilt, and I’m sure it severed a couple of major organs — but Evan was a real lovable guy. I felt like that knife was being driven into my stomach.

7. Lonny (David Dastmalchian)

Gruttadaro: When the experiment begins at Belko, Lonny, one of two maintenance workers in the building, smartly notes, “They’re trying to make us kill each other! They’re trying to make us go crazy!” So it’s pretty shitty that he’s the first one to lose his mind and kill someone. After braining a man with a wrench (my fellow Belko analyst, Claire, will cover this death further down the list), Lonny stumbles upon the new girl, Dany, and since he just killed a man and has very much lost his mind, they begin to tussle. It ends when Dany pushes Lonny against a wall … that is inexplicably adorned by three extremely sharp rods. The middle one goes into the back of his neck (ugh, don’t you hate when that happens!?); blood fills his mouth. It’s super gross.

6. Angry Man (Joe Fria)

Gruttadaro: Angry Man doesn’t have a real name or lines, but he is shown multiple times, invariably being angry that he’s going to die at work. His seemingly last appearance comes about two-thirds of the way through the movie, when we see him take shelter in the cafeteria freezer. Smart move by Angry Man. HOWEVER, we see Angry Man one more time: being dragged out of said freezer while being repeatedly chopped at with a cleaver. Think about how terrible that is! This guy, who, it should be said, is Angry, like, all the time, was freezing his ass off in the name of survival and he died anyway. By being chopped up. With a cleaver. I’d be Angry too.

5. Bud (Michael Rooker)

McNear: During the first 10 minutes or so of The Belko Experiment , you know the fight to the death is coming. Given that there are 80 people in the building — a fact you will be reminded of repeatedly — the filmmakers use that time to try to (a) introduce you to as many people as possible before the fighting begins, and (b) give as many of those people a Defining Characteristic. There’s the Too-Nice Middle-Aged Woman, the Australian Dude, the Sleazy Weirdo, the Large German Lady, the Stoner, etc. As things begin to go south, you start contemplating who’s going first. The odds of survival look pretty good for Michael Rooker, who plays the building’s head of maintenance: He knows his way around the building, has access to tools (a.k.a. MURDER WEAPONS), is pals with the main character (Gallagher), has the sort of voice that suggests that he will engineer some elaborate murders later on, and, of course, is one of the bigger names in the movie. But NOT SO. Our man is the very casualty of employee-on-employee violence, falling victim to a wrench to the head just as soon as the characters realize it’s a free-for-all. It leaves a wrench-shaped dent in his forehead, a sign that the movie will be as much about murder weapons as the murders themselves.

4. Sexy Assistant (Cindy Better)

Gruttadaro: So yeah, in case Angry Man wasn’t enough of an indication that Belko wasn’t too interested in coloring in its secondary characters: Sexy Assistant was an assistant who was … sexy. That was her one trait — at the beginning of the movie, everyone she walks by puts their fist in their mouth like they’re Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street . This whole thing gets even more problematic midway through the movie, when Sexy Assistant comes toe-to-toe with Goldwyn’s COO, who has taken it upon himself to murder a lot of people. Sexy Assistant, because of course, begins unbuttoning her blouse, offering sex to the COO in exchange for her life. It’s pretty dark. The two embrace; the COO places his hand on Sexy Assistant’s face — AND THEN HE SNAPS HER NECK! LIKE, ALL THE WAY AROUND! THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DEGREES! LIKE THE EXORCIST ! You may be asking yourself how a corporate exec would know how to accomplish such a brutally gruesome feat, but if you saw the movie twice like I did (because clearly I hate myself), you would have heard the HR guy very quickly and very quietly note that the COO was former Special Forces. OK then!

3. COO Barry Norris (Tony Goldwyn)

Gruttadaro: For all of his crimes, and because he’s the final boss of The Belko Experiment , the president from Scandal had to die a terrible death. Barry is bested in a scrum with Gallagher, mostly because the latter is able to get his hands on a tape dispenser. I never really considered how heavy those things are — like, why would I care to think about how a tape dispenser also functions as a paperweight? — but the thought definitely occurred to me when one of them was being repeatedly driven into Barry’s face. Those things could definitely fracture a skull! I said to myself as Gallagher rained tape down on Barry over and over again. And because the COO was the main bad guy, Belko reveled in his death, showing his caved-in face several times, letting the audience hear the squish of his brains more than any other character’s. Victory, I guess?

2. Elderly Custodian (Alietta Montero)

McNear: If you’re going to die in a movie like this — and let’s be real, you’re going to die — you probably have some requests. Like: “Can I be a main character?” No, sorry, not gonna work out. “OK: Then can I put up a good fight before I go down?” Nope, not going to happen. “Fine, then at least give me a punchy line in there somewhere — maybe not in the moments before my demise, but … sometime, so that I can bring my family to see the thing and point to some small bit of pre-offing character development.” Nope. The custodian got none of these things. In a film that is basically just two hours of finding ways to kill people with office supplies, the powers that be occasionally throw in something a little more outside the box. In this case, that something is … a Molotov cocktail that engulfs the maid in fire. RIP, maid whose name I think was Liesl, but to be quite honest I have no idea. May you dance on the grave of the Bechdel test in the afterlife.

1. Roberto (David Del Rio)

McNear: The Sixth Rule of Cinematic Battles to the Death in Office Buildings is that deaths induced by elevators are the best (read: also worst) deaths. How many specific deaths do you remember from 2002’s Resident Evil ? The laser scene , sure. (Sadly, no lasers here.) For me, no. 2 on that list is the woman who has her head removed by a homicidal elevator as she tries to climb out of it . Belko ’s elevator death is a little less inventive but certainly dramatic: Del Rio hangs out on top of an elevator car and listens to the distant sound of his coworkers’ braincases opening. A terrific plan — up until Belko’s maniacal COO gets into the elevator and decides to head to his office, which is, of course, on the top floor. So Roberto goes up, and up, and becomes aware of what is happening, and keeps going up, and up, and up, and then is be-ceiling’d. You can hear his bones, all of them, break. Roberto was the one who joked at the beginning of the movie that everyone was going to die — a funny joke because it was obviously true. Now if you’ll excuse us, Andrew and I are going to go cry in a dark room. One with multiple exits.

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• American films
• Blumhouse Productions

The Belko Experiment

The Belko Experiment is a 2016 American horror film directed by Greg McLean and written by James Gunn, who also produced the film with Peter Safran. It stars John Gallagher Jr., Tony Goldwyn , Adria Arjona, John C. McGinley, Melonie Diaz, Josh Brener, and Michael Rooker . The film follows eighty Americans working abroad for a company named Belko Industries in Bogotá, Colombia. One day after they arrive at work, they are locked inside the building, and a mysterious voice announces that they have to start killing each other or else.

Mike Milch, an employee of Belko Industries, while driving to work is stopped by street vendors selling "lucky" handmade dolls. Barry Norris, also of Belko Industries, arrives at the office building in Bogotá, Colombia, to find unfamiliar security guards turning away the local Colombian staff at the gate. New employee Dany Wilkins reports for her first day on the job and is told that a tracking device is implanted in the base of every Belko employee's skull in case something happens to them.

Evan Smith, Belko's head security guard, does not know who the new security guards are. Once all the employees show up, a voice on the intercom instructs them to kill two of their co-workers, or else there will be consequences. Several staff attempt to flee the building, but steel shutters seal off the walls and doors, locking them all in. They ignore the announcement at first, believing it to be a sick prank, but after the set time ends and the two have not been killed, four employees die when explosives hidden in their trackers detonate and blow their heads apart. Mike attempts to remove his tracker with a box cutter, but gives up when the voice threatens to detonate his tracker explosive unless he stops.

The group is told that unless thirty of them are dead within two hours, sixty will be killed. They split into two factions, one led by Mike, who believes that there should be no killing, and one led by Barry, who intends to follow the directions in order to save himself. Barry and his group, consisting of executive Wendell, as well as employees Terry, Antonio, and Bradley attempt to burn off the lock of the armory in order to gain access to its weapons. Mike and his group, including his girlfriend, Leandra Florez, Evan and employees Keith, Leota, Peggy, Vince and Roberto, try to hang banners from the roof as a call for help, but soldiers outside shoot at them. Barry, Wendell, and Terry ambush the group in the stairway, kill Evan and take his keys to the armory.

With his group now armed, Barry and Wendell select thirty people, including Mike and Peggy, forcing them to kneel in a line. Barry begins executing them with a gunshot to the back of the head. Dany, who has been hiding in the basement, sees what is happening and shuts off the building's lights before Mike and several others can be killed. The employees immediately run for cover as Barry and his group start firing, killing several more people. However, Bradley and Antonio are ganged upon and killed by the employees. During this, Dany goes into the elevator shaft with Roberto.

Barry and Wendell hunt down the fleeing employees as the voice informs them that only twenty-nine have been killed. Then the two-hour time limit runs out. The voice states that 31 more people will die, including Terry, Leota, Peggy, and Keith, leaving only 16 survivors. They are then informed by the voice that, as a final task, the employee who has killed the most people within an hour will be spared. Barry finds Dany and Roberto in the elevator shaft. Dany escapes while Roberto is crushed and killed in the elevator shaft. Leandra finds two employees, Marty and Chet, collecting the un-exploded trackers from the heads of people who have died by other methods. They tell her that they are planning to use them to blow up the wall. However, they are killed by Wendell. Leandra kills Wendell, leaving the final six survivors: Vince, Mike, Barry, Dany, Leandra, and cafeteria lady Liezle, who is killed shortly afterward. Barry shoots Vince and Dany, killing them, and also shoots Leandra. With her dying breath, she proclaims her love to Mike.

In a rage, Mike has a brutal fight with Barry, in which Barry gets the better of him at first, however, Mike fends Barry off using a tape dispenser, which ends in Mike bludgeoning Barry to death. The building is then unsealed, as he is the last survivor, and the soldiers escort him to the hangar next door. There, he meets the owner of the Voice, who says that they're part of an international organization studying human behavior. As he and his colleagues begin to question Mike about his emotional and mental state, Mike notices a panel of switches that correspond to the eighty employees. Having planted the trackers that Marty collected on the soldiers and the Voice, he flips every remaining active switch except his own. The trackers explode, killing the soldiers and wounding the Voice, before Mike grabs a gun and kills the remaining scientists. The Voice attempts to reason with Mike and appeal to his moral beliefs, but Mike kills him. He then leaves the warehouse in a state of shock.

It becomes apparent that Mike is one of many sole survivors from similar experiments, being watched by another group through security cameras. A new voice states, "End stage one, commence stage two."

• John Gallagher Jr. as Mike Milch, an employee at Belko Industries
• Tony Goldwyn as Barry Norris, the COO of Belko and an ex-special forces soldier
• Adria Arjona as Leandra Florez, Norris' assistant and Mike's love interest
• John C. McGinley as Wendell Dukes, a socially awkward top executive
• Melonie Diaz as Dany Wilkins, a new hire at Belko
• Owain Yeoman as Terry Winters, Mike's co-worker and friend.
• Sean Gunn as Marty Espenscheid, a cafeteria worker
• Brent Sexton as Vince Agostino, Belko's head of human resources
• Josh Brener as Keith McLure, a tech worker
• David Dastmalchian as Alonso "Lonny" Crane, a maintenance worker under Melks
• David Del Rio as Roberto Jerez, a worker who befriends Dany.
• Gregg Henry as The Voice
• Michael Rooker as Bud Melks, Belko's head of Maintenance
• Rusty Schwimmer as Peggy Displasia, Milch's secretary
• Gail Bean as Leota Hynek, a worker who befriends Wilkins
• James Earl as Evan Smith, Belko's only security guard
• Abraham Benrubi as Chet Valincourt, Espencheid's best friend
• Valentine Miele as Ross Reynolds, a sales representative for Belko
• Stephen Blackehart as Robert Hickland, an interpreter
• Benjamin Byron Davis as Antonio Fowler, a worker.
• Silvia de Dios as Helena Barton, the supervisor of Roberto, Leota, Bradley and Dany
• Cindy Better as Lorena Checo, a worker who pretends to be friendly to Norris.
• Andres Suarez as Bradley Lang, Dany's co-worker
• Alietta Montero as Liezle Freemont, a cafeteria worker.
• Joe Fria as Tyson Moon, Wendell's friend.
• Mikaela Hoover as Raziya Memarian, Agostino's assistant
• Maia Landaburu as Louisa "Raven" Luna, a worker.
• Santiago Bejarano as Luis Costa, an elderly worker.
• Maruia Shelton as Agnes Meraz, a co-worker of Luigi.
• Luna Baxter as Samantha Arcos, a co-worker of Mike.
• Maria Juliana Caicedo as Lucy Martinez, a friend of Chet and Marty.
• Kristina Lilley as Sarah Mariana, a worker. She is the last person to arrive before the experiment begins.
• Juan Ortega as Luigi Moretti, a co-worker of Agnes.
• Yeison Alvarez as Lawrence Fitzgibbon, Evan's best friend.
• Silvia Varón as Frances Anne, the only wheelchair-using employee of Belko.
• Lorena Tobar as J. Ferguson, an elderly cafeteria worker.
• Ximena Rodriguez as A. Huberman, a cafeteria worker.
• Álvaro García as Jonathan Schwartz, an elderly worker.
• 1 Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare
• 2 The Farm (2018)
• 3 Bambi: The Reckoning

The Belko Experiment

You don’t need to squint very hard to see the satirical elements that might have elevated blood-soaked horror flick “The Belko Experiment” to greatness. The premise—a group of employees are forced to kill each other at the whims of an anonymous employer—is promising. But the script, penned by James Gunn (“ Guardians of the Galaxy ,” “Slither”), is undercooked, its violence foregrounded to the point of distraction. Many people will either love or hate this film based on how gory and aggressively cynical it is. But realistically, Gunn’s biggest conceptual failure is that his scenario is thoughtlessly cruel. The characters could have embodied traits of typical office drones and managers, turning the film into a savage black comedy. But those elements aren’t developed beyond a point, making the movie’s only selling point its excessive gore and violence.

You’ll notice, from the start, how easy it is to either identify with or dismiss characters in “The Belko Experiment” based on how they respond to the stress of being told to kill their fellow employees. Never mind that stress makes people do crazy things: we’re supposed to sympathize with by-the-book employee Mike (John Gallagher Jr.) because he’s a moderate voice of reason compared to self-appointed megalomaniac Barry ( Tony Goldwyn ). Mike is the kind of guy who encourages his fellow employees to take the stairs, not the elevators while Barry is the kind of guy who says that the group should “consider our options” and think about cooperating with the mysterious uber-boss who’s compelling them to kill each other. Both characters clash sooner rather than later because each employee has a GPS micro-chip implanted in their heads—they are working in Bogota, where kidnappings are supposedly not uncommon—which is ultimately used as an explosive to pick off disobedient employees. 

Secondary characters either voice their disapproval or support of Barry and Mike’s respective positions: Mike insists that nobody has “the right to choose who lives and who dies” while Barry suggests that they have no choice. You may, at some point, wonder if Barry has a point. But that moment will pass when you see the other guys he’s allied himself with, people like jittery, trigger-happy Lonny ( David Dastmalchian ) and sexual-harassment-happy Wendell ( John C. McGinley ). There’s no way to take the utilitarian position in this film because these guys are defined exclusively by personality-revealing bad behavior. 

Conversely, there’s no way to relate to Mike because he’s such a generic goody-goody. What kind of guy warns people to take the stairs and not the elevators during such an emergency? That’s a half-serious question: I do not know anything about Mike beyond the fact that he handles stress well, talks other employees down from stress, and is a rational thinker given how much of the film’s early expository speculation comes from him (he’s a bit chatty at the start, but necessarily so since he’s essentially the lone voice of reason). There’s no way to tell what he was like before the Belko bosses starting killing their employees off, nor any way to know why we should sympathize with the character beyond the fact that he’s part of the solution and not the problem.

Then again, the lack of motivation could have also been a source of great comedy. Belko could be an office like any other: a place where bosses and fellow employees act kind and genial one minute but have the potential to transform into domineering thugs as soon as they fear they’re going to be thrown under the bus. That’s who Lonny, the most sympathetic of Gunn’s baddies, seems to be. But he’s annoyingly knock-kneed, and ineffectual, making him instantly unlikable. McGinley’s character is defined by his insincere toothy grin, and proud tendency of showing off his muscles, making his narcissism all too apparent. And Barry just wants to stay in control, as he shows when he undermines nice guy security guard Evan ( James Earl ) by breaking into the company’s weapons cache(!).

This makes a bloody, unpleasant series of murders the only reason to see “The Belko Experiment.” Director Greg McLean (“ Wolf Creek ,” “Rogue”) fails to distinguish himself during medium close-up shots of heads exploding and torsos flailing. But McLean’s contributions to “The Belko Experiment” aren’t what makes the film so disappointing. Gunn’s unimaginative conception of a “Battle Royale” meets “ Office Space ” style horror film—I just bet that that was the elevator pitch—holds a decent cast back from dying meaningful deaths. Even the most diehard gorehounds and Gunn supporters should give this stinker a pass. 

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

• Tony Goldwyn as Barry Norris
• Adria Arjona as Leandra Flores
• David Dastmalchian as Alonso 'Lonny' Crane
• John Gallagher Jr. as Mike Milch
• David Del Rio as Roberto Jerez
• Melonie Diaz as Dany Wilkins
• Josh Brener as Keith McLure
• Sean Gunn as Marty Espenscheid
• Michael Rooker as Bud Melks
• John C. McGinley as Wendell Dukes
• Mikaela Hoover as Raziya Memarian
• Greg Mclean

Cinematographer

• Luis David Sansans
• Tyler Bates

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• Main Antagonists

"The Voice"

• Edit source

The Voice is the main antagonist of The Belko Experiment .

• 2.1 Phase 1
• 2.2 Phase 2

Biography [ ]

"The Voice" is a scientist for Belko; However, unlike most of the other employees, he is aware of the hidden experiment and carried out a year after the other employees began their jobs at Belko. A year after, the employees for the Belko buildings around the world were hired, the Voice began the first phase of the experiment by activating the hidden metal sheets and trapping 80 employees inside The Belko building. After trapping the employees, he then gave the instructions for phase 1, 2 and 3 of the experiment within a span of a few hours. During the experiment, the Voice was responsible for the death of 35 employees by activating their bombs when the employees failed to achieve the kill requirements for both phase 1 and 2. By the end of the experiment, Mike Miltch was the last employee left alive in the building thus winning phase 3. The Voice then ordered the guards to bring Mike to question him and study the effects the experiment had on him. After attempting to question Mike, he revealed that he had stashed away the inactivated bombs and secretly place them on the Voice and the guards.

The Voice's Death

After revealing this, the Voice tried to get the explosive off of him only for Mike to make a dash for the control panel and activates the bombs, killing the guards and severely wounding the Voice. Mike then grabs one of the guards rifle and uses it to kill the other two scientists in the room. Mike then walks over to the Voice who attempts to plead for his life, only for Mike to fire the rifle’s remains rounds at him, ending stage 1 of the experiment.

Killed Victims: [ ]

Phase 1 [ ].

• Lucy Martinez - Back of her head exploded
• 3 Belko Employees (Including Lawrence Fitzgibbon ) - Back of their heads exploded

Phase 2 [ ]

• 31 Belko Employees ( Terry Winters , Louisa "Raven" Luna , Jennifer Lang , A. Huberman , Tim Gallaher , Griffin Myers , Leota Hynek , Peggy Displasia and Keith Mclure ) - Back of their heads exploded
• The Voice is played by Gregg Henry, who also played Mayor Jack MacReady in Slither .
• 1 Abigail (2024) KILL COUNT
• 2 V/H/S/2 (2013) KILL COUNT
• 3 V/H/S (2012) KILL COUNT

Barry Norris

• Edit source

Barrett "Barry" Norris was a main character in The Belko Experiment . He was portrayed by Tony Goldwyn .

• 1 Before experiment

Before experiment [ ]

Barry’s origin is mostly unknown except that he used to be part of the Special Forces and that he has a family. A year before the start of the film, Barry was hired as a COO of the Belko facility in Colombia. In the film, Barry is first seen in his car being annoyed by how long it’s taking for him to gain entrance to the building. When Barry is finally in the process of being allowed into the building, he notices that the security guards were new and that the local workers were being turned away. When Barry is finally allowed into the building, he went on with his work as usual.

Phase 1 [ ]

While in the middle of his work, Barry and the other employees were interrupted from their activities by a mysterious voice over the intercom. The Voice then says that the employees have half an hour to kill two people or else four people will be killed at random. At first, Barry and most of the other employees believed it to be a prank, so they ignored it. Barry then, along with the employees gather up in the lobby. While in the lobby, fellow employee, Mike Melch questions if what‘s happening actually is a prank which Barry then reassures him that it’s just a prank. However, minutes later, four employee's heads are suddenly blown up which shocks all of the employees. Barry then closely examines the dead employees heads only to realize that their heads were blown open from the inside. Shortly afterwards, Barry ask security guard, Evan for the keys to the armory which Evan refuses to do so and quits his job in protest.

Phase 2 [ ]

The Voice then returns and says that in 2 hours, the remaining employees have to kill 30 more people or else 60 people will by killed. The employees then split into different ideas of what to do. Barry and several other employees including Wendell believe that they should kill 30 people for the good of 30 more people. Barry’s group then goes to the armory to open it using a blowtorch. However, their plan fails due to Mike using Evan’s gun to shoot the blowtorch, making it unusable. Desperate for the keys, Barry’s group ambushes Mike, Leandra and Evan in the staircase. Wendell, then threatens Evan with a knife for the keys. Evan throws the keys on the ground, which causes Wendell to react by stabbing and killing Evan with a knife. Shortly afterwards, Barry’s group gathers all the employees into one room and lines several of them up to be executed. However after managing to execute most of the employees lined up, the power to the building is switched off which allows most of the employees to escape save for about 13 employees who Barry’s group shoots as they attempts to flee. Barry’s group then splits up to find 3 more employees to kill, but fails. While in one of the bathrooms, the Voice returns and says that the 2 hours is up and 31 more people would be killed. Accepting his fate, Barry closes his eyes only realize that his bomb didn’t explode.

Phase 3 [ ]

Norris's death.

The Voice then says that in phase 3, whoever kills the most amount of people in one hour would live. Wanting to live, Barry tries to find some more to kill. However, he only finds and kills Lorena . Barry then goes to the elevator, only to find Roberto and Dany up on the elevator's shaft. Wanting to kill them, Barry shoots at them with his pistol but only succeeds in getting Dany off the elevator. Barry then presses the top floor button to crush Roberto which he succeeds in doing. This however temporary gets the elevator stuck. When Barry finally gets out of the elevator, he finds Barry and Leandra which he responds by shooting them as they try to escape. Barry then tries to chase them down but fails. Barry soon encountered Vince and Dany who he easily kills. Minutes later, it is revealed that he actually was able to hit Leandra with one of his rounds and mortally wounded her. This however enrages Mike and causes him to ambush Barry. After a fist fight, Mike was to grab a nearby tape dispenser and kills Barry with it. This makes Mike the last employee and the last survivor of phase 3 of the experiment.

• Barry was the 79th and last employee to be killed.
• According to Barry's staff ID card, his full first name was Barrett , and he was born on 20 May 1960.
• Samantha Arcos
• J. Ferguson
• Brian Vargas
• Steve Goedde
• Helena Barton
• Unnamed male employee
• Unnamed female employee
• Lorena Checo
• Roberto Jerez
• Vince Agostino
• Dany Wilkins
• Leandra Florez
• 1 The Belko Experiment
• 2 Mike Milch
• 3 Dany Wilkins

The Belko Experiment

By Anthony Ray Bench | March 17, 2017

Written by James Gunn and Directed by Greg McClean, The Belko Experiment has a similar plot to Battle Royale , but instead of Japanese children on an island, it’s American desk jockeys in Bogotá, Colombia trapped in their high-rise office who are the ones forced into a situation that necessitates them brutally killing each other. That’s where the similarities start and stop, however; Battle Royale is much more of a tongue and cheek social commentary examining the conflict found within generational ideology, while The Belko Experiment focuses on exploring human nature and the troubling consequences that come with survival of the fittest. It’s an intensely dark, and gory ride that features one of the most brutally unsettling moments the horror genre has seen in a very long time.

The film begins with our introductions to The Belko Corporation employees before thrusting their building into a total lockdown complete with impenetrable walls surrounding all entryways and exits. Shortly thereafter, a mysterious voice over a loudspeaker states that the Belko employees have just a short amount of time to kill two of their fellow co-workers; failure to do so will result in unfavorable consequences. From there on, things just get worse; as time progresses, so do the demands for death and slaughter. Initially, some people take the threats seriously, some wave it all off as a silly prank, some arm themselves and prepare for the worst, some form alliances, and some hide. It’s interesting to see the various reactions and how each of the characters process their predicament in completely different ways. No one immediately jumps into a murderous rage, so you’re in for a slow burn type of situation just waiting for things to unfurl into complete and utter chaos. A part of me thinks you wait a bit too long for the cathartic bloodbath, but I get where they’re going with this; it’s all about the setup and holding on that tension.

“Horror fans with a strong stomach for gore, mayhem, and intensity will find a lot to enjoy here…”

The film’s protagonist is Mike Milch, played by John Gallagher Jr. Mike tries to look for answers while trying to keep everyone else rational and calm. Adria Arjona plays Leandra, Mike’s more cynical love interest that feels things are inevitably going to escalate to a point where people will begin to tear each other apart. The two make for likeable leads with an interesting dynamic. The marvelous John C. McGinley plays Wendell Dukes, a Belko Exec who has a creepy obsession with Leandra. McGinley is delightful in this film, especially when things start to heat up; he gleefully gives into his violent nature and it is glorious. Tony Goldwyn plays Belko COO and ex-military Barry Norris, the primary villain of the film. Norris snaps from ‘concerned boss looking for a solution and escape plan’ into ‘psychotic and coldblooded killer intent on survival’ absolutely effortlessly. There are moments where you see the conflict he’s dealing with when he has to make grueling decisions, but he’s so intent on surviving that he’ll do whatever it takes to live, and that makes for a complex and interesting character. Goldwyn is, hands down, my favorite part of the film. That scene I mentioned at the beginning of my review heavily revolves around his character, and Goldwyn does some master class acting with his physicality and facial emoting.

The film is not without its flaws, however; there are way too many characters, and with a short running time of 88 minutes, there’s not enough time for us to get to know, or care about, a majority of them. I understand the desire to set the film in a high-rise office building, and the need for a high body count, but if there were less people to keep track of, I think the film would have been tighter. The gore and graphic violence would have had much more of an impact if we knew more about some of these characters before things went south. I also feel that the pacing was a bit inconsistent; some parts felt like they moved too slowly, (ex. scenes of delegation/attempts at escaping) and other parts moved too fast (the climax). The shining points are the premise, the acting, the edge of your seat tension, and the gruesome violent gore FX; the low points are the pacing, the overstuffed cast, and the short runtime that won’t allow certain actors and actresses enough material and time to shine. Also, I love Sean Gunn, but I felt like the film suffered because of his one-dimensional stoner character; it just didn’t fit with the attitude and tone consistent with the rest of the film. On the flipside, Michael Rooker was fantastic as Belko’s head of maintenance, Bud Melks, but it should be a crime to have Rooker in your movie and not feature him more prominently.

Promotional material for the film is advertising it as “ Office Space meets Battle Royale ” and that s**t needs to stop right now; the only thing this film has in common with Office Space is the setting and John C. McGinley. This film’s comedic moments are few and far between; The Belko Experiment takes itself way too seriously for that to be a valid comparison. If anything, it reminds me of a cross between Die Hard and Battle Royale , but even the Die Hard comparison is sort of stretching it. Horror fans with a strong stomach for gore, mayhem, and intensity will find a lot to enjoy here if they’re willing to overlook some flaws, but this one will definitely be too much for folks with milder proclivities. Its well shot, well acted, and worth a look, just don’t expect a lot of lighthearted quirky office humor, or onslaughts of campy severed limbs and decapitations. The Belko Experiment takes itself terrifyingly seriously, making for a nerve-racking experience in terror.

The Belko Experiment (2017) Directed by: Greg Mclean. Written by: James Gunn. Starring: John Gallagher Jr., Adria Arjona, Tony Goldwyn, John C. McGinley, Josh Brener, Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, James Earl, Melonie Diaz, Rusty Schwimmer.

7 out of 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZNfwayNLL0

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James Gunn broke into the public limelight thanks to  Guardians of the Galaxy , the first installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to truly venture into the cosmos. Before this point in his career however, Gunn had established himself as a director to keep an eye on with indie films like  Super and  Slither . Both movies had budgets that were minimal in comparison to  Guardians , but Gunn's ability to bring humor and violence together made each film unique in different ways.

Having now established himself as being one of the bigger names in Hollywood, Gunn has gained the ability to explore some other passion projects, such as  The Belko Experiment . The film follows an entire body of employees mandated to kill each other to save their jobs. The first trailer  teases this premise and the violent outcome on the horizon, but the newest trailer highlights the film's cast... while also showing each of them preparing for the ensuing killing frenzy.

Blumhouse Productions   released the newest trailer, featured at the top of the post. The trailer largely focuses on not only the cast but the producers involved, such as Gunn - who also wrote the script. In the midst of showing off snippets of new footage from The Belko Experiment , the trailer highlights the involvement of actors such as John Gallagher Jr., Tony Goldwyn, Adria Arjona, John C. McGinley, Melonie Diaz and longtime Gunn collaborators Sean Gunn and Michael Rooker here.

If one thing has been made evident throughout the course of the marketing for The Belko Experiment so far, it is that audiences will be in for a rather unique movie. The Belko offices already have more weapons laying around than is typical, but hopefully the employees also have the chance to create weapons of their own. If these everyday workers craft weapons out of normal office supplies in the vein of Jason Bourne , this could truly be an entertaining office wide brawl.

Hopefully, Gunn has also crafted a reasonable explanation as to why all of these coworkers have brain implants similar to those planted in members of the  Suicide Squad . Disobeying orders ended poorly for Slipknot in the Suicide Squad movie, and it appears that the higher-ups at Belko won't be afraid to make an example or two out of those that are not cooperating with their plan in The Belko Experiment , either. Based on Gunn's track record, the explanation for this should be clear and ridiculous all at once, easing the worries of some. If so, then  The Belko Experiment will be able to go as crazy as it wants and (hopefully) still keep audiences engaged.

Source:  BH Tilt

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The Belko Experiment

• Movies Trailers
• The Belko Experiment (2017)

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The Belko Experiment

In a twisted social experiment, eighty Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogotá, Colombia, and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company's intercom system... Read all In a twisted social experiment, eighty Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogotá, Colombia, and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company's intercom system to participate in a deadly game of kill or be killed. In a twisted social experiment, eighty Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogotá, Colombia, and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company's intercom system to participate in a deadly game of kill or be killed.

• Greg McLean
• John Gallagher Jr.
• Tony Goldwyn
• Adria Arjona
• 280 User reviews
• 208 Critic reviews
• 44 Metascore

Top cast 64

• Barry Norris

• Leandra Florez

• Wendell Dukes

• Dany Wilkins

• Terry Winter

• Marty Espenscheid

• Vince Agostino

• Keith Mclure

• Lonny Crane

• Roberto Jerez

• Peggy Displasia

• Leota Hynek

• Chet Valincourt
• Ross Reynolds
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia John Gallagher, Jr. auditioned for a role in a previous film directed by James Gunn , but wasn't right for the part. However, Gunn thought he was the best actor he'd seen in an audition, and vowed to work with Gallagher again.
• Goofs The building supposedly became a giant defacto Faraday cage, but they are able to pick up a local radio station from inside the building. But nothing supports that the metal around the building is also acting as a Faraday cage. In many outside shots the of building you can see a tower on the roof with 3 Sector antennas positioned around it, this is likely a cell tower and due to the remote location likely the only one providing service to the area. With the level of expertise shown by the perpetrators it would be simple to disable this tower during the lockdown. It is also easily more probable a cell jammer or jammers could have been activated in or near the building.

The Voice : In two hours we want thirty of you dead. If thirty of you are not dead, we will end sixty of your lives ourselves. Five, four, three, two, one. Begin.

• Connections Featured in FoundFlix: The Belko Experiment (2017) Ending Explained (2017)
• Soundtracks Yo Vivire (I Will Survive) Written by Dino Fekaris & Freddie Perren (as Frederick Perren) Translation by Oscar Gomez Performed by Jose Prieto

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 29 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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“People are Out for Themselves:” A Re-Evaluation of ‘The Belko Experiment’

The year 2020 has caused most of the world to be stuck in an even more intense state of fight or flight. Everyone is exhausted, angry, and undervalued. It has become clear that for some people the ability to make money and live lavishly while others suffer is dearer than human life or the comfort of others. The coronavirus pandemic has largely caused the population to realize that they are nothing more than pawns in a capitalistic game, something that is disposable. Those deemed essential workers have put their lives on the line constantly as the infection rates have soared, leaving the workers to feel underappreciated in the eyes of the establishment that has immensely failed them. 2020 has become a time of grand re-evaluation on many deep emotional and ethical levels. 

Three years before this pandemic hit, in March 2017, the film The Belko Experiment was released to middling reviews. This is not shocking. The film is gleefully mean-spirited and raw in a way that leaves little room for sugarcoating tactics. Sometimes it is not easy to have the mirror turned around on humanity and allow it to be seen for what it truly is. The story centers itself around the employees of a company that are forced into a battle royale, pitted against one another in a horrible game of kill or be killed orchestrated as an experiment. The Belko Experiment was an underrated gem upon its release, but over three years, it has managed to age remarkably well, especially in the light of the current pandemic, societal strife, and capitalistic greed. The film serves as a no-holds-barred indictment of a capitalist society that undervalues its workers and pushes them to the edges, as well as a damning critique of the toxic masculinity that is allowed to thrive among those in the upper echelons of the workplace. 

When faced with the prospect of actually having to fight to the death, two factions of workers emerge in the midst of the experiment: those that are all too comfortable with killing and those that hang onto a semblance of rationale in the situation. One of the most deadly and influential among the characters is Barry Norris (Tony Goldwyn). Barry is Belko’s chief operating officer and a former member of special forces in the military. Barry focuses on himself instead of others, which is not shocking given that he has a higher ranking job in the company and once killed people during his time in the military. Barry has no qualms concerning the idea of killing his employees, and leads a group of equally bloodthirsty workers that have little moral compass. Note that most of those who fall in with Barry are white cis straight men, who immediately seek ways to ensure their survival. Unsurprisingly, being stereotypical hetero-patriarchal family men, they begin to prioritize workers who have children and families over those who do not, actively advocating for those without children to be killed off instead. 

Barry Norris as a whole represents the higher-ranking members of corporations who exploit workers and view them as lesser. He views everyone as beneath him, and his ego is bolstered by his status within the company and his background in the military. Barry is presented in such a way that he oozes toxicity, and that very toxicity proves to be emboldening and infectious to the other men around him. He is imbued with the traditional outdated traits of what society thinks a man should be. Completely corrupt to the core, he has no issue killing people of marginalized backgrounds and stepping on vulnerable people in order to survive. Not only do they have no problem killing people, they are visibly enjoying the melee. Two of the most troubling casualties that Barry and his men commit are the murders of a woman in a wheelchair and a hijabi Muslim woman. These acts bring the subtext of exploiting marginalized groups to the forefront. 

The men who follow Barry, most notably executive Wendell Dukes (John C. McGinley), have a similarly putrid air of toxic masculinity and a willingness to expend the lower ranking workers for their own benefits. Wendell is notorious for his sexual misconduct and constantly torments Leandra Florez (Adria Arjona), who rejects his advances. Note that in this equation Leandra is a young Latina woman and Wendell is a middle-aged white man, so there is an added layer to this particular power imbalance. However, due to Wendell’s Position in the corporation, nothing has ever been done about his harassing Leandra. When all civility is eventually lost, Leandra winds up having to go against her moral fiber in order to protect herself from Wendell, and all of her pent up frustration is let out as she completely mangles and decimates his skull with an axe. Wendell effectively pushes Leandra to her breaking points, and he pays the price for it. 

Even before the introduction of a kill or be killed element, Belko had dire issues that were not being addressed and added to the virulent work environment. Thus, Barry and company are wholly representative of the caustic capitalist shills who work only to further themselves and gain at the expense of others. The thoroughly poisonous hierarchy they have created reeks of pure exploitation. 

On the other end of the spectrum lies the character Mike Milch (John Gallagher Jr.), who functions both as a moral compass and an everyman when the chaos begins. Mike stays firm in his belief that killing the employees is fundamentally immoral and refuses to give up hope that there is a way to navigate the murder games with minimal casualities. Those who align with Mike are notably those that do not fit the white cis straight male mold that Barry and his followers do. They are a more diverse group that includes regular workers who have little to no power over others, such as Leandra, from different marginalized groups. Ironically, Mike himself fits the conventional white cis straight male mold, but he lacks the traits of toxic masculinity that Barry and his ilk exude. Mike is more well-adjusted and level-headed than his other white cis straight male counterparts, creating a foil and archenemy to Barry. Leandra is dating Mike on the sly, and he appears to be entirely respectful of her and her autonomy despite them being co-workers. The respectful relationship between Mike and Leandra creates a stark contrast when juxtaposed with Wendell and his predatory pursuit of Leandra. Mike also holds a lower standing in the company and is genuinely well-liked by his co-workers whereas Barry is feared by them. 

It is important to note there is a generational gap between Mike and Barry as well. Mike is a member of the older set of millennials — Gallagher. was born in 1984, and the millennial generation was born between 1981-1996 — and Barry is a baby boomer — Goldwyn was born in 1960 and the baby boomer generation was born between 1946-1964. There is a generally a huge value discrepancy between a lot of millennials and baby boomers. Baby boomers typically believe in the idea of being able to “pull oneself up by their bootstraps” and that anyone can thrive in the American capitalist landscape if they apply themselves and work hard. Millennials are largely disillusioned with the shiny and out of reach promise of the American dream. They are crippled by exorbitant amounts of student debt and are forced into jobs with little to no upward mobility. Millennials are stuck in a stagnant state, dealing with a society that is in arrested development and outwardly refuses to change for the better. It is fairly easy to infer, given the ages of the younger workers at Belko, that they took the job out of pure necessity since it required them all to relocate to South America, as well as to consent to a chip implant. It is extremely reminiscent of the corporate and working landscape that millennials have to endure to have simply the means to survive. 

Due to Mike’s open and enthusiastic dissent against Barry, he finds himself among some of the first workers who are lined up to be brutally murdered execution style. It is simple why Mike is chosen by Barry to be one of the first of the killings, and that is to send a message: anyone who goes against Barry and the status quo must pay for it and be made an example of in the experiment. Companies in real life are notorious for repercussions against workers who try to make important changes within the structure of the workplace. There are even companies that defy workers’ rights by making clauses in their contracts where they cannot discuss pay or create or join a union. Going against the powers that be in real life can be like a professional execution. 

While Barry and Mike are the main forces at work in the film, there is an interesting wrench thrown into the dynamic of the plot in the form of new hire at the company Dany Wilkins (Melonie Diaz). Dany’s first day at work is the day that the experiment takes place, so she is immediately thrown into the murderous chaos and has to fight for her life despite being a new worker, showing that no one in the situation is truly safe no matter their situation. Even in her misfortune, Dany remains a moral force in her own right, choosing to aid Mike and others by pulling strings while hidden from the other workers. In the scenario where Mike is nearly murdered execution style, it is Dany who steps in to save his and others’ lives by shutting off the power to create a necessary diversion. Dany is very much a spanner in the works, an unforeseen force working against Barry’s machinations. Though she is new at Belko, she makes the distinct choice to align herself with the side of right and only kills accidentally in self defense.

Unsurprisingly, the last two left standing are Barry and Mike. At this point, Barry has killed not only Dany but also Leandra. The deaths of his friends, co-workers, and love push Mike over the edge. While being at a marked disadvantage against Barry, Mike manages to best him by relying on sheer anger and brokenness. Mike is the classic man who has been pushed too far by the environment that surrounds him. He fights Barry and kills him not to preserve his own life but out of frustration and retribution. The weapon that Mike uses to kill Barry is heavily symbolic of corporate drudgery: a heavy industrial tape dispenser. After Mike murders Barry, he is a changed man. His demeanor changes entirely, a ghost of the man that he was at the start of the film. It is highly parallel to how the demands of the workplace can break the spirits of the workers and cause them to spiral into depression and anxiety. Those who conducted the experiment come to collect their winner and give him a garish exit interview involving his experiences during the trial they were running. Mike continues to be reckless in his shattered state and bests his tormentors, leading to their deaths. The final moments of the film reveal that this was just phase one of a larger experiment and phase two will commence, mirroring the seemingly never-ending despair of real world situations. 

In 2020, the despair found at the end of The Belko Experiment reigns supreme. Most people are wholly overcome with many different sorts of fatigue whether it be because the pandemic itself or the pandemic revealing the insidiousness of the American workplace and placing the wants of few over the needs of many. It is a time of great difficulty and reflection, and it most definitely causes different stories to impact individuals in ways that they might never have explored before. The Belko Experiment might very well be one film that summarizes all of the frustration and brokenness of the year 2020 through its dark and witty look at capitalism, toxic masculinity, and societal strife at large. Perhaps, it is time to set aside some an evening while quarantine still presses on to give this film another watch. 

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