Debuting on Netflix, this confused and confusing release benefits from its direct-to-streaming, allowing viewers the luxury of pausing the character's action to try and get a better grip on everyone's true motive. Plot twists can make for a fun time at the movies, but there is nothing here except for ambiguous motivations.
The film opens with a botched mission, where drone pilot Thomas Harp, played by Damson Idris, breaks chain of command by sending in an air strike, resulting in the death of two soldiers. Given a second chance, he ends up, boots on the ground, in action, under the supervision of Leo, played by Anthony Mackie, who happens to be an android. Leo handpicked Harp for his assignment for his ability to "go outside the wire," hence the title. This inherently creates distrust between the protagonists, but also with us, at home and on our couch. Can we trust a synthetic human more or less than a rogue lieutenant? It's a pretty decent setup, but it ultimately settles for the obvious choice without offering any real insight as to why.
Anyway, their job is to deliver vaccines, and then stop Russian terrorist Victor Koval. Characters speak his name, the same photo of him is blasted across the TVs in the refugee camp, and then they just say his name again, and again, and again. It's so tiring!
But he's the nasty guy, in any event. He's after nukes, like all antagonists in cinema, something the Americans want to avoid. There's also the resistance, led by Sofiya (Emily Beecham), who are also working to stop him, and you might be asking yourself: "why don't the two work together and stop their common enemy?" It's a good question, one the film does indeed answer, but it's an unsatisfying answer. There is potential here for some interesting conflict, but the end product ends up bogged down in this nebulous international politics: nothing is any more complicated than "We good, Russia bad." What is this, "Rocky IV?"
No, it's not. At least that film had Ivan Drago, a masterful villain who you loved to hate. The issue here is how little development is made with him, since by the time he does make an appearance in the last thirty minutes or so, he's just some generic guy, with generic body guards and some generic computers (for those nukes, naturally). His car is at least name brand (it's a Cadillac Escalade, in some not-so-subtle product placement), but whatever. He doesn't matter. He poses no threat to the narrative, and therefor, there is no reason for us to care about him (or what happens to him).
That's not the only crippling issue here: Leo is perhaps the most egregious of all. He's not human, that's a given, but what exactly makes him so special? He's faster, smarter, and more clever than us in the flesh, but the specifics are barely established. We see him taking bullets several times, but that's nothing a quick patch won't fix. Arms dealer, protected by three or four men? No problem, he'll just throw some punches while hardly breaking a sweat. He's not invincible, but since most things in the story are no more dangerous than a bullet or a fist, our heroes are never really in any danger, robbing the narrative of any true suspense.
If you can look past its blind intentions, there are some decent qualities: the action is relatively well staged, cleanly shot and edited so that you always knows who's shooting who. The performances are adequate across the board, and you can just tell that the stars and director Mikael Håfström found something special in the script. Unfortunately, screenwriters Rowan Athale and Rob Yescombe don't know what that is.
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