Two New Orleans paramedics encounter a series of strange deaths connected to a mysterious designer drug in SYNCHRONIC. Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) are two paramedics in New Orleans who come across a series of grisly drug-related deaths, with the common denominator being the presence of a synthetic drug called SYNCHRONIC. Things turn personal when it is discovered by Dennis’ teenage daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides) has taken SYNCHRONIC and has subsequently gone missing. Steve takes it upon himself to investigate the strange effects of SYNCHRONIC and find a way to bring Brianna home.
SYNCHRONIC is the fourth feature film from the duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring, The Endless). The film is a thriller with a major science fiction element, in which two paramedics find themselves face-to-face with a series of mysterious drug-related deaths. Early on, Steve discovers that he has an inoperable brain tumour and he decides that he has nothing to lose and he begins to perform a series of experiments with SYNCHRONIC to discover the effects and find a way to save Brianna.
SYNCHRONIC is a film that takes a while to get going since it isn’t really until the second half when the science fiction aspect of the film truly kicks in. I don’t exactly want to say what exactly that science fiction aspect is, though you could probably guess it from the title of the film. The plot is very much centred on Anthony Mackie’s character of Steve, with Jamie Dornan’s Dennis slowly relegating himself into the background. Altogether, SYNCHRONIC ends up being a somewhat decent science fiction story, which even gets quite emotional at times.