There hasn't really been many movies in the last 20 or so years that have been very critical of war and killing and such. It's all pretty much hoorah go guns kill yeah yeah. So I would think it's rather understandable that I have a bit of hesitancy when I was about to click on the movie "SAS: Rise of the Black Swan". I didn't really wanna watch another pro-special forces military movie.
But it did have Ruby Rose, who has become a favorite actress of mine since I saw her role in Dark Matter.
And here she's playing the "villain".
It's also apparently called "SAS: Red Notice" outside of Netflix.
So, with Ruby Rose in a starring role, after initially resisting clicking to watch it, I eventually did.
I honestly don't really know if that was a good decision. I wouldn't call it a "good" movie, but it was interesting, and disturbing. Very disturbing.
Warning: There's pretty much more and more spoilers all the way down!
"SAS: Red Notice" follows the separate roles of two different hired guns, a mercenary that seems to act like a terrorist for hire, and another portrayed as more of a hero, working for some sort of British special forces unit.
It starts out with Ruby Rose, on a job in the mountains, dealing with a bit of trouble getting a pipeline pushed through. A few locals seem to be standing in the way. Unfortunately for them, their weapons aren't enough for training and cruelty. It's an absolute horror show, and a kid catches it on video with her phone, burning Ruby Rose's identity.
Enter rich boy, Thomas something something the Third, who comes home to the family manor to fetch a wedding ring that belonged to his aunt. Well, at least she had it after it was cut off the finger of someone during the "Indian mutany". Insert horror face here.
The Brits burn the mercenaries, Tom tries to take his girlfriend to France to propose, and Tom is hired to take out the mercenaries. One hand washing the other.
They both work for the same people, but one takes on the role of the hero, the other the villain.
And serendipity, Tom takes an early train to Paris to propose, that is boarded and hijacked by the "terrorist".
Now Tom has to play the hero. It's clear his soon to be fiance sees the darkness in him though.
If one were to not pay too close of attention, they might easily think Tom was the good guy. But he's still a hired gun. Whether or not he knows who directs his line of fire.
So his soon to be fiance is in the middle of the shit he's in every time the phone rings, and she, being a doctor, stays there and risks her life to save others. She could easily fuck right off, with her boyfriend right there to save her. But she doesn't.
So, there she stands, with evil trained to kill staring her in the face, and her hands covered in the blood of a woman she tried to save that she was talking to only a moment prior.
And she thinks she gets it. She thinks she understands.
But does she? Does she get that this is her boyfriend she's looking at, behind the faces of others, or does she think this is who he fights? Both things are true. He is the monster, and the soldier, and the hero, and the killer.
As the movie unfolds, so does the corruption. It wasn't really ever hidden though. There are just layers to it.
The pipeline company is bed with the British government which is in linked to both the hired terrorists, and the ones acting as a sort of special forces, directly for the British government. But it's just two sides of the same coin, since they're linked at multiple levels, unofficially.
I don't think Tom knows though. So to him, he perhaps thinks he is the hero. Perhaps he doesn't know the monster within him. Perhaps he's in delusion. Perhaps he's all too well aware. His family butler seemed to perhaps know. But even if he does know, perhaps he still thinks himself different, because he's working on the side of the heroes, whether or not he knows they're being directed by the same people.
Then daddy gets permission to kill. His soon to be fiance says she understands, and tells him to put the monster down.
And then the monster exposes the monster in others, just as Tom lets his out.
SAS: Red Notice is certainly an interesting movie. As far as action movies go, it's pretty good. It's disturbing. It's really got this underpinning of psychopathy and the duality and corruption of mercenaries and government and big oil. In all those regards it's pretty good. But it honestly falls just a little bit short. It's more of an action movie than anything profound. But if you want to watch an action movie with a bit more behind it, it's not a bad choice.
If I haven't ruined it too much for you, you should go watch it.