Netflix has released its own super soldier movie, Outside the Wire, which will inevitably draw comparisons to the Marvel Cinematic Universe Captain America movies and the upcoming Disney+ series The Falcon and Winter Soldier - both because of Anthony Mackie’s starring role in each, and the shared narrative of cyborg warriors. So how does Netflix’s version of the super soldier story differ from the MCU’s?
For starters, Outside the Wire is a far less family-friendly film than any of the Marvel movies, as should be apparent from its R rating. Directed by Mikael Håfström, the Netflix film is much more a gritty war story than a heroic adventure, filled with f-bombs and people getting shot in the head. Set in 2036, the narrative centers on Harp (Damson Idris), a US drone pilot who is reassigned from his cushy bunker in America to a demilitarized zone in Ukraine, where resistance fighters and Russian-backed warlords are vying for control. There he meets his new commanding officer, Leo (Anthony Mackie), who turns out to be a secret AI/cyborg prototype masquerading as a human officer. Together they embark on a mission to stop a dangerous warlord from acquiring nukes and threatening the US with Armageddon, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.
Anthony Mackie’s performance will inherently draw comparisons to his MCU role as Falcon, but the Leo character actually has far more in common with the Winter Soldier, plus a little bit of Ultron thrown in for good measure. Leo’s arc is comparable in some ways to Captain America and Falcon’s in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, posing the question: how do you justify being the strongest weapon in an army that seems to be corrupt? The difference is that in Winter Soldier, that corrupt force is Hydra/literal Nazis, and in Outside the Wire it’s the United States military – no secret factions or rogue spies to speak of.
Outside the Wire attempts to offer complex criticism of the American war machine and the global military industrial complex in ways the MCU would never attempt, but unfortunately Netflix’s film falls short of anything truly groundbreaking. Its occasional attempts at critique are overshadowed by the bombastic action and pretty blunt condemnation of any faction who opposes the US. Outside the Wire certainly tries to tell a more complex super soldier story than the MCU by dealing with the ramifications of being a weapon built for war, but it sadly falls short of realizing that potential.
Overall though, the two are not that comparable. While Outside the Wire has certainly traded on Anthony Mackie’s other superhero role to build anticipation, the film is more akin to The Terminator or Robocop than anything Marvel Studios has produced. Mackie’s performance is certainly the standout though, and fans of his performance as Falcon may be interested in seeing him play a more cold and conniving version of that character. It’s a decently made sci-fi action movie, but Outside the Wire falls short of the MCU in both heart and spectacle.
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