Ollie Cross is a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky. Each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their liv... Read allOllie Cross is a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky. Each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their lives on the line every day to help others.Ollie Cross is a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky. Each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their lives on the line every day to help others.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
- Lafontaine
- (as Michael C. Pitt)
- Laundry customer
- (credit only)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMel Gibson was initially cast for Sean Penn character "Rutkowski". During the pre-sales process Gibson was recast with Penn.
- GoofsSo when the movie starts they are wearing NYFD Paramedic jackets. But later on in the movie they go into an apartment building. Sean Penn knocks on the door & says EMS. So which one are they? Those are do titles. Paramedics can do a few more things because they longer & more training.
- Quotes
Chief Burroughs: How's it out there with Rutovsky?
Ollie Cross: He's a good partner
Chief Burroughs: And a great medic but no one can do it forever
Cross (Tye Sheridan) a newbie NYC paramedic gets a crash course in death, sadness and the futility of helping the public. Who sometimes distrust, loath, don't appreciate or abuse people in civil service frontline jobs. Mainly stuck to the nightshift, he lives in a rundown apartment with strangers and studies to become a doctor. Soon enough his world mentally starts to unravel and an incident with his veteran partner 'Rut' (Sean Penn) is either a really bad mistake or something much worse. A wakeup call to not go down the wrong path, circling the drain.
The story is mainly a collection of emergency calls of various states of panic, distress and the learning curve that goes along with it. The film is purposely dark and you see the correlations between the mens journeys at certain points. Michael Pitt & Gbenga Akinnagbe play fellow paramedics and in a bit of stunt casting Mike Tyson their immediate supervisor. Really the strength here is two leads - Sheridan, Penn - willing to throw themselves into their roles and what is has to say about the toll paid on people doing this for a living.
'Asphalt City' left me wondering a lot about paramedics. What they get paid, the worst of what they see and ultimately why they do it. Having it all go down in the city that never sleeps as opposed to small town USA wasn't lost on me. I knew the effect they were going for here at all times. Only in the last quarter of it's two hour runtime did I wish for a more fleshed out story, sanctuary from it's dark nature. It's not a home run, but it's also not bad like some people are making it out to be.
- refinedsugar
- May 14, 2024
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $220,970
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $132,898
- Mar 31, 2024
- Gross worldwide
- $464,018
- Runtime2 hours 5 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1