This one was a bit of a random find. After deciding there was nothing good to watch across all the services, I came across The Contractor in my Plex library. Released in April 2022, I didn't recognize it, but after watching the trailer figured we'd settle in for some formulaic private soldier hijinx.
Chris Pine stars as Harper, a decorated Green Beret whose use of illegal steroids to cope with a wrecked knee from numerous combat tours earns him a involuntary discharge from the Army by the new CO who's a hard ass on the subject. While given an honorable discharge, they strip him of his pension and benefits. (This doesn't make sense. Why not a medical discharge? Why strip his pension? To make the plot happen, that's why.)
With a wife (Gillian Jacobs in a nothing role) and young son and mounting bills and lots of debt collector calls, Harper needs a job. He's been contacted by various private military contractor outfits, but is reluctant to become a mercenary of sorts. While hanging out with a former service buddy, Mike (Ben Foster, Pine's co-star in Hell or High Water), who has a very nice house for his family, including a special needs son in a wheelchair, Harper is willing to take a meeting with the boss of the outfit he works for.
This is Rusty (Keifer Sutherland), who appeals to Harper's patriotism and sense of being thrown away by the government after he gave his body in service by offering him a position where he'd do low-risk black bag ops for the government under covert intelligence direction. The pay is excellent and he's even given a $50,000 check as a signing bonus which bails the family out.
His first mission is to surveil a virus researcher, Salim (Fares Fares), in Berlin. While he works for a legitimate research lab, Rusty says the funding is coming from a Middle Eastern terrorism financier so the order is given to get Salim's research. Harper, Mike and two others raid the facility and secure the laptop, but Rusty gives the order to kill Salim, which Harper does despite Salim begging him not to kill him and trying to explain his research is for the good of humanity.
While exfiltrating, the squad runs into German police responding to the lab being set ablaze and the red shirts are killed and Mike is wounded. Harper gets him into hiding and gives him a transfusion that stabilizes him. While Mike is ready to move, Harper's knee gives out so it's agreed that Mike will return the laptop to Berlin and Harper will catch up.
Eventually, Harper gets back to Berlin and contacts Rusty for pickup, but when he goes to the rendezvous point he smells a trap and barely escapes from the kill team awaiting him. Rusty has betrayed him! Dun-dun-DUHN!!! How will he get back home to his family and what happened to Mike?
The trailer makes The Contractor look like a familiar plot of Evil Corporate Shenanigans and Double-Crosses and for the most part if you've seen a few of these espionage thrillers like The Bourne Identity then you'll be able to predict what happens most of the time.
What sets The Contractor slightly above its formulaic brethren is in the little details and restrained performances. The movie opens with Harper's family attending church where service men are being recognized by the congregation. It's a sad commentary about Hollyweird movies that showing people attending services or saying grace before eating is so rarely done and even more so that it's not done so condescendingly.
It also refrains from portraying everyone as a saint or villain (other than Rusty, who goes black hat pretty hard). Even the people trying to kill Harper are just doing the job Rusty gave them and they're as morally troubled as Harper is. One who Harper overcomes gives him an info dump to help him get away then asks for the photo of his family back so he can see them as he dies. He's as much a victim as Harper and Mike are.
But overhanging these quiet moments and performances is the overarching plot of Evil Corporations Killing To Prevent Big Pharma Profits Taking A Hit which we've seen a zillion times before. It's a rough fit between the story of how our veterans aren't treated properly and corpo greed murder death kill stuff.
Pine is an underrated actor because he's so damn handsome, but he's good here, showing graying hair (he was 39 when this was filmed) and a stoic "got to provide for my family" earthiness. He's not a super soldier like Rambo, but a well-trained and disciplined soldier coping with a failing body and desperate circumstances.
If you're looking for a solidly done lower-key action drama, The Contractor delivers fairly satisfactory results.Score: 6/10. Catch it on cable. (Though it was an Amazon Original, Prime Video says it's on Paramount+, but they didn't have it. Weird.)
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