“It’s a post-apocalyptic treasure hunt with heart,” says director J.J. Perry of Afterburn. “It’s not just about explosions and mutants. It’s about what we choose to save when everything else is gone.” It reimagines heroism through the eyes of a reluctant treasure hunter in a scorched world where technology has turned to ash and mutated chaos reigns.
Afterburn is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi action film directed by J.J. Perry and based on the Red 5 Comics series by Scott Chitwood and Paul Ens, from a screenplay by Matt Johnson and Nimród Antal. Perry, a renowned 2nd unit director who made his directorial debut with the hit Netflix vampire action comedy Day Shift.
The Red 5 Comics series is best known for its cinematic storytelling and genre-blending adventures, with Afterburn standing out as a flagship title.
Contrary to other post-apocalyptic films, Afterburn’s’s premise feels real and plausible: a solar flare wipes out technology across the globe. The original premise of the movie is a broken sun, which causes malfunction in modern technology. This idea inspired the filmmakers to explore simple things that we take for granted, such as electricity. They took this concept to the extreme. Suddenly we find ourselves in a war torn post-apocalyptic world that has wiped out millions of people and created great obstacles and challenges — but also new and hopeful opportunities for humanity.
Afterburn carries significance on multiple levels—culturally, thematically, and within the post-apocalyptic genre itself. It brings the Red 5 Comics series to a broader audience, tapping into the growing trend of indie graphic novels being adapted for the screen. By imagining a world stripped of technology, it explores how humanity redefines value, shifting from digital dominance to relics of art and history like the Mona Lisa. The solar flare catastrophe affects the Eastern Hemisphere, inviting reflection on global interdependence and survival beyond borders.
A decade after a catastrophic solar flare obliterates the Eastern Hemisphere and renders technology useless, ex-soldier Jake (Dave Bautista) becomes a hardened treasure hunter. Tasked with recovering the Mona Lisa from a mutated wasteland, he joins forces with freedom fighter Drea (Olga Kurylenko) to outpace rival hunters, pirates, and a ruthless warlord. As they navigate irradiated ruins and moral ambiguity, Jake discovers that the world needs more than relics—it needs redemption.
The Red 5 Comics series
Founded in 2007, Red 5 Comics was created by Chitwood (co-founder of TheForce.net) and Ens (former Director of Lucas Online at Lucasfilm)
Their titles often merge sci-fi, action, and fantasy, designed to appeal to fans of both comics and film. Notable works include Atomic Robo, Neozoic, We Kill Monsters, and of course, Afterburn.
Set in a world ravaged by a solar flare, the series follows a treasure hunter retrieving cultural relics from the “Burn Zone”—a mutated wasteland across the Eastern Hemisphere. Themes include profit vs preservation, identity through artefacts, and survival in chaos.
The original run includes four issues (2008), followed by Afterburn: Crossfire and Afterburn: Bad Blood, expanding the universe with new threats and emotional stakes.
Chitwood and Ens’s backgrounds in film and digital media shape the comics’ cinematic pacing, visual metaphor, and genre-savvy tone. Their storytelling often explores legacy, mutation, and moral ambiguity, making their work ripe for adaptation.
The Screenplay
The screenplay for Afterburn was written by Matt Johnson and Nimród Antal. Johnson is known for high-octane action scripts like Torque and Into the Blue, while Antal has directed and written films such as Predators and Vacancy. Their collaboration brings a mix of kinetic energy and atmospheric tension to the adaptation of the Red 5 Comics series. Johnson and Antal brought distinct sensibilities to Afterburn, shaping its tone into a kinetic blend of pulp adventure, post-apocalyptic grit, and dark humor.
Johnson infused the narrative with adrenaline-driven sequences and bold, genre-savvy dialogue, embracing the comic book roots through episodic structure and escalating stakes. His approach lends the film a pulpy irreverence, turning mutant brawls and pirate skirmishes into a gleefully chaotic spectacle.
Antal, by contrast, brings a more brooding intensity—his flair for claustrophobic tension and stylized grit grounds the action in emotional ambiguity and tactile realism.
Through this fusion, Afterburn finds its unique rhythm: unapologetically wild yet emotionally tethered, like Mad Max meets National Treasure with a radioactive pulse.
Afterburn carves out its own niche in the post-apocalyptic genre
Afterburn stakes out fresh territory in the post-apocalyptic genre by marrying treasure-hunting adventure with scorched-earth surrealism, setting itself apart from its more solemn predecessors.
Where Mad Max: Fury Road revels in relentless mythic spectacle, Afterburn opts for pulpy irreverence, embracing comic-book absurdity through Jake’s reluctant heroism and mutated showdowns.
Compared to Waterworld‘s aquatic dystopia and earnest tone, Afterburn is leaner, darker in humour, and wittier in its dialogue, centering its quest not on mythical lands but iconic relics like the Mona Lisa.
It sidesteps the bleak intimacy of The Road, trading father-son fragility for camaraderie amid irradiated chaos while probing what’s worth salvaging when civilization collapses.
What truly distinguishes Afterburn is its comic book DNA—episodic structure, genre-blending momentum, and the symbolic heft of cultural artefacts. In this world, relics are more than MacGuffins; they’re emotional anchors. The result is a genre-savvy spectacle that fuses sci-fi, action, and heist energy with moral complexity and mutant mayhem.
J.J. Perry is a seasoned stunt performer, martial artist, and director whose career spans decades of high-octane filmmaking. After serving in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne, Perry transitioned into Hollywood stunt work, contributing to films like John Wick, Iron Man, and Django Unchained. He holds a fifth-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a second-degree in Hapkido, and has trained stars such as Hugh Jackman and Gina Carano. Perry made his directorial debut with Day Shift (2022) and brings his kinetic vision and fight choreography expertise to Afterburn, blending visceral action with emotional grit.
Matt Johnson is a screenwriter and producer known for his work on high-energy action films like Torque and Into the Blue. His writing style leans into genre tropes with bold dialogue, fast-paced sequences, and a comic book sensibility that favors spectacle and momentum. Johnson’s screenplays often embrace pulpy fun and episodic structure, making him a natural fit for adaptations like Afterburn, where mutant mayhem and treasure-hunting collide in a post-apocalyptic setting. His background in crafting kinetic narratives gives the film its adrenaline-fueled rhythm and genre-savvy tone.
Nimród Antal is a Hungarian-American director and screenwriter born in Los Angeles in 1973. After studying at the Hungarian Film Academy, he gained international acclaim for his debut feature Kontroll (2003), a surreal thriller set in the Budapest subway system. Antal’s Hollywood career includes directing Vacancy, Armored, and Predators, showcasing his flair for atmospheric tension and stylised grit. He also helmed Metallica: Through the Never, blending concert footage with narrative storytelling. Antal’s contributions to Afterburn bring emotional depth and visual intensity, grounding its chaos in moral ambiguity and tactile realism.
