Futuristic action drama
The high-octane French action movie Chrysalis is set in 2025 Paris and follows in a classic science-fiction tradition. But the real drama takes place in the minds of the characters, who - good or bad - are torn between a painful past and an uncertain future.
The good guy, a gung-ho police lieutenant named David Hoffman, is played by Albert Dupontel. We first encounter him as he engages in a breathtaking gun battle with the bad guy, Dimitri Nicolov (Alain Figlarz).
Nicolov really is a killer and he goes out of his way to prove it when he snaps the neck of Hoffman's wife and partner in crime-fighting, leaving the cop eager for revenge.
But the film is more than just another cop-turns-vigilante vehicle. Before the bullets start flying again, we meet Professor Brugen (Marthe Keller), who runs a state-of-the-art plastic surgery clinic. She possesses a futuristic machine - stolen from the military by Nicolov - capable of shaping a person's memory, thus altering their identity. The device is instrumental to the criminal's human trafficking business.
Supported by new partner Marie Becker (Marie Guillard), Hoffman tracks down Nicolov and discovers a link between a series of vile murders and the memory machine. Then the fight breaks out again.