Movie Review: 'Outside the Wire' Has Netflix Year of Originals Off to a Slow Start

Outside the Wire stars Damson Idris as Lt Thomas ‘Harp’ Harper, a headstrong drone pilot. When a mission appears to be going sideways and a missile laden vehicle appears ready to wipe out an entire platoon, Harp violates orders and uses his drone weapons to eliminate the threat. However, the cost is the lives of two Marines that the platoon was attempting to save before the drone strike came. Harp killed two men in order to save 36 and that is all that saves him from a court martial for violating orders.

As punishment, Harp is sent to the front lines of this future war. Outside the Wire is set in the year 2036 and the front of this war is the shaky border between Ukraine and Russia. There, Harp is assigned work under Sgt. Leo (Anthony Mackie), a loner who plays by his own rules. Yes, the cliché is in full effect except that Leo happens to be an humanoid android who plays by his own rules.

Leo is the American military’s secret weapon. He’s an android with superhuman abilities but also vulnerabilities, he can feel pain and has a good grasp on human emotions, at least enough to offer a semblance of sympathy, empathy and compassion. Leo’s, and by extension, Harp’s, mission is to take medicine Outside the Wire, the perimeter of safety secured by the American military, and get it to the rebels that the Americans have a loose affiliation with. Both the Americans and the Rebels oppose the dictatorship of a dangerous warlord named Viktor Koval (Pilou Asbaek).

It’s feared that Koval may have designs on the codes for several loose nuclear weapons inside a decommissioned former Russian outpost. The missiles have lied dormant since the Cold War but are still able to be used if you have the codes. Thus, it is revealed that while medicine is the cover story, Leo’s real mission is to obtain the codes and locate Koval so that the military can take him out. But why did Leo need someone like Harp who has no combat experience?

Good question me, and the answer is who the heck knows? The convoluted plotting of Outside Wire is one of many silly and off-putting elements of this muddy, ugly, little action movie. Directed by Mikael Hafstrom, a hit and miss director at best, Outside the Wire is unpleasant in its drab greens and browns and mud. I understand that that is the aesthetic of the version of Ukraine Outside the Wire wishes to portray but I wish directors would stop mistaking ugly for gritty.

Damson Idris is a nice enough new face to carry the hero mantle but he’s no match for Anthony Mackie. The two don’t have much chemistry and the tortuous manner in which Hafstrom incorporates Harp and Leo doesn’t do either actor any favors. The drone strike is supposed to demonstrate that Harp can think for himself and Leo appears to believe that this will help in a tight situation, that Harp would be willing to let people die to save many other people.

This explains why Leo requests to have Harp but it doesn’t explain why Leo’s superiors agree to this. Harp disobeyed a direct order and got two marines killed, he goes entirely unpunished and Leo doesn’t have to explain why he feels Harp is suited for his secret mission? That’s just one of several irksome shorthand plot holes that weave into the Swiss cheese plotting of Outside the Wire.

Is there something positive I can say about Outside the Wire? Thanks Netflix for giving me something to do on weekends, I guess. The company has announced that they will release a new movie every weekend in 2021 and Outside the Wire is among the first of those new movies to debut. Here’s hoping they improve dramatically over the year or this could be a very long and boring year of Netflix original movies.

Outside the Wire is available to stream now on Netflix.