There are two sides to leading man Chris Pine. There’s the big-budget blockbuster ala Wonder Woman and Star Trek, and then there are the smaller action movies that seemingly want to kickstart a franchise, but they never register any follow-ups. The Contractor follows the likes of Jack Ryan – Shadow Recruit and Unstoppable, where there looks to be potential for more, and Pine is positioned for that.
This time, Pine is back as the knight in shining armour, as elite soldier James Harper who has conveniently been involuntarily discharged from the Army. Convenient because despite being a long-serving veteran, Harper doesn’t have a pension and healthcare, so we know what that means – debt and bills to pay. Lots of it.
As the movie title suggests, he becomes a contractor, of course, to take on a mission or two, and earn some big bucks. And it’s relatively simple because killing is in his blood anyway, so what difference does it make if he’s doing it for the government or some sketchy organisation? Except that when his first assignment goes awry, he finds himself hunted and on the run, caught in a dangerous conspiracy, and fighting to stay alive long enough to get home and uncover the true motives of those who betrayed him.
The Contractor is as formulaic as it can get, and if you’ve seen Chris Hemsworth in Netflix’s Extraction, you know what to expect. There are the brothers in arms who wouldn’t think twice to trade you in for a quick buck, discussions around Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how that leads to broken families and suicides as well as the obligatory overseas secret missions that don’t explain the who, what and why followed by the uncovering of said mission’s intention which then leads to our main hero with an arrow on his back.
As if that’s not enough, Harper has plenty of daddy issues to unpack, having come from a military family background. He grew up with a rather abusive and emotionally stunted father whose form of affections include giving a child a tattoo or putting him through some pretty messed up shit that no kid should experience. Of course, our leading man doesn’t want to be that and simply wants to be the perfect dad for his child 
Getting Real, Without the Drama Buff
The film The Contractor takes the everyday struggles that folks actually face and drags them onto the big screen in a way that feels fresh and not over‑the‑top. No army wives are shown dramatically sobbing at a funeral – instead, we see them in the driver’s seat, deciding whether they can even go on again. The dread that their ex‑soldier husbands might one day fall apart is never put into words, but it’s loud enough to be read in their eyes and body language. The director really shines at raising awareness, but throws in nothing that’s groundbreaking. That’s fine because most of us land in a theater looking for heart‑pounding action, not a lecture.
Pine’s Reel‑World Skills
From Soldier to Killer
As a former vet turned contract assassin, Pine’s tactics are no joke. He thinks like a tactical planner – each move focused on the one goal: staying alive. Check out his motorcycle chase across Berlin’s winding streets or the underground tunnel skirmishes – those action scenes are some of the most impressive in the film, especially given how heavy the gunplay is.
Chaos Meets Charm
- We’ve seen Pine soaring through the skies on a plane or a spaceship in other movies, but here he’s a gritty, complex character.
- His good looks still soften the brutal edges of his jobs – the same handsome charm that earns him friends even on the dark side.
So, does Pine’s transition from battlefield veteran to ruthless hit‑man hit the mark? All signs say yes. The movie delivers action and a slice of reality, all wrapped up in a charismatic lead who proves you can be lethal without losing your humanity.
Pine carries the movie well, although he’s no A-Team member or Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who has been in plenty of similar ex-military genre films (Skyscraper, Walking Tall). There’s no denying that Pine is a talented actor who can bring emotions to the surface and be a believable ex-soldier (not so much a killer), but his blatant outshining of co-stars Ben Foster, Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, Florian Munteanu and Kiefer Sutherland is really… awkward.
There’s not much chemistry between Pine’s James and those around him, with the exception of Foster who he starred with in Hell or High Water together. We don’t even know who to feel bad for at this point. The likes of Munteanu (Shang-Chi, Creed II) either seemingly fade into the background, or could it be that it’s Pine who seems overqualified to be in this movie.
Directed by Swede Tarik Saleh, who cut his teeth on TV’s Westworld and Ray Donavan, this one hour and 43 minutes movie is well-paced but offers nothing more in terms of style and what you see is what you get. Whilst it helps in making the movie look and feels grounded, we can’t help but wish he had spiced things up a little. There were some choppy bits where scenes ended abruptly and didn’t flow into each other naturally, but we’re chucking that to the desire to tell the story quickly and not waste too much time.
The Contractor in itself is a movie that one can’t hate. It meets all the requirements of a standard ex-military turned contractor movie – debts, PTSD, a mission gone wrong, motorcycle car scenes, international drama but perhaps that’s the movie’s biggest downfall. Sticking to the formula works but for how long can viewers keep seeing the same thing over and over again? The Contractor is grounded yes, but the lack of high-pumping action may induce a couple of snoozes in some viewers too.
With the only exception of Pine, the cast and characters were simply forgettable and unlikeable. The movie hints that this may not be the end of James, and that more may be in store should the movie do well. Seeing how this movie is now showing alongside plenty of other action films like Batman, Unchartedand Liam Neeson’s Backlight, we’re not counting on it though.
GEEK REVIEW SCORE
Summary
It’s easy to kill, but it’s much harder to survive. The Contractor has everything you need to make a good ex-veteran turned contract killer action-thriller flick, but it’s going to take more than Chris Pine to make this movie into a franchise down the line.
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This article was first published in Geek Culture.
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