Outside the Wire (2021)

Outside the Wire (2021)

4/10

Starring

Anthony Mackie

Damson Idris

Emily Beecham

Michael Kelly

Directed by Mikael Håfström

Here’s one thing to note when watching this movie: not everyone is suited to play certain roles. That thought hit me smack in the face when I saw this movie, as Damson Idris, who plays Thomas Harp, is not suited for the role. I may not be a casting director, but this was a miss in my view. Anthony Mackie, on the other hand, owned his role.

If this is what to expect from Netflix's one new movie a week, I may not be game to watch every single one of them. I had issues with some of the lines, and the screenplay doesn’t just border on average—it drops below. The whole plan of creating a moral paradox and infusing it with the creator’s hand being forced (which was outlined in the end) felt like a waste to me. This movie would have been better served as a straight-up action movie without the convoluted plot based on some moral dilemma. In the end, the plot wasn’t twisted enough to make me think, and the bad pacing just summed up my rating of this movie: a total waste of time.

The movie is set in the future, where modern warfare involves not just humans, but machines as well. We are introduced to Thomas, a drone pilot who seems more focused on numbers than the casualties his drone strikes cause.

He is being punished for making a call to deploy a drone strike to save thirty-eight soldiers at the price of killing two. His actions led him to be sent to a war front, where they believe seeing the casualties of war firsthand will help him understand the consequences of his actions.

In this future, there is a war going on between the U.S. and Russia. The sad part is, it’s happening in Ukraine, devastating the region and causing the people to form their own local militia, which is against both sides. Russia wants to gain control of the nuclear silos in Ukraine left behind by the former USSR, and the U.S. wants to stop them.

A certain Captain Leo (Anthony Mackie) requests that Thomas be sent to work with him on his mission to locate the terrorist Victor Koval.

Captain Leo reveals to Thomas that he's actually a robot, and he chose Harp to help him on a secret mission to get nuclear codes before Victor Koval does. But they need to figure out where those codes are. During this mission, Leo questions Thomas about AI, the greater good, and, as the movie progresses, Thomas starts to suspect that Leo is going beyond his directive.

Leo seems to be good at manipulating people, and he was able to get Thomas to aid in breaking more rules, which helped Leo go rogue. By the time Thomas was able to put it all together, it seemed too late.

I don’t see why this movie took the turn it did. I feel that watching a robot fight and change the face of war would have been a better film.