Bullet Points: Outside the Wire
Netflix unveiled their ambitious plans late last year to release a new movie every week in 2021. While other studios are still trying to find their way in the new world we are now living in… Netflix has proven their business model is pandemic proof!
Outside the Wire is set to hit Netflix this Friday (January 15th), but I have an early look at the sci-fi actioner…
- Rolling Thunder: The year is 2036 and Lt. Thomas Harp (Damson Idris) is a highly skilled drone pilot who finds himself in a precarious position. Harp is monitoring a firefight taking place in the Ukraine where United States forces are stationed to keep the peace between warring factions as Mother Russia tries to reclaim the Ukraine. Two Marines are pinned down in the firefight, but Harp notices an armored vehicle that he believes poses a threat to all forty of the Marines on the scene. The commanding officer on the ground wants to save his two men and refuses to give Harp the authorization to fire. Harp contacts his superior, who also tells Harp not to fire. Harp protests, but his superior does not budge. Harp then does what he thinks is right and disobeys a direct order…. blowing up the armored vehicle and killing the two pinned down Marines in the process.
- Conflict Zone: Harp is called before a military ethics committee where it is decided that Harp, who has spent his entire military career safely behind a screen, be sent to the conflict zone in Eastern Europe to give him a better understanding of what his fellow soldiers with their boots on the ground have to deal with. It is that… or a court martial. When Harp arrives at the base in the Ukraine, Harp has a brief interaction with the base’s commanding officer Eckhart (Michael Kelly). Eckhart informs Harp he must have really screwed up, because he’s being assigned to report to Leo (Anthony Mackie).
- More Machine Than Man: Harp reports to Leo and almost instantly gets the hard ass treatment from Leo. Leo tells Harp that he will accompany him on a mission to deliver a vaccine to a clinic outside the wire (DING!) and when they are done with that, they will meet with an informant and get vital information on Victor Koval, the warlord who is making life miserable in this part of the world. Koval also plans on gaining access to the old Russian nukes that are still hidden all across the Ukraine. If learning that Koval plans on nuking the United States isn’t enough for Harp to digest… he also learns Leo is no man, he is a highly classified cyborg prototype!
- Boots on the Ground: The moment Leo and Harp go outside the wire, the action really picks up. Leo and Harp are part of a military convoy as they make their way to deliver the vaccine, but when trouble strikes the two have to make their way to the clinic on foot. Anthony Mackie’s Leo is responsible for the majority of the action in the movie… something that should probably be expected given Mackie’s experience in the action realm and the fact that his character is a super soldier. Leo is effective with a gun and in hand to hand combat situations. Meanwhile, this is a whole new world for Harp and Damson Idris does a convincing job as the overwhelmed fish out of water.
I have to admit, I started zoning out when it seemed like I knew where this story was heading and that is when it happened, Outside the Wire flipped everything upside down. And this wasn’t a twist just for the sake of having a twist… there was logic and thought behind it and the turn of events snapped me back into what at its core is Harp’s redemption story and I was fully engaged for the remainder of the film.
The remainder of this review will be some of my patented Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Fans of the TV series Into the Badlands will recognize Emily Beecham. Beecham plays Sofiya, a member of the rebel army that is battling the likes of Victor Koval.
- Product Placement: When Harp is piloting his drone he enjoys munching on some Haribo gummy bears (Reni Santoni would be proud). It should also be noted that Gummy Bear is the pet name that Harp’s fiancée has given him, a fact Leo makes sure to bust Harp’s balls over.
- Soundtraxx: When Harp first finds Leo, Leo is working at his desk and enjoying the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s “Stars Fell on Alabama”.
- Close Enough: While the story takes place in the Ukraine, Outside the Wire was filmed in nearby Budapest, Hungary.
- Robot Wars: Man vs. Machine is one of the central themes of the film, but it is quite literal since both sides in the conflict have robotic soldiers known as Gumps in their arsenal.
