Last Updated on August 23, 2024 by
The Union is a 2024 movie directed by Julian Farino and written by Joe Barton and David Guggenheim. The cast also features Mike Colter, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica De Gouw, Alice Lee, and Jackie Earle Haley, with a 2h 13M runtime, and was released on August 16, 2024.
A spy movie must have either impressive stunts or an engaging script, that does not trail behind the audience’s intelligence, or both. The Union starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry is a Netflix film and it has none of this. The Union launched another secret intelligence agency that fight the invisible enemy that threatened the Western world. However, what is originally presented as a twist differentiating this show from other espionage franchises is that all the characters of the titular Union are working-class recruits. The premise of this argument is that lower-class individuals can simply melt away in a crowd because they’re already trained to blend into the background. It means the Union wants the working man to learn how to shoot, do parkour, and forge ID rather than train a corporate employee to serve meals, for example properly.
What is Union All About?
The Union features Wahlberg in the role of Mike McKenna – a sensitive construction worker who spends his life hanging on scaffolding and having illegitimate relations with his English teacher – unseemly but bearable. One night, he meets his ex-girlfriend and present super-spy, Roxanne Hall played by Halle Berry, who tells him that she and her team “The Union” which includes J. K. Simmons, Alice Lee, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Jackie Earle Haley need Mike to assist them prevent that information falling into the wrong, wrong hands. It is not a covert agency staffed by Harvard alumni and well-to-do gents equipped in tuxedos but rather a secret society made up of the common man; blue-collar as the Union itself. These are the unsung heroes of the world, the real superheroes of modern society that do heroic feats without anyone ever realizing it, the ‘guys who keep the world running’. From this point, the mission becomes even more complex and risky, and Mike has to choose either to go back to his ordinary life or to become an undercover operative like Roxanne.
However, Julian Farino’s The Union has a different concept. It’s about a secret organization, “The Union,” which, unlike the FBI and CIA in the U. S. that governs the country, controls the secret world and in actuality gets all the work done. They don’t hire graduates from Harvard; they hire janitors — ‘Street-wise over college-wise. ’ In a period where those leading organizations do not understand how to manage organizations again, it’s a good, new fable that provides people with easily identifiable heroes. And then it flushes all that down the toilet by doing the same old super spy shtick. Reluctant movie hero, Mike McKenna, played by Mark Wahlberg, is a man who’s never ventured out of his hometown and who fixes bridges for the local department of transportation. A high school sweetheart Roxanne Hall returned home suddenly, and Mike thought that they could start again. Instead, she spikes his drink, kidnaps him to London, and turns him into one of The Union agents for this special mission, where they will ride horses, circle the globe, drive fancy cars, and do all these things every other movie spy gets to do, even though the premise of “The Union” is about something entirely different.
When I say, “the same stuff every other movie spy gets up to,” I know that doesn’t just refer to James Bond. I also mean Ethan Hunt in Brian de Palma’s “Mission: Lame,” whose intricate plot of “The Union” can be seen reused with sheer audacity. The first scene is a blatant hit and run; a mission to take back a stolen list full of secret agents goes wrong, which results in the death of all but a few agents, the lead star of the film included. The second major character of the film gets shot on a bridge and is presumed dead by falling off the bridge. Now, Roxanne has to get a new partner and look for the list only to find out that there’s a mole in the organization, Roxanne and Mike end up being fugitives while the rest of the agencies try to capture them.
“The Union” doesn’t revisit “Mission: As for the curio that was “Mission: Impossible’s” iconic set pieces, it does not recreate them but it does not leave one wanting either. The film is filled to the brim with standard action scenes involving shooting and car chases until the final half an hour which, it should be noted, include some exciting stunts. That was the last – they did first things first. It is only in each case if only there existed more of the best to pass or spread around. Every once in a while, these blue-collar spies get to do what they were hired for, such as taking advantage of minor mules within the global shipment sector. But they have all the same high-tech headquarters and spy-tech gadgets, so for all the trouble the filmmakers are going through, Mike might as well have been recruited by S. H. I. E. L. D. or U. N. C. L. E. or M. A. S. K. since The Union is functionally the same except without the cool acronym. (“The United National Intelligence Operations Network” was right there, damn it. )
The Union 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
The Union is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for sequences of intense violence, suggestive material, and some strong language.
Violence & Gore: Several fight scenes in this movie are typical of spy films. Expect to see your fair share of shootouts, fight scenes, and car chases. Some character deaths are shown but not in a brutal way, and there are no scenes of killing with blood. One of the scenes that can be described as full of action is related to a significant operation that turns out to be a failure and a lot of people die during the scene. But if so the violence is very much symbolic it is far from light and can be shocking for viewers of young age. Another sad episode presented is where the main character is shot on a bridge and the audience/brother deems him as a goner due to falling over the bridge, this part gains even more dramatic effect.
Profanity: The level of strong language used in the movie is moderate because there are few uses of strong language in the movie. The dialogue is very informal and the accent represents the common background of the main characters using regionalisms and crude language at times. There is no abuse or defamatory words and phrases used but there is a lot of bad language used through the dialogue right from the initial scenes and this might not please some parents.
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: Consumption of alcohol in the movie is portrayed in scenarios whereby characters are involved in taking alcoholic products, and some of these show the characters engaged in social drinking while others show them drinking at any time of the day. For example, in one of the scenes of the movie, one character’s drink is spiked and this leads to a change in the storyline. Despite the lack of focus on the necessary scenes that call for the use of drugs and smoking, the drink being spiked dominates the plot, which could be of great concern to some viewers.
Sexual Content: There is sex appeal in the movie and it contains scenes of sexual conduct. The affair is perhaps one of the most anticipated but never seen by the audience as one of the main characters, Mike McKenna is depicted to be involved in an affair with his English teacher. There are some scenes with elements of humor and potential sexual attraction involving the main character with his ex-girlfriend, Roxanne Hall. Thus, one may NOT attribute sexual themes as being examined very perpendicularly by the movie.
