Outside the Wire is a new military sci-fi film from Netflix. The movie stars Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Falcon from the Marvel movies and upcoming show), and launches on January 15, 2021. That might be why they released this new trailer for it.

AKA: Terminator 2: The Falcon Chronicles

According to this trailer, Outside the Wire is a near-future military science fiction action film. A drone pilot (Damson Idris) must team up with a T-1000 Terminator (Anthony Mackie) to…shoot and blow some stuff up? Yeah, that’s pretty much the plot of all action films, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, in every action movie ever.
Michael Bay has many children.

Outside the Wire: Hopefully More Outside the Box?

Outside the Wire screenshot.
OUTSIDE THE WIRE, ​Damson Idris as Harp, Anthony Mackie ​as ​Leo, in OUTSIDE THE WIRE. Cr. ​Jonathan Prime​/NETFLIX ​© ​2020

While I don’t necessarily mind a film with plentiful explosions and shooting, a good film should be more than that. I really hope Outside the Wire focuses more on the sci-fi elements of its plot than on the loud stuff. Although in fairness, there are hints that that’s what’s happening.

Outside the Wire's android in T-1000 mode.
Liquid metal body? Check. Terminator confirmed.

The idea of an android with a liquid metal body isn’t unique to Outside the Wire. There’s a reason why I keep referring to Terminator here. Terminator 2: Judgement Day prominently featured the T-1000 as a shapeshifting android designed for assassination and infiltration. Said T-1000 also used a liquid metal body to alter its outer form to disguise itself as anyone, and to resist an incredible amount of damage.

Mr. T-1000 himself after getting shot many times.
Shooting mercury doesn’t work.

Outside the Wire would do well to remember the example of the T-1000 with regards to damage to Anthony Mackie’s android character. Also though, the film also seems to be exploring the social consequences of having a sapient android serve in the military, which really excites me. I’m a big fan of anything that explores the consequences of sapient AI. We see in the trailer that several soldiers already regard the android with suspicion, disdain, and even something very much like racism. It’ll be interesting to see how the film explores that.

2 androids in Outside the Wire.
Although, why make one android sapient and the other not?

Conclusion

The Netflix original Outside the Wire just got a brand new trailer. So far, we see Anthony Mackie shooting up a lot of stuff, and blowing up a lot of stuff too. We also see some possible social commentary using sci-fi, which is much better than just things going boom. We’ll just have to see just how outside the box the film is on January 15, 2021.

Source: YouTube