For Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen, desperate times call for desperate measures. In a new action-thriller, they’re looking for some cash, so what does a reasonable person do? Rob a bank, of course … but things don’t go as planned.
Talk about one bad decision after another. In “Ambulance,” Yahya Abdul-Mateen stars as Will, a decorated veteran who has to cover his wife’s medical bills.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen: “He has a newborn son, and he needs the money, so Will is very much desperate.”
Jake Gyllenhaal plays his adoptive brother Danny, who has an idea: just to steal $32 million from a Los Angeles bank.
Jake Gyllenhaal: “He wants to help his brother. He also has other intentions.”
Kids, that’s what you call a bad influence.
Jake Gyllenhaal: “Don’t rob banks.”
But the getaway goes left, so then they hijack an ambulance with a wounded cop and an EMT worker, played by Eiza González.
Eiza González: “She quickly bounces back because she knows that someone’s life is on the line, and it’s on her.”
It’s a recipe for edge-of-your-seat action.
Jake Gyllenhaal: “Three different characters with different intentions in one very small space.”
And an anxiety attack. Here’s director Michael Bay.
Michael Bay: “I think it’s very effective for actors when you shoot fast enough and you keep them on edge enough, because you’re consistently trying to keep the tension.”
But no complaints here.
Jake Gyllenhaal: “We had a good time getting thrown around in a vehicle with sharp edges.”
Yahya Abdul-Mateen: “They just put me in the ambulance and said, ‘Go. Don’t be afraid. It’s not going to tip.'”
There was a steep learning curve, too.
Eiza González: “I have to put an IV. I have to make sure that all the things that I’m connecting to his body are in the right way, the counting, the CPR.”
So, shout-out to all the first responders who save lives every day.
Eiza González: “She just has some superhero dust to her that I just don’t.”
All this is going on while they’re in a high-speed chase, and Michael, who’s a Miami Beach resident, says he knows why heist movies are so fun.
Michael Bay: “We all fantasize about being criminals, and could you get away with it.”
Speak for yourself, but yeah, not that I would, but I totally could.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen: “A movie about family and about values and about what would you do when your back is against the wall.”
“Ambulance” opens in theaters April 8.
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