Based on a comic-book series by Greg Rucka. The Old Guard Stars Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The Old Guard is about 4 immortal mercenaries who take jobs while trying to keep the identity a secret while also trying to deal with the awakening of a new member.
Currently making waves on Netflix. The Old Guard tells the story of 4 immortal guns for hire. Being mercenaries brings its problems. Such violent events attract reports and media attention like moths to a flame.
The Old Guard starts with our 4-man team lying dead on the floor. The team consists of its leader and oldest member Andy (Charlize Theron), Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe, (Marwan Kenzari), and Nicky (Luca Marinelli).
This is quite clearly a future scene as the next scene shows Andy walking the streets to meet up with Booker. She gets caught on some local tourist phone selfie so promptly offers to take a picture of them to gain access to the phone and delete the picture. Staying out of any kind of media is a very important task for them, fearing if they are discovered they will be locked away and tested on like lab rats.
She meets up with Booker who tells her about a new job a previous client wants to hire them for. The previous client being Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor). They meet up with Copley who tells them about a hostage situation in South Sudan involving children. They take the job and go about their business in completing it.
Gaining access to the room the children are supposedly kept in they find it empty. They are ambushed and mercilessly gunned down multiple times. Showing the first scene in the movie they slowly start to regenerate and awaken. Think Highlander where everything hurts just as much but he heals up and can’t die. Once awake they take out all the soldiers that ambushed them.
They were set up by Copland as they discover a camera recording the scenes.
Cut to Afghanistan. U.S Marine Nile (Kiki Layne) is leader her squad in search of a terrorist. They find the terrorist who produces a gun so is shot. The trouble is they need him alive. As Nile tries to help him, he produces a blade and cuts her throat. She recovers without a scratch. She starts having disturbing dreams about the other immortals and their numerous deaths. In turn, they also have a dream about her getting her throat cut. This tells them there’s another immortal. Why now! It’s not explained and they don’t know. Andy sets out to find Nile to bring her into the fold.
Later we are shown a presentation by pharmaceutical executive Steven Merrick (Harry Melling) and his new revelation ways to extend human life. Copland shows him the video of the immortal’s recent gun battle and their miraculous survival so naturally, he wants them.
This sets in motion the movies main plotline of the team trying to evade capture by Merrick while finding and implementing Nile into the team.
Through-out the movie it shows various flashbacks of their previous lives. Andy is very old. How old? We are never told and Nile asks numerous times through-out the movie. Booker was the last to be awakened in the 1800s. Joe and Nicky were in the crusades but Andy is older them all of them combined. It shows scenes of her and another immortal Quynh (Van Veronica Ngo) fighting many battles together. Eventually, their secret is discovered and naturally back then they are declared witches and hung. They survive of course so this prompts the townsfolk to take Quynh, lock her in a metal coffin and throw her in the ocean where she has a living hell of constantly drowning, reviving, trying to escape and drowning again. Andy spent many years trying to find her in the ocean but eventually was forced to give up.
The Immortality doesn’t last forever. There was a previous immortal that died. Eventually, the power just stops working and they can be killed like anyone else. None of the team knows why they were chosen, how it works or when the power will stop working.
In term of action scenes, The Old Guard has many gun battles. Andy has a very cool looking axe and having 1000’s of years of experience, she’s a dad hand at close quarter combat. There are a few fights but like many modern action movies, the fights scene suffer from shaky camera syndrome. Otherwise, there’s nothing that hasn’t been seen or done before even in the story. Naturally, there’s some heel and face turn as characters develop. I thought it was a little heartless Copeland sends all them soldiers to ambush the team and sacrifice them just to test his theory but there are many henchmen deaths with zero remorse shown by anyone.
In conclusion, The Old Guard kind of reminded me of Highlander a little mainly because they have exactly the same power as Connor MacLeod, except this time there’s isn’t only one. The ending outright sets up a sequel so we can expect more The Old Guard movies in the future.
The Old Guard is available on Netflix now.
Rating 3/5 belts
