Bullet Points: Uncharted

The popular Uncharted video game franchise, which began with 2007’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for the PlayStation 3, has officially made the leap into the movie world with 2022’s Uncharted. I want to preface my review of the movie by stating that I never played any of the Uncharted video games, so I walked into the theater just the way Frank Costanza loved to walk into a theater… FRESH! All I knew about the Uncharted games was that they were clearly inspired by the adventures of everyone’s favorite archeologist, Indiana Jones, so my perspective is completely different from someone who has played the games…

• Little Orphan Nate: There is a flashback early on in the movie where a young Nathan Drake and his older brother Sam, have busted into a museum with plans of stealing the map of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world. Before the brothers Drake could procure the map that could lead them to Magellan’s lost gold, the cops show up and take the brothers back to the orphanage they call home… unfortunately for Sam this isn’t the first time he’s had a run in with the law and this time they are going to have to charge him… but while Sam is gathering his things and saying his goodbye’s to his little brother, he slips out the window and goes on the run. Will Nate ever see Sam again?

• Cheers: Back to the present day, Nathan Drake is now a bartender and a damn good one, working in New York City. It is hard to see Tom Holland and not think Peter Parker, especially since Spider-Man: No Way Home is barely in the rear view mirror at this point. But Nathan Drake is not as squeaky clean as Peter Parker, which is evident when he hustled a diamond bracelet off of an unsuspecting rich girl from Greenwich, who pops in for a drink. This slight of hand by Nate does not go unnoticed by another patron at the bar, Victor Sullivan, or Sully for those in the know. Sully (Mark Wahlberg, The Big Hit) offers Nate a chance to work with him on his next expedition… Nate blows him off at first, but when Sully mentions that he had been working with Nate’s brother Sam to track down the lost gold of Magellan, Nate’s tune quickly changes and he is all in. Holland and Wahlberg do play off each other well and there seemed to be a natural chemistry between the two actors.

• The Keys: The key to finding the gold is a pair of keys. Sully tells Nate he already has one key but the other one will be in New York City as part of a high end auction… now Sully doesn’t have the kind of cash necessary to win the key legitimately, so he needs Nate to figure out how to cut the power in the building to create chaos and allow Sully to get the priceless key at a five finger discount. The auction is where we are introduced to two more key players… Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas, Desperado) a ruthless and determined man with plenty of money to legitimately win the key, but a man who proves he is also willing to do things less than legitimately in short order. Also Santiago’s head of security, Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), a dangerous woman who has had past dealings with Sully that presumably did not end amicably… the Braddock character was the show stealer for me.

• Who’s Zoomin’ Who?: One theme that persists throughout the movie is trust, or a lack thereof, which I suppose is only natural when there is a fortune in gold on the line. This lack of honor among the treasure hunters is amplified when Sully and Nate are joined by a third member of the team, Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) who steals the key that Nate and Sully stole from the auction in NYC, right out of Nate’s bag. And it is obvious Chloe also stole a bit of Nate’s heart too as he is more than willing to team up with her once they get over their initial hurdle. The general air or distrust has everyone on their toes, including the audience as you can’t help but wonder who is going to turn on who next.

As I stated earlier I was not really familiar with the video games that inspired this movie, but I am very familiar with Indiana Jones inspired movies and Uncharted has a ton of the elements that make those movies work… globetrotting action, booby traps, likable heroes in one precarious position after the next, a little puzzle solving and some really stunning visuals to take the viewer along for the ride. In short, Uncharted is chock full of action adventure gold.

Now I have some gold for you in the form of these Bonus Bullet Points…

• If You Ever: …wanted to see a fire breathing Tom Holland, then Uncharted is the movie for you.
• Indy Inspired Quote: “Nuns. Why does it always have to be nuns?” – Nathan Drake
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Mark Wahlberg brawl inside a Papa John’s in Barcelona, then Uncharted is the movie for you.
• Prediction: There will be a producer in Hollywood that will see this movie and want to cast Tom Holland in a reboot of 1988’s Cocktail.