Michael Bay Is Back With Netflix's '6 Underground' Trailer

Michael Bay has only directed two non-Transformers movies since 2005 and we kind of forgot who he was outside that universe. Maybe people deride his films and spectacle and I'm incredibly excited to see him digging back into his roots and blowing sh*t up. Bay's new Netflix movie, 6 Underground, brings back the Bayhem that we all grew up on.

Much like they did with Scorsese, Netflix is encouraging Bay to be himself. And he's embracing that with an epic team-up. Bay finds himself in a world full of espionage and military. He's comfortable there, but has added Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese to the mix. 

Check out the trailer from Netflix. 

So who's in this movie and what is it about? 

Ryan Reynolds plays One, a kind of wealthy fixer trying to save the world by recruiting a team of specialists. His team consists of a CIA operative (Mélanie Laurent), a Delta Force sniper (Corey Hawkins), a battle doctor (Adria Arjona), a hitman with a heart (Manuel Garcia Rulfo), a parkour expert (Ben Hardy) and a driver (The Disaster Artist‘s Dave Franco). Together, they fake their own deaths and take out the bad guys. As the official synopsis reads:

"Six individuals from all around the globe, each the very best at what they do, have been chosen not only for their skill, but for a unique desire to delete their pasts to change the future. The team is brought together by a leader (Reynolds) whose sole mission in life is to ensure that, while he and his fellow operatives will never be remembered, their actions damn sure will."

That feels like the ultimate Michael Bay movie. So get the popcorn and energy drinks ready. 

But unlike his other blockbusters, this one you can stream at home. 

Bay's Netflix deal

Netflix seems like it's swooping in and writing blank checks... And I guess they are? 

In an Entertainment Weekly article, Bay said: 

“My crew would call it ‘the old-school Bay.' It’s like the movies I did way back when, where it’s got real action, it’s tough, it’s funny, it’s got an interesting style to the movie. The writers, Wernick and Rheese, who I’ve always wanted to work with, they’ve got a great sense of humor and there’s a great style we created for the movie.”

We used to see Netflix as the company that mailed DVDs in red envelopes, but they are slowly gathering some of our best filmmakers to tackle their passion projects. Bay had been stuck in the studio system for so long we forgot what it was like for him to make a movie that was all spectacle. 

It's fun to see Ryan Reynolds joking about Netflix, but it might be time to take them incredibly seriously. 

Regardless of your feelings about Bay, he's an auteur who ushered in the golden eras of action movies -- only to be lost to Transformers for a while. The budget for this film looks to be around (at least) $150 to $200 million, and that's some serious spend. This is Netflix's most expensive movie of all time and one that they are opening days before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. 

You have to admire both Netflix's "no fear" attitude and Bay's gumption. If this movie does as well as Netflix hopes, then the sky is the limit when it comes to people wanting to work with the company. 

What are some filmmakers you hope to see return to form with the streamer? Any passion projects you'd like to see them fund? 

6 Underground arrives on Netflix December 13.