In early March of this year, Netflix released what I consider a pretty good SF/War popcorn movie featuring Alan Richson (Figure 2), star of the TV series Reacher, based on Lee Child’s “Jack Reacher” books. The reason I call this a “popcorn”movie is that there’s no real depth here, very little character development; it’s just an excuse for an action movie full of fighting, adrenaline, explosions. And in my opinion, a movie like this is often a good catharsis against the sometimes dreary, dull, or oppressive day-to-day grind.
Probably the main reason Richson was cast as the protagonist (known only as “81” in this movie) is that the role requires a larger-than-life figure who can appear to be the next-best thing to a machine himself, thus giving the film a two-fer: the “War Machine” of the title could be applied both to the protagonist and the antagonist of the movie. At six feet three inches tall, he appears physically imposing enough for the kind of roles he’s been playing, and is a good fit for “81,” the would-be Ranger of this movie.
The movie opens on a scene outside Kandahar, Afghanistan, some time before the 2001 fall of that base; a group of three Humvees is waiting on a road near that base for a pair of repair vehicles. When those Humvees arrive, they’re led by a large person (Richson) who’s a Combat Engineer, and we learn that he’s the brother of the Squad Leader (Jai Courtney) they’re rescuing. The brother declares that they’ll both be attempting to join the Rangers (an elite Army unit, similar to the Green Berets of the Vietnam War era) through the RASP program (Ranger Assessment and Selection Program). It turns out that the Squad Leader has filled the radiators full of StopLeak, and they can no longer conduct heat, leading to a breakdown. The radiators are refilled with coolant, but before the Humvees can move out, all five are shelled by artillery, and only the Engineer and his brother survive. The Engineer (Richson) has a jagged piece of metal shrapnel in his right knee, and his brother (Courtney) is unconscious. Nevertheless, the Engineer picks up his brother and begins to carry him towards Kandahar.
Two years later, we find the Engineer on a bus in Colorado, headed for the RASP program, where over a hundred applicants will be weeded down to under twenty during an 8-week training and assessment ordeal plus a final 24-hour simulation test called the “Death March.” The Engineer awakes from a nap on the bus during which he relives the attack on his brother’s group, and he gulps a couple of pills—we assume this is a common occurrence when he attempts to sleep. The Ranger recruits are divested of their names and given numbers, and we learn that all E6s and above are made squad leaders (with their acceptance), but the Engineer, an E7 (Sergeant First Class) refuses. He becomes 81. He toughs out the course, hardly talking to anyone, and is nearly washed out of the course by Sgt.-Major Sheridan (Figure 3) because he refused to become a squad leader and isn’t integrating with the rest of the soldiers (i.e., not being a “team player.”). During their training, the RASPers see a news report on an asteroid (Figure 5) that appears to be entering Earth’s orbit and breaking apart. They discuss it while on a forced march.
(I don’t know if this is intentional, but the vertical window blinds in the barracks appear to echo the vents on the actual War Machine.) :Finally, the day of the Death March appears, and the hundred-plus applicants to be the “best of the best” are reduced to, it appears, fifteen—and 81 is picked by Sheridan (Dennis Quaid) to be the team leader despite his, 81’s wishes. His second-in-command is 7 (Stephan James, Figure 4). The team is given 24 hours to go from their drop zone a number of klicks to where a plane has crashed (this is the “Death March”—a simulation), blow up the plane to keep the enemy from finding it, then go to an “enemy” village where the pilot is being held captive, rescue him, then call for pickup.
But right off the bat, things go wrong. They find what looks like a very high-tech “crashed plane,” (Figure 6) but when they set their C4 charges, they blow with no apparent effect but to scorch the metal. Here’s where the movie begins to live up to its name. (And, to avoid too many spoilers, where I stop recounting what happens.) If I recall correctly, the general IMDB rating (or Rotten Tomatoes, can’t recall which) was about 86%, which is good for a popcorn movie. The general thread seemed to be that it wasn’t very deep, which I have to agree with; also that it was kind of predictable—which I can’t argue with. But that’s okay—you watch a popcorn movie for thrills and action sequences, don’t you? And it certainly fulfils that role. It appears that, besides any green-screen used, the actors (especially Richson) have to do a lot of actual action, including some terrific water sequences. I won’t show you a picture of the War Machine, as you’ll see it soon enough.
One of the things that seems to count against this film’s score is the fact that Richson himself is not a fan of the current US administration, and especially of the Commander in Chief. A lot of MAGA people have left rude, nasty and somewhat obscene comments to the effect that Richson is “woke” and shall we say, not as heroic as his characters. (Richson is also a devout Christian, if that means anything when it comes to acting.) My only comment on that—not being a fan myself of those particular political things—is that I’d like to see some of those commenters meet him one on one and see whether “woke” makes him a weakling. I somehow doubt it. Just the physical stunts he actually did in this movie look pretty daunting to me.
I find it a great shame when an actor’s political beliefs interfere with a movie’s ratings, but I guess it’s the world we live in. (To quote Jack Nicholson in Mars Attacks, “Why can’t we all just… get along?!”) And a word about the music—it’s quite martial, and often fairly loud. I guess you have to have something like that to drown out the explosions. <G>
To sum up—this is a fun movie. Break out the popcorn and drink of your choice and enjoy—root for the good guys!
NOTE: This column is in no way written, edited, proofed or composed by AI, though some of my photo editing software uses it in some capacity. This is a human column and will remain so.
I’d like to hear what you think about this column. I’m on Facebook, or you could email me (stevefah at hotmail dot com). If you liked it, let me know—if you hated it, let me know so I can do better! My opinion is, as always, my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Amazing Stories or its owner, editor, publisher or other columnists. See you next time!
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association (PESFA) and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with chairing or helping run Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. As a fan, he’s published a Hugo-nominated (one nomination) fanzine, New Venture, and he’s founded two writing groups (Writers’ Bloc and Writers of the Lost, Ink). He’s emceed and auctioned art at many West Coast and Northwest conventions including one Westercon. As a writer, he’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories (including one in Compostella [Tesseracts 20], and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Rhea Rose’s Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
