Outside the Wire: Netflix’s Android action movie raises big questions

Drones have become such an accepted aspect of modern warfare that almost every major action franchise has used it as a shortcut over the past decade. In the dystopian future, like Neill Blomkamp, ​​they fell into the hands of various villains Chappie and Elysium, in many hyped sequels such as Furious 7, and in all three Gerard Butler films Olympus the case series. In Hollywood’s imagination, terrorists are very fond of mechanized weapons.

But in reality, the use of drones – or, in official terminology, “unmanned aerial vehicles”, has increased exponentially in the U.S. military, especially during President Obama’s tenure. The principles of killing people while standing at a desk halfway around the world have been erased in movies (2015s) Eye in the air) and documentaries (2013s) Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars). The latest film exploring the ethical implications of drones, Netflix’s future war feature Outside the wire, stumbles upon his inability to engage with these ideas, even if it prioritizes them in his world-building.

Anthony Mackie’s parallel career as a military service member (in The Hurt Locker and as Sam Wilson / Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and a science fiction hero (Altered carbon season 2, Synchronies) finally overlaps in Outside the wire, Netflix’s latest action movie about the US military. (It follows in the footsteps of 6 Underground, Withdrawal, en Triple Frontier before that.) Mackie produces and costs in this initially enjoyable thriller, which combines a human and an Android to explore the differences between human and machine. But the film quickly runs out of steam.

Photo: Jonathan Prime / Netflix

Director Mikael Håfström does not provide Outside the wire with any in-depth analysis of Asimov’s three laws of robotics here, any whimsy as unique as watching Michael Fassbender’s David in his lab in Ridley Scott Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, or any action set as memorable as the tunnel hunt in Alex Proyas’s I, robot. The film redeems its drab monochromatic production design with a funny screenplay by Rob Yescombe and Rowan Athale, which presents a clearly enjoyable Mackie with many relentless one-lines and memorable insults. But bigger ideological questions about humanity, artificial intelligence, and whether emotional sincerity or analytical skill are more important to save lives are ultimately immaterial in a film that consolidates on an all-too-familiar plot rather than going into the themes it introduce and then abandon.

Outside the wire is based in Eastern Europe, where a violent civil war has frustrated and spread: the criminal warlord Viktor Koval (Pilou Asbæk) wants to make Ukraine part of Russia, and has received support from the Kremlin to carry out its terrorist attacks and others at its cause. Thanks to the involvement of the USA, a large part of the region was destroyed and hungry people. While the United Nations is away, the US maintains a “peacekeeping force”, although in reality it means that military members are regularly involved in shootings, fights and attacks, and are assisted by drone pilots who assess situations from afar. and decide when to strike.

One of the very best is Lieutenant Thomas Harp (Damson Idris), whose leading priority is to save as many lives as possible. If it means killing others, then so be it. So when two Marines are dead because Harp broke the order to start a drone strike that saved 38 other Americans, he rationalizes that he made the right choice (‘the call that felt most correct’, he tells an investigative council ), but his insubordination is not looked upon too fondly.

As punishment, Harp is sent to Camp Nathaniel in the war zone itself, where his commanding officer patches. Eckhart (Michael Kelly) greets him with “You must be in jail.” Harp’s job as a drone pilot requires a certain kind of clinical cold and willingness to make difficult choices that could literally mean life or death, but even he is unprepared to learn that he was assigned to Leo (Mackie), a prototype of the US government, to assist. Android is meant to win hearts and minds – and if that does not work, you must kill those who are still contradictory or opposed. Leo has feelings and is able to empathize, he tells the shocked Harp, but he also has an iridescent torso made of flexible metal, is a computer beater and is incredibly difficult to destroy. The US military developed a new killing machine and gave it a human face.

As soon as the two meet, Leo calls in Harp to help him locate and kill Koval, who intends to gain access to the nuclear weapons that Russia has left over from the Cold War; if they do not stop his planned terrorist attacks on the US, Leo says, no one can do it. And despite all his awareness of his mission, the instructions he has been given, and the government to which he is responsible, Leo is resentful, bubbly and tired. He’s tired of being in this place, of seeing civilians being killed in skirmishes between the Americans and the Ukrainians, and of being forced to look for Koval in people trying to make a difference, like Chief Sofiya (Emily Beecham). It all starts to carry with him, and so he seeks the help of Harp to help him go ‘outside the wire’ – military terminology to attack the enemy. After Koval is stopped, Leo argues and the civil war is over, the world will be a better place. Won’t it be?

Photo: Jonathan Prime / Netflix

For the first hour or so of its duration, Outside the wire seems much more complicated and less faintly patriotic than it actually is. As Leo, Mackie is quick with a sardonic grin and a fiery temper, and his repeated mockery of Harp’s naivety with an unbelieving ‘Do you believe it?’ is as amusing as his transgression when Harp searches for a word to describe him. The action scenes fall neatly one after the other, with a chase scene and explosion in a hospital, followed by a hostage crisis at a bank; the one-two punch effectively increases tension. And the film at least refers to the reality of our time by wondering if the U.S. military, with its endless funding, great resources, and moral prestige, is worthy of such prestige. When Sofiya points out that many of the orphans she houses are left without families due to American transgressions, Harp’s morally impaired response has a knock. He clearly wonders for whom he is really fighting, and for whom he is really fighting.

This is also disappointing Outside the wire turn into a predictable turn that undoes that undermining. After setting up Leo and Harp as contrasting forces – Leo as the robot that can feel; Harp as the man who can not – Håfström does not strive for what shared experiences could form such different figures. Each was a US military creation, but which one really reflects its practices, its values, or its realities? What superiorities do we find in being human, and what shortcomings? Outside the wire suggests these classic genre questions, but does not provide appropriate answers, and the unsatisfactory patience of their end is a disappointing conclusion for the potential to be a much more challenging film.

Outside the wire streaming now on Netflix.