Mark Hoppus of blink-182 is sitting in the studio alongside Linkin Park in 2024 listening to their latest jam. “Fucking hell, Mike.” He’s floored at what he’s heard.
Following the death of frontman Chester Bennington in 2017, the Southern California rockers have yet to reintroduce themselves to the world, along with their new sound via new lead singer Emily Armstrong. But after hearing her voice (Hoppus asks Mike Shinoda if her voice is “made of fucking steel”), Hoppus asks for just 30 seconds to interrupt their studio session.
“You guys have to go out and own this shit,” he tells the band. “This is what we’re doing. We love Linkin Park. We’ve been through the fucking hell, we’re back, and this is our new shit. We love everything we’ve done in the past, we’re always going to play those songs, and we love our past, but this is what we’re doing now, and it’s fresh and exciting and it got us all back in the fucking room. That’s a great story and a great fucking reality.”
That might well be the thesis for “Unshatter,” a new documentary that chronicles the band’s journey back to the stage years removed from the death of Bennington.
The rock doc grapples with the question, should they even reunite? Do they need a new singer? Will everyone want to come back and tour? And should this new iteration of the band even be called Linkin Park? The film is part behind-the-scenes and part concert film of their massive album release show for “From Zero” in a stadium in Sao Paolo, Brazil in November 2024.
But perhaps most notable about “Unshatter” is what it does not show. Fans who see the film when it opens via Trafalgar Releasing on September 30 won’t see a film that looks back but is determined to look ahead and follow Hoppus’ advice. Bennington is mentioned throughout, but there is no archival footage of him until the end credits.
We love our past, “Unshatter” seems to say, but we’re moving forward, and this is what we are right now.
“The story is us trying to pick up the pieces and eventually being able to do so by leaning on each other to get that support and encouragement and eventually be be triumphant,” Linkin Park band member and director Joe Hahn told IndieWire. “For me, it’s important to show that archival footage at the end because the theme of ‘From Zero’ is to show where things started but also show that even as we move forward, he’s still always part of us, and he’s always there. He’s not in the film getting interviewed or anything, but his presence is is always, always around.”
Hahn is also the DJ of Linkin Park, the man behind the keys and record scratches that give the band its distinct blend of genres. But he’s also been Linkin Park’s creative director for their entire existence, directing countless music videos for the band and shaping its vision. He’s had his hand at feature directing with his 2014 movie “Mall,” but “Unshatter” is his first feature-length documentary.
The band has spent hours in interviews explaining their comeback story, finding Armstrong (and new drummer Colin Brittain), and coping with the loss of Bennington. But Hahn felt the best way to give the whole picture of what Linkin Park was thinking would be to show not tell, and Hahn had to be the one to take on the task of directing himself.
“We’re pretty private as well, and being able to have access with the trust from everyone, I don’t think anyone else would have been able to get the access that I was able to get, and to get the honesty,” Hahn said. “I think if someone else did it, made this film, they would construct their own, come from the outside, imagine the story that they would want to tell, and then make all the pieces fit the narrative in their mind. I think just that’s just a natural thing to do.”
“Unshatter” starts in November 2022, five years after Bennington’s death. Hahn, Shinoda, and bassist Dave Farrell are in the studio, and Farrell can’t help but think the track they’ve been tinkering with sounds a little “flat,” and Shinoda confesses that unless he can do some vocal gymnastics he’s not capable of, something is going to be missing. At this point, the idea of reuniting is just a kernel, but the cameras were rolling pretty early in advance as part of the band’s LPTV YouTube channel. It ends up tracking them during Armstrong’s first time in studio, their relaunch show when there were only rumors that Linkin Park had hired a female vocalist, and all the way up through the Sao Paolo concert.
The film is being released with an event cinema model to give it a live concert feel, and the band also is showing the film in ScreenX featuring footage projected onto the sides of the theater, as well as in 4DX in case you want to simulate the feeling of the Sao Paolo mosh pit.
But fans might be surprised at how reflective “Unshatter” is amid all the rocking out, and it was just as enriching for Hahn to uncover through film how his high school buddies dating back decades really feel about this whole journey.
“One of the discoveries I had was in finding myself and leaving myself vulnerable and sharing that with with someone, with my friends in the band. The thought of doing that is more difficult than actually doing that,” Hahn said. “It’s kind of like, how come I didn’t realize some of this stuff many, many years ago? Part of us being on hiatus was a time of reflection and growing and shedding some skin, so to speak. That allowed us to be vulnerable in reuniting and getting back to the core of why we did this in the first place since we were kids that just wanted to make loud music.”
“Unshatter” opens in theaters on Friday, September 30. Linkin Park will also release a live album soundtrack on Friday, September 25.
