This starts off with Ovi Mahajan (played by Rudhrasksh Jaiswal), the son of a jailed Indian drug lord sneaking out to have fun at a local club, only to be kidnapped on his way home by his dad's rival. He's not willing to pay the ransom but instead asks Saju (played by Randeep Hooda), his henchman to retrieve Ovi.
Meanwhile, Tyler Rake (played by Chris Helmsworth) a mercenary was hired by Ovi's dad to rescue him. Tyler was able to rescue Ovi and kill most of his kidnappers and their payment did not materialize. Instead Saju killed Tyler's extraction team hoping to retrieve Ovi for himself and that they will not have to pay Tyler and his group.
After learning of Ovi's rescue, the rival drug lord immediately ordered a lockdown of the city. Tyler's partner Nik Khan (played by Golshfiteh Farahani) arranges for a helicopter exfil ordering him to leave Ovi since they were not paid. Tyler would not abandon Ovi so an action packed journey begins with him and Ovi evading his kidnappers and the corrupt policemen who also was chasing them.
Tyler knows that for Ovi to survive, he needs help from Saju and they joined together for this purpose. A helicopter was arranged by Nik to extract all three of them should they cross a bridge however Saju fell from a sniper's bullet. Tyler instructs Ovi to go to the other side of the bridge and meet with Nik and the helicopter while he covers for him. As Tyler followed Ovi, he was shot and hit in the neck by a teenage gangster. He watches Ovi escaped with Nik as the team escapes to Mumbai then Tyler falls into the river. Months later, Nik kills off the rival drug lord and on the last scene, Ovi surfaces from the swimming pool, he finds a man watching him.
Now our take on this film. Its jampacked with well executed action scenes. That's what you get when you have a stunt coordinator trying for the first time to be behind the camera as its director. What we get are fluid and believable stunt work that's the best we have seen since Jason Bourne. Its so good that this movie can be used as a reference for stunt work in future movies to come.
Chris Helmworth is a charming on screen and his charisma shows off pretty much in all the scenes here since this is story about him and the rescued Indian boy. He does most of the stunts here so we love him for this. We have seen him as a soldier in 12 Strong so we know he can dish out the role of a merc in this movie. All the rest of the actors were Indian (except for David Harbour) and they held their ground in the acting department. Don't expect much of acting in the film as this is mostly a slam bang action packed movie so the other characters can surely coast along its story lines.
With mostly Indians in the movie, we were expecting some dancing in the end, but since this wasn't a Bollywood film, gladly there were none of it. We then remembered, this was produced by the Russo brothers and company, written by Joe Russo, Directed by Sam Hargrave. Mostly made up of the Avengers production team so dancing is not a requirement.
Pacing wise, we like how it was executed, mostly it was fast paced with all the running and shooting, then you hit a brick wall when both Helmsworth and Ovi took refuge in Gaspar's home (played by David Harbour). After that wall, it was all run and gun again.
We can't say much about the plot since it was sooooo thin. A merc with a past rescues a boy whom he can relate with his childhood trauma and promises to bring him to safety eventhough its almost impossible to do so (and we pause and breathe) encounters hardships and betrayals along the way.
Character development for Chris' character was adequate, with some flashbacks from his past, we can already deduce that he had those trauma, enough to relate himself with Ovi. As far as Ovi is concerned, he was just kidnapped and running along side Chris. Wish they should have made more flashbacks or character development for him, maybe a reason why he wanted to stay alive, or maybe he wanted to die or maybe just maybe a reason why his character endears himself to his rescuer. Maybe that's a cliffhanger of sorts for the sequel.
We haven't seen Tyler die, he just fell off the bridge, and he might be the guy Ovi saw when he surfaced from the pool, who knows right?
So if you bored out of your wits, and wanted to be entertained with less brainy and more of visual artistry, then this movie is for you. The stunts alone and the close quarter battles are enough to keep your adrenaline pumping if you are into this genre. Also the smile from Chris is also enough for you to watch movie in Netflix. Thanks to Joe Russo also for making the lines simple and believable owing us to be entertained by it and not be bored during non-action scenes.
