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2015
02.24

Power Rangers NSFW Reboot

POWER/RANGERS is a dark reboot of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) as Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, and James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek) as Rocky, the 2nd Red Ranger. Watch it below.

Warning: NSFW Nudity Version

Non-Nude Version Here

Points of Interest:

  • Opens with “Saving Private Ryan”-style realistic first-person battle scene, except this time there are giant robots and Halo guns.
  • “We were children asked to fight an intergalactic war against an enemy we’d never met. Let’s stop pretending our side stood on some moral high ground.”
  • Rocky betrayed the Power Rangers and joined the Machine Empire. He interrogates Kimberly to track down Tommy who is on the run.
  • The Machine Empire has turned Earth into a sci-fi cyberpunk dystopia.
  • Tommy is played by Russ Bain who voices Rodrik Forrester in the Telltale Game of Thrones game.
  • “Bullshit is an ugly color.” “I prefer pink!”
  • Kimberly tells Rocky he was never really one of them. Seems like a reference to the fact that Rocky was brought in for the 2nd season after the original Red Ranger actor (Austin St. John as Jason) left the show.
  • The Power Rangers were weaponized youth trained to kill.
  • Jason and Kimberly were attacked after getting married. Jason was killed. Kimberly wears a wedding veil. Very reminiscent of Kill Bill.
  • Bulk and Skull betray the Power Rangers in exchange for meth.
  • Zack does coke and sleeps with pornstars Amia Moretti and Bree Olsen.
  • According to the credits, Amia Moretti and Bree Olsen play Scorpina and Divatox who were villains on the show.
  • Zack stars in Hip Hop Kido fitness tapes.
  • Zack fights North Koreans in an ultraviolent action scene.
  • Reference to Tommy originally being made a Power Ranger by Rita Repulsa.
  • Reference to Tommy and Kimberly hooking up.
  • Billy is a trillionaire and head of a tech company mass producing blade blaster weapons. He’s like Tony Stark.
  • Billy shown with male lover on magazine cover. Reference to the sexual orientation of the actor who played Billy.
  • The Power Rangers attend Trini’s funeral. Reference to the death of Thuy Trang who played Trini.
  • Tommy vs Rocky sword fight! Kimberly shoots Rocky!
  • Plot Twist: Kimberly reveals herself to be Rita Repulsa. Turns out she killed all the other Rangers.
  • So has Rita always been Kimberly? How would that work? Oh well whatever, it was enjoyable.

This R-rated Power Rangers fan film was produced by Adi Shankar, the executive producer of the totally badass Dredd (2012) starring Karl Urban and Lena Headey. Shankar also produced gritty comic book based short films The Punisher: Dirty Laundry (starring Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman) and Venom: Truth in Journalism (starring Ryan Kwanten and directed by Joe Lynch). These short films, along with POWER/RANGERS, are part of Shankar’s “Bootleg Universe” which he says is his way of “creatively reinterpreting the characters I love without red tape.”

You can watch The Punisher: Dirty Laundry and Venom: Truth in Journalism in full below.

Here’s a video of Adi Shankar explaining why he wanted to “bootleg” the Power Rangers:

POWER/RANGERS was directed by Joseph Kahn, the director of the ridiculous, but fun, “Fast and the Furious on motorcycles” movie Torque (2004). Kahn has worked far more extensively in music videos though, doing videos for Brtiney Spears, Eminem, Backstreet Boys, Taylor Swift and more.