Code 3 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Code 3 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf December 22, 2025

When making a movie about the lives of paramedics, intensity to a point of insanity is always the atmosphere. There’s nothing cozy about the vocation, which demands everything from employees, especially those working in troubled areas of the country. Madness is the journey, but co- writer/director Christopher Leone makes a valiant attempt to find some dark humor in the details of life and death. “Code 3” strives to follow the rocket sled ride of EMS life during a 24-hour-long shift for two veterans and a rookie, sending them around Los Angeles as they encounter people in dire need of medical treatment. Leone and co-writer Patrick Pianezza aim for realism in the work, delivering a disturbing understanding of mental illness and physical damage involved in this world. They also try to keep the feature at least somewhat approachable, giving star Rainn Wilson an opportunity to deliver perhaps the best performance of his career in a supremely challenging role.

Randy (Rainn Wilson) has been a paramedic for 18 years, but now he’s looking for an exit. He’s burning out, starting to physically decline from all the stress, looking to a future in insurance as he applies for a job to change his life. Randy rides with his longtime partner, Mike (Lil Rel Howery), and the pair have seen it all, newly entrusted by supervisor Shanice (Yvette Nicole Brown) to break in Jessica (Aimee Carrero), a rookie looking to make a difference on the streets. Set up with two shifts and limited patience for anything, Randy begins his day, trusting it will be one of his last on the front lines. Encountering all sorts of body trauma, breaks from reality, and disdain from Dr. Serano (Rob Riggle), Randy is losing control, trying to keep himself together while hoping to teach Jessica the reality of EMS life and all the indignities involved in it.

“Code 3” (a title the film identifies as code for “running lights and sirens”) is very clear in its objective to make viewers understand the life and death experience of being a paramedic. Randy is offered as a guide, periodically breaking the fourth wall to share insights and clarify truths to the audience, always underlining the extraordinary pressure of the business, where employees have to deal with all kinds of trouble, often from broken people, literally and otherwise. Leone doesn’t delay when generating the chaos of this world, putting Randy, Mike, and a different rookie on the move in the opening of the picture, where everything goes wrong for the newcomer, who ends up being shot at and covered in vomit, while Randy is stuck by a dirty needle, requiring a week’s worth of chemotherapy to treat. “Code 3” snaps to attention, and the screenplay is invested in exposing all aspects of the job, including pay, as paramedics are on the bottom of the salary scale.

Randy is feeling chest pains, unable to calm down while facing a tough system, newly tasked to teach Jessica the ropes. She’s intelligent and questioning, soon exposed to the reality of the work, which Leone covers in detail throughout “Code 3.” A plot emerges in Randy’s employment hopes with an office job, but the screenplay is mostly episodic, bombing around L.A. as the trio accepts calls to help. This includes a visit to a nursing home to reject a woman who’s already dead. There’s the “President,” a large man with mental health and medication problems targeted for a police shooting while the team tries to talk him down. Randy offers instruction on death inside an ambulance (a forbidden event), and he butts heads with Dr. Serano, an ER medical professional who doesn’t think highly of EMTs. There are vivid sequences of troublemaking and rising tensions, and extremity isn’t denied, as Randy deals with a motorcyclist with a stick driven into his eye socket after an accident.

Code 3 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The image presentation (2.38:1 aspect ratio) provides a decently textured look at the world of "Code 3." Skin particulars are present, examining body trauma and fatigue, and the chunkiness of bodily fluids is preserved. Costuming is fibrous. Exteriors around the city are decently dimensional. Interiors in medical spaces and on the truck remain deep, also preserving decorative additions. Color is distinct, with sharp uniform blues and oranges. Red lights and hospital whites are also crisp. Greenery is defined. Skin tones are natural. Delineation is satisfactory. Compression issues are periodic, with mild banding detected.

Code 3 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix supplies crisp dialogue exchanges, remaining balanced through heated encounters with lots of argumentative moments. Scoring supports with decent instrumentation and dramatic emphasis, and soundtrack selections maintain clear vocals. Surrounds aren't pronounced, but certain moments, such as a climatic event on a busy freeway, explore atmospherics, and passing cars and planes add some panning effects. Low- end perks up with heavier bass and jet engine rumblings.

Code 3 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There is no supplementary material on this release.

Code 3 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Code 3" maintains an interesting balance of education and characterization for most of the effort, getting into the muck of Randy's headspace as he tries to be a teacher to someone he feels should run in the opposite direction from the vocation. Laughs are periodic in the feature, as Leone allows for some levels of levity and gallows humor to emerge. However, balance between light and dark tend to fail in the final act, which finds the EMTs handling a sensitive emergency situation, challenging their pessimistic ways. The screenplay hopes to get back to livelier attitudes afterwards, but the film can't return from pure sadness, finding Leone getting too ambitious with tonality, and it falls out of his control. There's plenty that does work in the endeavor, which is valuable in its insight into the paramedic experience, and while there's a capable ensemble to bring this mayhem to life, Wilson is perfectly cast as Randy, finding a part that works best with his sense of humor and dramatic capabilities, transforming the role into something raw and realistic, helping to carry an occasionally unwieldy picture.