THE OLD GUARD 2

Name: THE OLD GUARD 2
Item: THE OLD GUARD 2
Author: Review

"A Battle for the Ages"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE OLD GUARD 2 is an action-adventure film from Netflix. This much-anticipated sequel follows a rogue group of self-healing, immortal soldiers and their ongoing mission to fight for the good of humanity. The story picks up where the first movie left off with Andy, Nile, Nicky, Joe, and Copley tracking an unknown buyer of weapons. Nile believes she has a connection with the unknown woman but is unsure how. Booker, the exiled immortal, is found by Quyhn, a very old friend of Andy’s who was imprisoned under the sea for 500 years. Quyhn is looking for Andy, but her motives are unclear. But what is clear: this woman has some connection, but what is she after and why?

THE OLD GUARD 2 has a strong moral worldview with a positive Christian character. The protagonist characters are often moral in their intentions, but those often play out through violent and bloody means. Entertaining, exciting action scenes include hand to hand combat, sword and ax fighting, and dangerous stunts throughout. The action scenes are well choreographed. Extreme caution advised.

Content:

(BB, CC, Ho, L, VVV, S, A, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Like the first OLD GUARD movie, this sequel has a strong moral worldview with an emphasis on helping others who can’t help themselves, strong sense of loyalty to the group and teamwork, never leaving a soldier behind, with some Christian elements with one Christian character, Nile, who meets another character in a church where they mention how she witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ – remembering the “stench of hate in the air.” This character questions Nile about how a “Christian girl” can remain fighting with Andy and if she even had a choice to follow her: a scene reminiscent of the serpent speaking to Eve in the Bible. This theme of hatred against the evil found in the mortal humanity is a driving force of the plot and the ambiguity of which side is morally correct. Overall, the main characters have a deep sense of loyalty, love and good moral sense that their immortal mission is to do good for humanity. Another theme explored is that redemption is possible, even though the cost may be great and forgiveness is possible even though it may be difficult. There is a homosexual relationship depicted, but limited physical affection is shown;

Foul Language:

6 obscenities (2 “f” words, 2 “sh” words, and 2 “bs” words), noticeably less foul language than the first movie;

Violence:

Very strong violence with some blood including shooting, hand-to-hand combat, sword/ax fighting, wounds shown, many injuries shown, characters launching upward onto taller levels of a nuclear reactor building, characters jumping through windows, stabbings, a character hanging out of a moving car during a speedy chase scene. Action scenes often show reckless, dangerous, and often bloody stunts;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

Some alcohol use and discussion of hangovers while playing a game;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drug use depicted; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

MM: Kidnapping, revenge, envy, deceit, kidnapping, stealing, revenge, envy, one scene where the characters are drinking and betting on a dice game where Andy is being called out on a bluff, but more a joke that even after her unnaturally long life she does have a “tell” and isn’t necessarily infallible.

More Detail:

Netflix’s much-anticipated sequel, THE OLD GUARD 2 follows a rogue group of self-healing, immortal soldiers. Their mission to fight for the good of humanity continues in this exciting action adventure film. THE OLD GUARD 2 has a strong moral overview with a positive Christian character, but Movieguide® advises extreme caution due to intense, bloody action violence.

THE OLD GUARD 2 begins six months from the previous movie, showing that the group (Andy, Nicky, Joe, Nile and Copley) is still going strong despite Andy losing her immortality for unexplained reasons. Currently, they are working a job to keep weapons from getting into the wrong hands, and Nile, the youngest, holds her own well in the intense fighting. Andy may not have immortality any longer, but she is certainly still a lethal fighter. The group wins this battle, but it was only part of a bigger war. Copley shares a CCTV image that the real buyer is elusive, and they are unable to identify her. Nile mentions that she has been having dreams about the woman in the photo and that she was with a man in a library. Andy doesn’t know the woman, but she knows the man. The group splits up for some leisure time. Andy takes Copley to South Korea while the rest remain in France.

Meanwhile, Booker struggles in his exile from the group. Drunkenly, he stumbles back to his apartment to find Quyhn, who has been freed from her sunken iron casket. Quyhn is looking for Andy, her old friend, although her intentions are unclear. She kidnaps and interrogates Booker for more information to find Andy.

Back to France, Nicky and Nile catch Joe bringing fruit to Booker’s residence and demand to know why he was talking to him behind the groups back. They discover blood and signs of struggle in Booker’s place.

Andy goes to a house in South Korea, and finds a man names Tuah, who is 2300 years old and the keeper of a library about the immortals and everything they’ve done throughout the ages. Viewers learn that the woman Nile was dreaming about, who currently calls herself Discord, is the first immortal and has recently stolen some books from Tuah. Discord was present 500 years ago when Andy and Quyhn were captured and when Quyhn imprisoned in the iron casket, leaving Discord deeply disturbed. Tuah was the one to save Andy, but she was unaware of Discord. Tuah retreated to the library, Andy fought to help humanity, and Discord amassed wealth and power to avoid evil or attack.

When they regroup, Andy and Copley returned with Tuah, and they receive a call from Booker. They pick him up, unharmed. They discover that Discord was behind the kidnapping and that Quyhn wants to meet with Andy. Nile insists on going with her as she cannot die. In an artful scene, viewers follow Andy through a city street, and it transforms through different times, illustrating the depth of Andy’s memories and the vast ages she’s lived through. Quyhn and Andy have a millennia-spanning friendship and had once vowed to stay together to the end. When the iron casket happened, Andy tried to find Quyhn but gave up looking, leaving her to her fate. Andy carried the guilt for being “free,” which subsequently held her in her own prison of guilt. Unable to talk their way out of their pain, they begin to physically fight in an alley. Nile tries to break it up, finding Discord there as well. Andy figures out that Quyhn was rescued by Discord and is working with her. While they don’t know what Discord is up to, she continues to threaten them and she is clearly against them.

Nile finds Discord in a church staring at a crucifix, where Discord mentions that she witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and abhorred the evil present in the crowd that day. She believes that the evil comes from humanity and that all immortal interference must stop helping them. She questions Nile’s involvement, asking how a Christian girl can “stomach” what Andy’s group does. Being the first immortal, she somehow knows that Nile is the last immortal that will be born and proves it by asking about a birthmark on her arm and producing the same mark on her own arm. But what does this mean for both the immortals and humanity? This film ends without a fully resolved plot and is well set for another sequel, leaving the audience wanting more.

Overall, this sequel holds true to its original with a similar feel but is slightly more rushed and has a somewhat looser plot line. More backstory and explanation are given to the characters’ immortality, and their history is filled in a bit more. The fight scenes are well choreographed, and the action is fun and engaging to watch. The locations jump around the world more, so sometimes it is hard to follow where the characters are, but that isn’t as essential to understanding the story. The main characters are morally conscious and much of what they do is for the love of and loyalty to each other, while the antagonists are often self-centered on their own pain shaping their actions. References to Christianity and Jesus are often positive in this film. Extreme caution should be advised due to intense, bloody action violence.

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Quality:

- Content: +1

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