The Gina Carano Sci-Fi Thriller On Streaming For Post-Apocalypse Fans
The career of Gina Carano has had its ups and downs, but for her many fans, she still offers a striking balance of feminine beauty and strength that is seldom depicted on screen. For those looking to catch Carano in another flick, look no further than Scorched Earth, a post-apocalyptic thriller now streaming on Peacock.
Scorched Earth takes place in a future in which Earth has been reshaped by pollution and climate change. Humanity’s ravaging of the planet led to an event termed the Cloud Fall, which left the planet without clean water. Humans are also now susceptible to Black Lung, a deadly respiratory condition instigated by Earth’s toxic air.
Scorched Earth features Gina Carano as a post-apocalyptic bounty hunter, streaming on Peacock.
The film puts Gina Carano front and center as the bounty hunter Attica Gage. She scours the wasteland, commissioned by settlements to take down outlaws driving anything powered by fossil fuels – an illegal in the new world. Gage trades outlaws for water purifying tablets and silver, used to line masks that filter the Black Lung pathogen.
Gina Carano kicks things into gear when she accepts a mission to take down Thomas Jackson, a crafty criminal constructing a safe haven for other outlaws. Gage infiltrates the sinister settlement, igniting a powder keg of deception, betrayal, violence, and revenge.
Critics were not particularly kind to Scorched Earth; the film has a Tomatometer score of 18%. General audiences were far more favorable, giving the film a 40% approval rating.
The post-apocalyptic thriller is ambitious for its meager budget, but most reviewers agree that Gina Carano anchors the film with gravitas. With a sense of fun, Carano carries the wild premise and sometimes questionable execution of Scorched Earth across the finish line.
Gina Carano made her film debut in Haywire before gradually moving to Deadpool and The Mandalorian.
Gina Carano began her career as a Muay Thai fighter, transitioning to MMA in the mid-2000s. She rose to fame in the fighting world, breaking down barriers for female fighters and shining a brighter spotlight on the sport. Though she did not accept the title, many were eager to herald her as the female face of MMA.
Cris Cyborg handed Gina Carano her first MMA defeat in 2009, and Carano has not fought since, despite still having fights left on her UFC contract. Carano transitioned her career to the screen, where she has appeared in major films and television series.
Her first role in a theatrical film was in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire. Carano was still finding her voice as an actress in the film, but her chops as a fighter shone through. The acting slowly improved as she continued to impress with her physical prowess in projects like Fast & Furious 6 and Deadpool.
Gina Carano led Scorched Earth in 2018, and in 2019, she appeared in Season 1 of The Mandalorian as the formidable mercenary Cara Dune. Carano was a welcome addition to the series, appearing in seven episodes of the show across two seasons.
Late in 2020, trouble began to brew for Gina Carano. The actress found herself in the digital hot seat after fans on Twitter called out her lack of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The altercation left some accusing Carano of racism.
The debate about separating art from the artist is a complex one. Gina Carano may not have prototypical politics for a Hollywood star, but nothing about her career as an actress has been the norm.
A few weeks later, the critics returned with a call for Carano to identify her pronouns on social media. Her facetious response had fans up in arms, though she later apologized, explaining that her Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal had set her straight on the matter.
After several posts critiquing mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, fans were turning on Gina Carano in droves. Disney was paying attention to the buzz, and after Carano compared hating people for their political beliefs to the persecution of the Jews during World War II, the studio fired Carano from The Mandalorian.
Bill Burr, another supporting cast member of The Mandalorian and a controversial comedian himself, criticized the firing. Support also came from conservative channels looking to poach the star from liberal Hollywood. She later starred in the film Terror on the Prairie, which was released exclusively to subscribers of the conservative news outlet The Daily Wire.
The debate about separating art from the artist is a complex one. Gina Carano may not have prototypical politics for a Hollywood star, but nothing about her career as an actress has been the norm. That includes her role in Scorched Earth, streaming now on Peacock.
