As I’ve stated before many times in hopes of being able to shout a big, “I TOLD YOU SO” in years to come, I have always had some degree of faith in found footage films. They tend to include intentionally nauseating camera work, lame jump scares, and contrived plots. The style has the potential to lend itself well to meta-films, surrealism, and highly creative experimental aesthetics, but there are very few examples of this out there. For the most part, it’s a sub-genre of horror and only horror, with the exception of a few random sci-fi films like Chronicle and Europa Report.
I have given this opening disclaimer more times than I care to admit, however…
Operation Avalanche is the movie I’ve been waiting for all these years. It’s not without flaw, but it’s far more compelling than its peers.
The film is clearly the brainchild of Matt Johnson, pictured above. He is the director, star, and co-writer. His previous film, 2013’s The Dirties, certainly showed some promise, but it was ultimately unmemorable. It was a Columbine cash-in released far too late to have any significant impact, although it was a bit more creative than many other “school shootings are bad!” movies. Johnson was the star there as well. His character films a “comedy” with his best friend about taking revenge on the students who bully them, and those around him begin to suspect that it’s a sign of serious mental health issues. His best friend attempts to get him help, but ultimately, he goes completely unhinged, and the movie goes exactly where you think it’s going.
The Dirties relied heavily on the faux-documentary style, and the willingness of the audience to tolerate Johnson’s obnoxious character. He’s an abrasive, childish extrovert, and a complete asshole to his best friend. You could make the argument that his abrasiveness is necessary to the narrative of the film, but that’s a pretty shaky stance.
Operation Avalanche suffers from some of the same issues found in The Dirties, albeit to a lesser degree. The main character is abrasive and obnoxious, but not to the point of near unwatchability. He’s also an asshole to his best friend. There are many other little similarities, but Operation Avalanche is clearly a more mature film. Both movies are highly improvised, so I suspect that Matt Johnson is either a genuinely obnoxious human being, or has an affinity for playing obnoxious characters. I also suspect that he may be a terrible friend.
Fortunately, these are my biggest complaints about the film. Operation Avalanche is a pure found footage experiment. Like some of the more interesting entries in the sub-genre, it’s anchored in reality, or at least someone’s interpretation of reality.
Matt Johnson plays a character named Matt Johnson, a low-on-the-totem-pole CIA agent who desperately wants to be taken seriously. His concept of the CIA’s role is childishly idealistic, and his dream is to take on assignments that are more exciting and James Bond-esque. His superiors constantly shoot his ideas down, and audibly groan every time he speaks a word.
Johnson learns that the CIA suspects there may be a Russian spy leaking information about NASA. He proposes a plan to flush the spy out. Johnson and a few of his CIA buddies wish to infiltrate NASA by posing as a documentary film crew, all the while tapping phones and investigating suspicious persons. Out of sheer frustration and a strong desire to get Johnson to shut the hell up, his superiors agree to allow him to take a crack at his plan. Johnson, his friend Owen, and his cameraman, successfully infiltrate NASA, who seem oblivious to Johnson’s ruse.
This is where the production of Operation Avalanche begins to parallel its plot. In a borderline-illegal stunt, Johnson and company approached NASA and asked for permission to film in a real-life NASA facility. Their pitch was a bit dishonest. They purported to be filming a student documentary about the Apollo missions, and NASA allowed them to shoot on location. There’s a wonderful scene where the crew is first introducing themselves to NASA employees. They are offered a storage room to use as their office. Johnson walks in the room, quickly shuts the door, and then looks at his friends, saying, “We did it! We actually did it! We’re inside NASA!” His enthusiasm feels genuine, and that’s because it probably is. Most importantly, it feels like a natural part of the film.
The agents get right to work, filming interviews with various NASA employees. Generally, the subject of each interview is rather mundane. They’re asking questions like, “What does this do?” and “What does your job entail?” At the same time, they’re tapping phones and subversively gathering information.
While listening in on phone conversations, they discover that NASA doesn’t currently have the technology to put a man on the moon, and that it will likely take them another four years to achieve this. In an effort to show up the Russians, NASA is planning to shoot down Apollo 11 and blame it on the Soviets. Shocked by the CIA’s complicity, the agents propose an alternative.
At this point in time, Johnson points out that a filmmaker named Stanley Kubrick is making a film that involves interplanetary travel. His idea is to approach Kubrick and ask to use his sets when they aren’t in use. Johnson cuts a hole in a camera bag in order to covertly film the set. When they arrive, Kubrick is rather difficult to get to, but Johnson is able to learn about Kubrick’s filming techniques.
This sequence looks incredibly authentic. Through the camera in the bag, we see Matt Johnson interact with what appears to be the real Stanley Kubrick on the real set of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This doesn’t sound very groundbreaking, when you consider how many other films have inserted characters into historical footage. The reality: there is no actual footage of the real 2001 set, because Kubrick was extremely against any behind-the-scenes footage being shot. However, there are a number of production stills out there. Johnson found a very talented animator, who took those production stills and actually animated Kubrick and those around him. I never once would have suspected that it didn’t include real behind-the-scenes 2001 footage. The result is so realistic that, without the context and production history in mind, it doesn’t feel like an achievement at all.
As the CIA grows more and more desperate, they finally allow Johnson to rent out a warehouse in Texas and begin filming the fake moon landing. During this production, Johnson and his friends begin to notice that they are being followed (and filmed) by mysterious men in suits. Owen, Johnson’s bestie, begins to panic. He has a pregnant wife, and a full life ahead of him. He begins to resent Johnson, viewing his actions as selfish. Owen finally tells Johnson that he can’t participate in the project, because he suspects that the CIA plan to murder anyone involved in order to cover the story up.
From here, the film veers in a different direction, and because I hope beyond hope that anyone with an appreciation for film will check this out for themselves, I’m not going to spoil the rest. Really, until the final third, the plot of the film feels rather predictable, although not in an off-putting way.
Operation Avalanche’s production would feel right at home alongside movements such as Dogme 95, Cinema Verité, and the French New Wave. In a time when fair use is a significant and current debate, Operation Avalanche is exactly the film we needed. This is a film that extensively uses stock footage and old newsreels, integrating them seamlessly into the plot. This is an 80-minute found footage film shot on mini-DV, transferred to 16mm, and literally dragged across the ground to artificially age the picture. Not only is it the best example we
have of American renegade cinema in the 21st century, it’s a film that’s relevant to our times not in subject matter, but in technique.
9/10