Sunray: Fallen Soldier

Sunray: Fallen Soldier is a film about an army veteran who goes out to get revenge on the drug syndicate behind the death of his daughter from a drug overdose, going on a vigilante killing spree with a little help from his old colleagues. Available on digital platforms and selected UK cinemas from 24th January 2025. Rated 18.

The film jumps straight into the action starting off with a pickup at a drug’s factory. A van is loaded with melons, containing ‘the product’, by four wise cracking geezers whose banter is brought to an abrupt end after hearing some commotion inside and a sudden sniper shot taking the first one out. The annihilation is then all but complete except for one, who gets a brief interrogation by ‘Echo 1’ Andy (Tip Cullen), that leaves the burning question “Where is he?” and a large body count.

We then jump back nine days to find out what started all of this and to discover who Andy is if not an officially retired army veteran who still has close ties with his old pals. He’s divorced, living in a remote trailer, working a routine job in a hardware store and sees a therapist about his wartime traumas. His ex-wife (Karlina Grace-Paseda) is struggling with looking after their teenage daughter (Saskia Rose), worried about the boys she hangs out with and who’s not willing to take any relationship guidance from her. When the boyfriend (Daniel Davids) comes to pick her up his dealings in a little weed turn out to be a lot more than that ***spoiler alert*** as his father (Kevin Golding) runs the drug syndicate.

Written, directed and featuring former British Royal Marine Commandos the film has plenty of contact sequences that are in keeping with any Rambo movie but with a slightly more restrained tableaux, as a continuous stream of targets are disposed of with brutal efficiency – Andy’s nail gun rampage is the heartbreaking response of a bereaved father that is delivered with quiet indignation. Clearly not over his war experiences there are many flashbacks which he and his colleagues live through that require Sledge’s (Luke Solomon) blunt humour to lift the melancholic gloom.

Whilst the film’s plot and character storylines lack polish there’s no doubting when the speaking stops and the action begins you start to pay close attention. But in a strange way knowing the actors were soldiers kind of seems like cheating, after all they have a bit of an advantage over real actors when it comes to the shooting sequences.

SUNRAY: FALLEN SOLDIER is available on digital platforms and in select cinemas across the UK and North America from January 24th 2025. Available to pre-order in the UK HERE and USA HERE

Julian Gaskell @ thelanguageoffilm.com