Movie Plot – Outside the Wire: In the near future, a drone pilot sent to a war zone is paired with a top-secret android officer on a mission to stop a nuclear attack.

Director: Mikael Håfström
Writers: Rob Yescombe, Rowan Athale
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Damson Idris, Enzo Cilenti, Michael Kelly

Robots are the Future

It seems increasingly likely that drones and robots will dominate the wars of the future. For creators of science fiction, this is obviously an exciting phenomenon to speculate on. How will these technologies change the world? Lately, it feels like Netflix is releasing many films around this topic. Take Code 8, for example, where there are also Cop Robots.

The year is 2036. A civil war is raging in Ukraine. Backed by the Russians, a rebel group is trying to take over the country. American soldiers are stationed there to keep the peace. Drone pilot Harp (Damson Idris) also has to go there because he made a serious mistake during his work, which killed two soldiers. The consequence is that he now has to fight at the front for the first time. In Ukraine, Leo takes him under his wing. On top of that, Leo (Anthony Mackie) turns out to be just a little different. He listens to jazz records, has all the archival photos hanging around, and turns out to be a robot! Leo is an advanced fourth-generation robot that looks like a human. In addition, Leo takes Harp on a dangerous mission to prevent the rebels from gaining control of a nuclear missile.

I have to admit that it’s incredible when they show off the hidden design of Leo. Unfortunately, this feels underused and makes you wish that you would have seen more. Leo is an android, however, he just seems to be a super-soldier. It reminded me of iRobot, except that he looks way more human. Also, the fight scenes are pretty awesome but shaky.

The consequences of war

What they want to say is interesting, but the execution of it sadly falls flat. A drone pilot in the middle of a war learns the consequences of the bombs he fires thousands of miles away. Yet, I felt that I was missing the impact. Somehow I believe that this was because of Harp’s cold attitude. I didn’t feel for him.

The script is a real mess. Some of the reasons for fights were pretty unclear. There are Rebels where you question what they are fighting for because they seem like ordinary armed citizens who have no idea what is going on. However, at the beginning of the film, I was hooked, but this quickly took a turn. Everything felt long, and I was bored from time to time.

Outside the Wire is full of conflicting viewpoints. If we follow the moral point of view of the protagonist, war is pointless and should remain human. However, no sense of humanity is being felt through him. Also, they take a different route with Lea. Also, I can’t help the feeling that this was misplaced. Finally, the ending was super anti-climatic. All I can think about was, “well, okay then.”

This may be an odd opinion, but this film sometimes feels a little too “American” as in Robots are bad, humans are good, Russians are wrong, Americans the great savior.

Conclusion

Outside the Wire has few pretty awesome action scenes. However, the script takes a massive toll on the movie.

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