A scientist, Estelle, tells him that his name is Henry, she is his wife, and he has been revived after an accident that left him amnesiac and mute.

Henry is rescued by a stranger named Jimmy, who informs him that his cybernetic limbs are running out of power, which will kill him if he cannot recharge.

He is joined by another Jimmy, now an alcoholic bum, who informs him that one of Akan's associates, Slick Dimitry, has a charging pump which Henry needs to recharge.

Henry meets two more distinct versions of Jimmy; one a nervous nerd, the other a drug-fuelled sex maniac, who replaces his pump.

Henry attacks the convoy and locates Estelle and Akan, who beats him with a baseball bat and has him buried in the woods.

After killing the tank crew and fending off a helicopter, Henry finds another Jimmy, who leads him to an abandoned hotel and a hidden laboratory.

Jimmy realizes that Henry has been unknowingly broadcasting his location to Akan, and the two fight their way out of the building against the opposing strike force.

Everything that happened was an elaborate ruse to field-test their ability to manipulate cyborg soldiers into doing anything to "rescue their wives", including committing terrorist acts.

She shoots at Henry, but the bullet ricochets off of the barbed wire wrapped around his prosthetic hand and hits her, causing her to stumble out of the helicopter.

As she pleads for him to save her, Henry slams the door on Estelle's hands, sending her plummeting to her death.

Henry was originally played by Russian stuntman/camera operator[8] Sergey Valyaev,[9] but the camera rig used in production eventually caused him severe neck pain.

Dementiev suffered neck pain as well, in addition to losing a tooth after being accidentally struck by a stuntman.

[10] In scenes where Danila Kozlovskiy and Sharlto Copley talked directly to Henry, Valyaev, and Dementiev wore shades to prevent the actors from looking at them instead of the camera.

Hardcore Henry was filmed with GoPro cameras mounted on a specially made mask[9] designed by Sergey Valyaev, deemed the "Adventure Mask",[13] and stabilization systems that used either electronics or magnets, created by the movie's director of photography, Vsevolod Kaptur.

[18][19] The film became one of the highest-profile at the festival, and led to a bidding war between Lionsgate, Universal and STX Entertainment.

Ultimately, STX acquired worldwide rights to Hardcore, including a wide release commitment, for $10 million, becoming the studio's first festival acquisition.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Hardcore Henry seems poised to reinvent the action flick, but without a story or characters worth caring about, its first-person gimmick quickly loses its thrill.

"[27] Metacritic gives the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".