In a fantasy world where orcs are marginalized citizens, cops are talking down medieval sword-wielding crazies, and elves are shooting up convenient stores, a magic wand is a weapon of mass destruction…that can also grant wishes. 

Written by Max Landis (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) and directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad), Bright‘s concept is reminiscent of 1988’s Alien Nation. Instead of discrimination between humans and extra-terrestrials, there’s a lavish world of magic and fantastical beasts — and all the slow-mo car crashes, special effects, and strip club gun fights that go with that.

Ward (Smith) and his new partner, Jakoby (Edgerton), the first orc to become a cop in this alternate-reality Los Angeles, go out on a routine mission that goes south. They run into an elf (Noomi Rapace) with a magic wand, and not the fun Harry Potter kind, either. If you do a swish and flick with this, you’ll unleash what’s essentially a “nuclear weapon that grants wishes.”

Also, there’s Edgar Ramirez as a long-locked elf police chief.

Underneath this world-ending plot is racial tensions between orcs and humans. “Are you a cop first or an orc first,” Ward tells his partner. Smith unpacked this subject more during the film’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con. “[Joel’s] character is the first orc on the team, and I’m an African-American police officer who just found somebody else to be racist against,” he said. “You never get to be on that side of racism when you’re black. ‘Look, man, I don’t want no orcs in my car!’”