Rise To Stardom - Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Those Eyes, Chico
Kevin was an action-movie junkie.

At the same time, he was a part-time college student, part-time movie reviewer.

Always checking out ViewTube for the latest action movie trailers so he could plan out and budget his money on which to watch at a cinema and which to wait for to land onto various OTT platforms, Kevin was doing the same again today.

In recent memory though, he hadn’t found action movie that really got his blood pumping like a few others had done in the past.

Sighing, he scrolled through his feed which had been tailored to mostly show the latest action movie trailers.

“Hope I find something worthwhile today at least…” he muttered to himself with a jaded expression.

Considering he spent so much time watching so many action movie genres, he had gotten tired of spotting the limitations and laziness of most of the more recent action movies.

Too many obvious use of green screens, lesser practical effects, shaky cams during choreographed fight scenes (a particular disdain he had because it made the action scenes seem cheap and lazy) and, most of all, stunt doubles which were used extensively instead of the actors themselves.

At times, Kevin would just go on an annoyed rant to his friends about how most ‘action’ movie stars these days were just deluding themselves since most never did their stunts, save for a select few.

Of course these were all just personal preferences and he knew that, but still, to him, it made the movies less thrilling and frenetic like they were supposed to be and instead, made it feel lackluster.

If the movie had a good story or even a generic story that was well executed, he could still glean a bit of enjoyment from it but even then, the actual action scenes and set-pieces themselves were the things he looked forward to the most.

Scrolling lazily through the feed, most of the trailers already viewed by him previously, a red rewind icon at the top of the app beckoned of him to refresh, hinting at the fact that there were now newer trailers on his feed.

Promptly, he did so and the first trailer that greeted him the moment the new feed loaded, was the trailer of [Epoch One]; an R-18 action-rated movie.

‘Hmmm…’ the young man hummed, a bit of interest present in his jaded gaze.

Mild curiosity taking over though, Kevin clicked on the video and soon the trailer began.

The first thing that instantly grabbed his attention, was Bruce Gunn in a sleek black suit.

“Oh! It’s Bruce Gunn!” the young man’s attention was instantly piqued as he sat upright on the bed.

This was one of his favorite action movie stars, one he had become a total fan of when he also found out that the man did most of his own stunts.

‘Come to think of it, there was that tweet about him being in a movie two months ago. We just didn’t know what the name of the movie itself was at the time.’ a string of thoughts entered Kevin’s mind.

Sitting up properly on the bed, his attention now grabbed, Kevin continued to watch the trailer as it opened up into a modernly-designed office with a certain logo on the wall.

—

“Agent Watts, do not, defy our orders. You are to stand down. Other agents on the field will handle it. Do not investigate this case any further.” a few people seated on a high table ordered Bruce.

“I will.” Sam coldly responded as he dropped the formalities and exited the office, causing one of his superiors, Jeffrey who was playing Abraham, to bang his hands on the mahogany desk in fury.

—

That was how the trailer had begun.

And then it transitioned over to a few bombings here and there across the city, leading the viewer to understand why Sam had defied orders.

Though it never went too much into the actual reason why he was so hell-bent on doing so, it actually served to make the viewers have their own speculations while keeping a major plot point from them.

Glad that the trailer wasn’t revealing any major plot points in the story though, a typical trait most action movies tended to employ these days, Kevin watched on with growing interest.

As the trailer went on, with Bruce’s cold voice and demeanor narrating that he was on the run and also needed to put a stop to whomever was the culprit of said bombings, a few frenetic action set-pieces were sprinkled in, showing the dangerous events that Sam had to overcome.

Some included a few fight scenes with some of his fellow ex-agents while some showed off some his fights with a few Russian mobs.

There was even a scene where Sam was on the run and needed to swing from one building to another using a cable attached to a crane to escape his pursuers.

Seeing that scene alone, knowing fully well that the mad-lad that was Bruce Gunn would actually do all of those stunts by himself, Kevin had a child-like grin of excitement grace his face for the first time in a fairly long while.

And then, as the trailer came to a close, Bruce dressed in another sleek black suit as he walked up the stairs that led to what seemed to be a Gala, the title of the movie was shown in bold with a release date of 19th of August.

Already pretty invested in the movie, thinking that the trailer was over, a small short scene then played out, catching Kevin by surprise.

In the scene, there was a single, thin ray of golden light from the sun that pierced through a dimly-lit corridor, one where a certain figure was battling with a few people, his silencer dropping them down like ants.

The scuffle went on for what seemed to be a few seconds before everything finally went quiet.

Standing victorious over all of their dead bodies, his breathing heavy, the figure then moved towards the camera, his footsteps echoing, almost as if in rhythm to the heartbeat of whomever was watching the trailer.

From a long-shot, his figure was undiscernible but gradually, it soon switched over to a close-up shot of his face.

Standing directly in front of that thin, golden ray of light piercing through the dimly-lit corridor, his entire face still very much obscured by the general dimness of the shot.

All that the viewers, all of whom were watching the trailers across the world were left with, were his cold sapphire eyes.

Whoever this mystery character was to the story, they had no idea.

But that icy gaze present in his purposeful and determined sapphire eyes, sent a shiver running down their spines, almost as if he was gazing directly into the depths of their souls.

And then, just like that, the trailer ended.

Kevin who had been stun-locked by those eyes, raised his arm up to see goosebumps rising all over.

“Who the hell was that?!” he ended up muttering after a short while.

Rewinding that particular scene and watching it again, another shiver running down his spine, Kevin immediately budgeted his money.

This movie was one he was definitely going to be watching at cinemas on day one.

***

Kyle’s fan group was going absolutely bonkers.

The cause – [Epoch One]’s trailer of course!

And most especially, that last scene in it!

—

Princess Peach: Those eyes, chico…Those sapphire eyes… Those were definitely Kyle’s!!!

Kyle’s Girlfriend: @Princess Peach; The shivers that ran down my spine! I’m definitely going to see this movie solely for him.

Peter_Writes_Fantasy: Haven’t watched a movie in a long while but for this, I’ll make an exception. Seems like a generic action movie though, save for the last scene with Kyle in it.

Trix Or Treat: I’m so hyped! Grabbing my friends along to the cinema for sure!

WeDoABitOfTrolling: I really hope our boy doesn’t get overshadowed by Bruce and Jeffrey. Those two are literal acting powerhouses.

AN_MZ_27: Aw shucks! I’m gonna be very busy and very broke through most of July. Hopefully I can squeeze in some time and funds to watch it. If not, I’ll wait for it to hit streaming platforms.

LonelyAlphaWolf: Yo guys! Check out the trailer views. It just crossed 75K views in less than an hour!

ShrekLovesFiona: @LonelyAlphaWolf; Man, at this rate, 1M views within a day isn’t too far off.

Mamma Mia: Woah! Been very busy recently but what’s with this massive influx of messages! What’s going on?! Did Kyle release another song? Heard rumors that he was working on something new.

The Impostor: @Mamma Mia; Also heard that too but that’s not the case this time. The trailer of [Epoch One], the movie Kyle’s starring in just dropped and there’s this captivating scene in it that’s really cool. You should check it out.

Annie Are You Okay?: Finally! A glimpse of Kyle acting again! Damn those eyes were killer!

WaifuWithARocketLauncher: @Annie Are You Okay?; I completely agree!

Wendy The Witch: I was hoping for a new song but this is great too. Now I need to go break my piggy bank in preparation for August…

PiggyBank: @Wendy The Witch; You betrayer! You said you’d keep me safe!

Bob The Hammer: @PiggyBank; First I break a wall. Then I bust open ceramics like you like a piñata!

Pro_noobs: Hmmm… I just hope Kyle’s got a lot of screen time. Would really suck if he didn’t.

N0c: @Pro_noobs; I’m pretty certain he will have a lot. Considering he had been in New York for close to three and a half months as a few internet reports stated, I’m certain he’ll have a lot of screen time.