Netflix’s Outside The Wire – A Shallow Sci-Fi War Story (Early Review)

Netflix recently revealed that in 2021, they expect to release at least one film per week leaving its subscribers with a ton of new content to enjoy in their home-dependent lives for the foreseeable future. Outside the Wire proves to be an interesting Netflix action movie that helps kick off the year with a bang.

Outside the Wire takes place in the near future where humanity is dealing with civil war in the Ukraine where the US has deployed peacekeepers and android marines known as Gumps. As the situation becomes more dire, Lieutenant Harp (Idris) decides to ignore orders and send down a strike in order that leads to a court martial and the set-up for the story as this drone pilot is faces first-hand experience on the ground to better understand the real world consequences of war. There, he meets his superior Captain Leo (Mackie) who is tasked with delivering vaccines to the nearby communities and hopefully find the location of the terrorist leader Victor Koval (Asbaek). However, what Harp soon learns is that his new commander is a top-secret android soldier that can hopefully change the course of the current war.

What transpires is a mixed bag of Netflix staples and surprising additions. On paper, the film may seem like a giant hodgepodge of elements that when forced together wouldn’t feel organic, but somehow it ends up being more than a typical Netflix film. While it does share similar elements to Netflix’s typical formula of background fodder with a recognizable star or two and tons of action sequences, it actually proves to be more than just background noise. The world essentially feels grounded in reality making much of its plot realistic enough. The CGI is much better than standard Netflix sci-fi fare, but the themes at its core are what make it so intriguing.

Setting up a futuristic war film that tackles the issues of soldiers fighting through technological means is smart because it is an under-explored theme in films. More and more drones are sent in to avoid human casualties, but the fallout of those actions is never seen by the pilots. Outside the Wire dives into that by forcing one of those pilots into the middle of the war they’ve been a part of. While this theme is only marginally explored, the film fails to explore another interesting theme on the surface of its story.

With Leo being an unexplained android soldier, it gives the writers an opportunity to explore two aspects of this character. The first being the humanity he was programmed with, but how that has evolved through his interactions and showing the consciousness of artificial intelligence. The second being his origins, the reason for his use and the exploration of this technology for war going forward. Obviously that is something that can be inferred by the audience, but showing more of the scientific reasoning behind it would have been a nice addition.

Beyond this thematic problem, the biggest issue with Outside the Wire is the lack of development and purpose. Harp was made to appear as a more relatable character but it does nothing for his character development. In fact, the story makes it difficult for any of these characters to show genuine growth as the feel were merely one-dimensional characters thrown into a crisis. This of course pairs with the film’s lack of purpose. As it continues on, more elements are added without any resolution thus causing the plot to become increasingly convoluted with no payoff.

It is an unfortunate, but a common issue in many Netflix films where their high concepts gets too bogged down by their own world-building and in the end feels like they would be better served as a limited series.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Dylan Phillips