The Contractor

What happens to our fine young actors as they reach middle age? They get to play more characters who spend whole movies looking anxious and ...

His James, graying around the temples, undone with worry over his family, carries extra layers of gravity that we didn’t see in Steve Trevor in the Wonder Woman films, or Captain Kirk in the J. J. Abrams Star Trek franchise. His old friend and former superior, Mike (Ben Foster, reuniting with his co-star from 2016’s superb Hell or High Water), has a much nicer house than Jack does, as well as the means to take good care of a son with special needs. But The Contractor follows a long, proud tradition of films that are critical of the military without being anti-soldier. Before long, he’s headed to Berlin, where he’s met by new colleagues including a tough cookie named Katia (played by the marvelous German actor Nina Hoss, in a way-too-small role). And for a brief stretch late in the film, the fine English actor Eddie Marsan shows up as the keeper of a safe house, a cozy repository of books, record albums, and rough wooden furniture, which in future centuries might be viewed as archaeological evidence of a man living on his own in forced solitude, building the best life for himself that he can. It’s an honorable discharge, but the higher-ups have stripped him of his pension and insurance benefits. That’s the realm Chris Pine has entered with The Contractor, directed by Tarik Saleh and written by J. P. Davis. Pine plays Army Ranger James Harper, a medical sergeant dismissed from duty when the painkillers he’s forced to take for an old injury show up in a drug test.

Kiefer Sutherland tells us about working with Chris Pine, what he didn't know about the way the military worked, and more to help promote his new thriller.

I've shot a lot of people, and I've been shot a lot over the course of my career. And so it's going to have the tone of "The French Connection," it's going to have a realistic tone that I think really separated it and allowed you to kind of absorb the information in a very realistic way. What was really interesting is it's one of the things that I've done a lot of, right?

The Contractor detailed a harrowing journey for Chris Pine's James Harper that led to a heartbreaking ending.

His wife, Brianne, was also scared of potential tragedy, and he had to prove to her and their son, Jack, he would always be there. Over the years, a scarred James kept seeing other soldiers take their lives, often wondering if he would end up like his dad. James was hesitant to go back home, but he couldn't abandon his family as his father did to him. After an emotional argument about how they were used as mindless assassins, James confessed he had info proving Salim was making a vaccine, not a virus. Eventually, James staved off assassination attempts and used a fake passport to get home, only to discover Mike alive at home with his family. As a result, James needed quick cash to take care of his family, resulting in him signing up with his former colleague and best friend Mike (Ben Foster) for a private contracting gig.

The Contractor casts Chris Pine as a former soldier who finds himself in the center of a deadly conspiracy in this fast-paced but predictable ...

While The Contractor doesn’t deliver much in the way of surprises, fans of this particular sub-genre of action-thrillers might enjoy the film’s by-the-numbers take on a well-worn narrative. When a mission goes awry and James finds himself on the run and targeted for elimination by the same private firm that hired him, it calls into question everything he believed about his flag, his faith, and his priorities. The lethally adept soldier who finds himself questioning his loyalties when he’s forced to battle a corrupt threat from inside his own government is a role nearly every leading man in Hollywood has played at one point or another.

The action thriller The Contractor stars Chris Pine, and fans of the star, as well as the genre, are most certainly eager to learn if they can watch it on ...

The Contractor is available in theaters and on-demand starting April 1, 2020. The lack of sought-after endeavors is never an ideal situation. On a covert mission overseas, enemies are everywhere, trying to kill him as he attempts to make his way back home.

The stars of "The Contractor" discuss their onscreen history fighting Russian villains.

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"The Contractor" represents the third movie that actors Chris Pine and Ben Foster have made together.

Pine has to work through his guilt over taking a private military gig, and he and Foster definitely have some stuff to work out before the movie's over. Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. "The Contractor" represents the third movie that actors Chris Pine and Ben Foster have made together.

Movie review of THE CONTRACTOR starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, JD Pardo, Kiefer Sutherland, Sander Thomas.

Not every viewer will agree on the implications of certain plot beats, but sadly, we all now know exactly what is likely to happen in a planetary pandemic. THE CONTRACTOR would be easier to parse if it were not tackling the inherently controversial topic of private military contractors. Without getting into spoilery specifics, it’s hard to discuss exactly why THE CONTRACTOR’s efforts at moral ambiguity and redemption don’t play as seems intended. James wants to stay in the military, the only career he’s ever wanted or known. THE CONTRACTOR is a movie where it’s difficult to know what the filmmakers are trying to say. A more cynical reading is that they are trying to add depth and topicality to a standard action subgenre.

Don't call James Harper a mercenary. He's an Army Ranger—or was, 'til they kicked him out for all the painkillers in his blood. Ironic, given that he needed ...