Mile 22 was one of my most anticipated movies of the year; it followed CIA operative James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) who leads a small but lethal paramilitary team on an urgent and dangerous mission. They must transport a foreign intelligence asset (Iko Uwais) from an American embassy in Southeast Asia to an airfield for extraction — a distance of 22 miles. Silva and the soldiers soon find themselves in a race against time as the city’s military, police and street gangs close in to reclaim the asset.
It had an amazing cast that included Mark Wahlberg, Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, Rhonda Rousey and Lauren Cohan but the movie ended up being just OK; it still had enough moments to be worth picking up on Blu-ray when it hits this week though.
The main appeal (of course) was Iko Uwais and his ass-kicking skills but the rest of the cast were also thoroughly entertaining… if a little underwritten.
I go into major spoilers here so if you haven’t seen the movie please go away. Are they gone? Alrighty then.
So during the end sequence (which I’m lifting from Wikipedia) while on the airplane, Bishop (John Malkovich) notices Noor’s (Uwais) heart rate is accelerating and it is revealed that Noor isn’t a double agent, but a triple agent working for the Russian government, and the boy Silva killed was the son of a high-ranking female Russian general. The official hired Noor to give Alice the wrong information so they would trust him, and just as Alice is realizing this, Overwatch is ambushed, and the entire team is shot. Bishop barely escapes, and rests outside while Alice’s fate is left unknown. Silva realizes this too late and tells his experience during a post-mission debriefing. Back at home, Silva puts up Noor’s picture, vowing revenge… and then it ends.
To me a sequel is absolutely required as I want to know what happened with Alice; is she dead? Did Noor keep her alive? We just don’t know…
We never really care about Wahlberg’s character James Silva as he came across as a totally unsympathetic asshole… and yet by the time the end credits role I wanted to see him have his revenge.
Mile 22 wasn’t exactly a box office smash making $64,708,758 on a budget of $50 million so it’s unlikely we will get a follow-up. If we did get one I would like the fight scenes to be more coherent so we can actually see what’s going on. I mean, they aren’t awful but when you compare it to The Night Comes for Us the difference is noticeable. In fact how about we get Timo Tjahjanto to direct Mile 23 and set it in Noor’s homeland with Silva coming after him?
Do you think Mile 22 deserves a sequel or should it be left as is?
