Netflix dares everyone to imagine that there will be a time when para-athletes will take over the sports scene with fancy and state-of-the-art implants that make them so much stronger and better than regular athletes. Afonso Poyart’s sci-fi sports flick Bionic is mainly based in Brazil, where the protagonist, Maria Santos, gets involved in the world of crime while trying to reach the pinnacle of long jumping. Let’s take a look at the cast and characters of this new Netflix release.
Jessica Cores as Maria Santos
Jessica Cores is known for playing Camila in the Brazilian fantasy series Invisible City, also a Netflix original. Cores stars as the sole protagonist of Bionic, and she is convincing as an athlete who was meant to be at the top of the world. Maria Santos is a physical specimen, and if not for the Bionic Revolution, she’d have won plenty of medals following in the footsteps of her legendary mother. When her sister Gabi becomes the star of the new world, Maria’s jealousy consumes her, and she stops differentiating between right and wrong. After seeing her sister thrive for so long, Maria gives in to the temptation of self-amputation to get an enhanced bionic leg. She plans an accident with Heitor to make sure the crash looks legit, and then gets the same model of leg as her sister. She goes on to beat her sister at the Bionic Games as well, but in Maria’s case, the success didn’t come for free. She’s forced to steal for Heitor and his gang, and when an athlete breaks in to steal from a building that featured her own glittering face on an advertisement, you know things won’t end well.Â
Bruno Gagliasso as Heitor
Since starting his career as a child actor, Bruno Gagliasso has basically been in front of the camera his whole life. Gagliasso plays Heitor in Bionic, who’s formally a boxing gym owner but has a major side business going on. Heitor advocated and protested for able-bodied athletes when the Bionic Revolution took place. What started as a noble cause soon turned into a criminal movement. Heitor starts to commit robberies, and his brother gets killed in one of them. He needs the money to pay the hackers in order to get the proper information to plan the biggest heist of his life. After his brother’s death, Heitor searches for another individual with bionic body parts, and Maria’s brother Gus leads him to her. Heitor manipulates Maria into planning the accident and losing her leg, and when she finally gets it, Heitor shows his true face to her. He doesn’t hesitate to kill for what he wants, and Heitor’s methods obviously don’t go down well with Maria. Heitor goes to extreme lengths to get Maria to do the robbery.
Christian Malheiros as Gustavo Santos
Maria and Gabi’s brother, Gus, is the only sibling in the Santos family who isn’t physically gifted. Gus is a tech expert who joins Heitor’s clan, wanting to help in his movement. Gus never really questions the criminal activities of Heitor and only helps him get what he needs. Gus has always been under the shadow of his sisters and never really got attention from his parents. The inferiority complex led to him becoming detached from the family and growing closer to Heitor and his gang, whom he thought of as his actual family.
Gabz as Gabi Santos
A world champion in long jumping, Gabi Santos became a superstar and the face of the Bionic Revolution. Gabi never got trained by her mother, Helena, because she always focused on building Maria up to be her successor. Gabi got support from her father, Ricardo, who trained her to become the best. After the Bionic era started, Gabi took no time to achieve greatness, and she set records only to break them herself. By the end of the movie, she loses to Maria in the Bionic Games, but her redemption arc is as sweet as it can be.
Supporting characters
- Paulo Vilhena plays Dario, an expert in bionic technology who helps the athletes get accustomed to their new body parts. Dario helps the sisters get back on their feet at the end of the movie.
- Klebber Toledo plays Antis, aka Squirt, Heitor’s brother, who gets shot while robbing a bank vault. Even though he appears for a very short time, his performance is better than some of the main characters of the movie.
- Danton Mello plays Detective Guerra, a street smart cop who is sharp and very easily figures out Heitor is behind the robberies. He also makes the connection between Heitor and Maria and proves that Maria’s accident was premeditated.