Making action movies always comes with its share of challenges, and working during a pandemic was certainly one of them for Every Last One Of Them. Directed by Christian Sesma, Every Last One Of Them follows Jake Hunter (Paul Sloan) as he tries to locate his missing daughter. As his mission takes him deeper, he soon finds himself in an explosive battle with the local crime bosses operating behind the scenes.
Christian Sesma has previously directed movies like Vigilante Diaries, Paydirt, and Take Back. For Every Last One Of Them, Sesma, like countless filmmakers around the world right now, had to adapt the film's approach to telling its story to the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That's certainly a challenging task for an action thriller with a Rambo-esque feel, but Sesma and his cast and crew overcame this obstacle to realize Every Last One Of Them as they had envisioned.
We spoke to Christian Sesma on the making of Every Last One Of Them, the challenges of shooting the film during the pandemic, and what else he has coming up in the future.
Screen Rant: How did Every Last One Of Them come about?Â
Christian Sesma: It was brought to me by a producing partner and our sales company, and it was under a different title, and a little bit of a different premise. It was very much a Rambo kind of thing, and I just felt the bones were there. I thought that it would be pretty good material to bring on one of my best friends, Paul Sloan, to play the main character, to really explore a much more damaged failed-father relationship hero-type. So, we changed up the script quite a bit from what it was originally and made it into a little bit more layered shoot-'em-up than what was on-page.
Were you contending with the pandemic in a significant way when you made this film?
Christian Sesma: One hundred percent, yeah. We shot it at the height of the second shut down, which was why I shot in my backyard here in the Palm Springs area. I had a lot more freedom to shoot what I needed to shoot here in this backdrop, and the extras are crew members, so it was a very challenging shoot. COVID protocols were still being dialed in, there was no vaccine, everything was still very much up in the air, and nobody quite knew how COVID worked per se. Everyone was being very careful, but it was a challenging shoot, to be sure.
What was the hardest challenge brought on by the pandemic?Â
Christian Sesma: Well, who wants to work at a very questionable time is one, but also background actors couldn't be on set, so almost one hundred percent of the background or cops or whatever are all crew members. So it was very much piecing together a movie that didn't feel like a pandemic movie. I never set out to make something like a one-room movie, I still wanted it to feel like a picture. I still wanted it to feel open and feel like a movie, and it was a smaller action picture with very limited resources, but I didn't want COVID to play this huge role in the narrative on any level. I still wanted it to stand on its own.
What were some of the more memorable experiences from the making of Every Last One Of Them?Â
Christian Sesma: I think just the evolution of where the character went and exploring the relationship between him and his daughter in his request to get his revenge. We've seen this kind of story and trope a thousand times, but exploring what it is in our failures as parents. I'm a parent and it's something I think about all the time - how our actions affect our children. That was really the main theme, our inability to provide time and attention for them emotionally and what that does and what that fallout would be.
That's really the core story that drives this whole movie. His failures as a father have affected his daughter, and that's ultimately what causes his guilt, what happens with her, and the revenge he goes on. It's a very cyclical story.
Related to that, how would you say Every Last One Of Them is different from other movies you've made in the past?
Christian Sesma: I think with this one, we tried to go a little bit deeper with that kind of storytelling. So, we definitely have action pieces and the cool gunplay and that kind of stuff, but I always still felt that we always kept driving it back to the daughter. I always just wanted to end on a somber note, and I think that's the story of Every Last One Of Them. It's a father trying to get revenge for somebody that's hurt his daughter, although he's the one who really hurt his daughter and caused all of it in the first place. It's a little bit of a Greek tragedy.
When it comes to the cast, what can you share about Richard Dreyfuss' appearance in the film?Â
Christian Sesma: It was great. Richard is a super good friend now, but having him come on board for a character who is basically coming in to wrangle the rogue agent, he just brings so much to any scene that he's in. Richard's still super-engaged and comes with a lot of ideas and energy and just a vault of movie knowledge and expertise.
Did Every Last One Of Them have to be adapted significantly from its initial conception?
Christian Sesma: Oh yeah, it's very different from the original script, for sure. Obviously, it was great to have really, really great actors like Taryn Manning and Jake Webber supporting this kind of shoot-'em-up story that brought a little more gravitas to what would've been just kind of a standard action picture, I think.
With Every Last One Of Them releasing, what other projects do you have in the works?Â
Christian Sesma: Yeah, I just shot another thriller with Dreyfuss in Alabama, and we just came off of that about a month ago. I also just wrapped another movie called Section Eight with a really great cast, and a Mission: Impossible-style story.
Every Last One Of Them is now in theaters and on VOD platforms.