Are you looking for a near future war zone film to get you going? Look to Outside the Wire.
About
Set in the near future, Harp (Damson Idris), a drone pilot, is sent into a deadly militarised zone where he finds himself working for an android officer Leo (Anthony Mackie).
Film that covers war, near future science fiction and has action in it – Count us in.
Official Trailer – Click Here
As always we will try not to spoil the film – but minor spoilers ahead.
Scene by Scene
Free flow written as the film played out. Overall Section beneath, edited and written after the full film.
Introduction to the near future world. Lots of reading to set the scene. With it cutting to a remote drone pilot back at base, it feels inhuman in a bad way. It sets the mood down and the tactics of war.
A mistake brings the pilot back to basic training. The tone of war is keep. He meets a commander and knows the true nature of the mission now. He goes to where the robots are kept and it brings in the sci fi elements of the near future.
OUTSIDE THE WIRE, Damson Idris as Harp in OUTSIDE THE WIRE. Cr., Jonathan Prime/NETFLIX, ©, 2020
Captain Leo is introduced. Cold captain meets cold former pilot. It feels a very cold veteran, hot shot rookie combo that you see in films often. Again, it pushes lots of information at you in quick succession. It pushes info on the war, Ukraine and Russia, the bad guy at the heart of it and lots of other info.
Thus the reveal of the Captain’s nature. It pushes a question to the heart of the film. It shows the character dynamics in interesting ways. Pushes the Veteran and Rookie and some of the other background players too.
The First Mission begins. Traditional mission takes a few twists and turns. Outside the Wire is definitely a tagline of the movie too – plays with the black and white nature of war in grey areas. Most of it, in the eyes of the former pilot/rookie.
The mission takes them to the good, the bad and the people stuck in the middle. Showing the lengths people go to survive the war or win the war. It continues to evolve and develop – this one mission keeps going deeper and deeper.
The duo pushes on forward to tackle the issue of the film. With Mackie leading the action and Idris leading the emotion side of the film. Love the twist on a action film this is providing.
The second half of the film starts as the first half did, with a new mission ahead of the duo – changing the dynamic for the better. The duo breaks apart for their separate purposes.
Both find their purposes and lead the ending of the film to be anything possible. Harp, the rookie truly understands why the Captain needed him to see the truth of war.
We love how the film concludes – we going to stop the scene by scene thoughts now as it would ruin it for you the reader.
Overall
It feels like a traditional war action film at heart with a near future science fiction twist. Robot Leo is played well by Anthony Mackie and made to look human. Whilst Harp, the disgraced pilot, shows such heart and guts in the film. It plays out like a traditional grizzled veteran and hot shot rookie in the first act and then twists it superbly.
Some may expect the twist, but we did not. Second act continued to build the tension and the conclusion pushed it
Score – 4/5 – Good action, Good emotion. Marked down for a slow cloudy start.
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