Starring: Charlize Theron, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthias Schoenaerts, KiKi Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Veronica Ngo, Luca Marinelli
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Netflix’s fantasy action directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, based on the comic book of the same name. The Old Guard (2020) centers on a group of mercenaries, who are all centuries-old immortals able to heal from any wound, led by a warrior named Andromache of Scythia or Andy (Charlize Theron). Just as they find a new immortal, Nile (KiKi Layne), has “awakened”, they realize their secret has also been exposed, and must now fight to keep their identity a secret.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'Today, I put this on your wound. Tomorrow, you help someone up when they fall. We're not meant to be alone.' - Celeste (The Old Guard) Share on X 'It's not what time steals, it's what it leaves behind. Things you can't forget.' - Andy (The Old Guard) Share on X
Best Quotes
Andy: [as we see her lying on the ground riddled with bullets] I’ve been here before, over, and over again, and each time the same question. “Is this it? Will this time be the one?” And each time the same answer. And I’m just so tired of it.
Copley: [as they meet with ex-CIA, Copley] You haven’t aged a day, Booker.
Booker: Trust me, I have.
Andy: [as they’re on a rescue mission to help a group of kidnapped children] Everyone still with me?
Booker: Yeah.
Andy: Joe?
Joe: Very pi**ed off.
Andy: [after they realize Copley set them up on a fake rescue mission] I knew this was going to happen. I said it.
Nicky: We did it right, Andy. For the right reasons.
Andy: And what did it get us, Nicky? What? Nothing. We’ve done nothing! The world isn’t getting any better! It’s getting worse!
Andy: They know who we are. They know what we are. We have to find Copley. We have to tie this thing off.
Booker: And then what?
Andy: And then nothing. The world can burn for all I care. I’m done.
Andy: [after Nile survives having her throat slashed and the group share her dream] It’s been over two hundred years. Why now?
Nicky: Everything happens for a reason, boss.
Nicky: [referring to Nile] You can’t tell me you don’t remember what it was like. Whoever she is, she’s confused, and she’s scared, and she’s more alone than she has ever been in her entire life. We all remember what it was like. She needs us.
Merrick: [after Copley shows footage of Andy and her team coming back to life] I need all of them, Copley.
Copley: I think I can get you one.
Merrick: No. No, not one. All.
Copley: These are extraordinary individuals. They are extremely resistant to capture.
Merrick: Well, consult with Keane, make a plan, make it happen. And quickly, before my competitors get wind of this.
Nile: [as he’s about to be taken to be tested on, Andy intercepts and knocks out the soldiers] Who are you?
Andy: Andromache the Scythian.
Andy: [knocks Nile out] But you can call me Andy.
Nile: [after he tries to escape and Andy shoots her in the head] You shot me.
Andy: I did. I need you to get back in the car please.
Nile: This isn’t real. No. None of this is real.
Andy: You haven’t figured this out yet? You can’t die!
Andy: [Nile stabs her in the shoulder] F***! Can you please not do that again?
[she takes out the knife and tosses it aside]
Nile: Who are you?
Andy: I lead a group of immortals. An army, I guess. Soldiers. Fighters like you. Look, you’ve got questions, kid. I get it. You want answers? Get back in the car.
Andy: You’ve got blood in your hair.
Nile: I wonder why?
Andy: [to Nile] Well, sometimes you got to work with people you don’t want to eat with.
Andy: [over phone] I have the new one.
Booker: And?
Andy: Well, she stabbed me, so I think she has potential.
Nile: So why is this happening to me?
Andy: I wish I knew.
Nile: You said you had answers.
Andy: I didn’t say you’d like them.
Andy: Are you praying? God doesn’t exist.
Nile: My God does.
Andy: You know, there was a time when I was worshiped as a god.
Andy: [the plane shakes as it hits turbulence] Was that Him? Don’t worry, I can’t do s**t like that. None of it means anything anyway.
Nile: You said there were others. How many?
Andy: Four.
Nile: You’re an army of four? So that’s why you took me? So I could join your army?
Andy: Yeah.
Nile: No. This is some bulls**t. You must have hypnotized me, or drugged me, or something. And that was a blank that you shot me with.
Andy: And I was the one who cut your throat. Right?
Andy: [to Nile] Listen, kid. You already believe in…
Andy: [points above to indicate God] You should just keep following that illogic. You’re already on board with the supernatural.
Andy: [after fighting with each other she breaks Nile’s arm and leg] You see? You’re already healing faster. Is this real? I got people that love me. People that are going to worry. I’m a Marine. They think I went AWOL.
Andy: You’re not a Marine anymore. They’re going to lock you up.
Nile: [after meeting the rest of the team] So are you good guys or bad guys?
Joe: Depends on the century.
Nicky: We fight for what we think is right.
Nile: How are you all in my dreams?
Joe: We dream of each other. They stop when we meet.
Nile: Why?
Nicky: I believe it’s because we’re meant to find each other. It’s like destiny.
Booker: No, more like misery loves company.
Andy: What he said.
Nicky: It used to take years to track a new one. Booker was the last. 1812.
Nile: No way.
Booker: Yeah, I died fighting with Napoleon.
Nile: So you’re even older than him.
Joe: Mmm. Nicky and I met in the Crusades.
Nile: The Crusades?
Nicky: [points to Joe] The love of my life was of the people I’ve been taught to hate.
Joe: We killed each other.
Nicky: Many times. Yeah.
Nile: You’re the oldest.
Andy: Yeah.
Nile: So how old are you?
Andy: Old.
Nile: How old?
Andy: Too old.
Nile: So we really never die.
Andy: Nothing that lives lives forever.
Nile: But you said that we were immortal.
Andy: I know what I said. And we mostly are, but we can die. And one of us did. He was a warrior, just like us. A long time ago. One day your wounds just don’t heal up anymore, and we don’t know when, or why.
Nile: I dreamed about a woman locked in an iron coffin, under the sea. She kept drowning, and then coming back to life. She was hammering her bloody fists and knees against the iron. She felt like something insane, something furious. But she kept fighting, and she kept drowning.
Nicky: Her name was Quynh.
Joe: She was one of us. The first immortal Andy found. They had been alone so long, when she found her Quynh had given up. Way back, it was her and Andy. Before me and Nicky, it was just the two of them.
Quynh: [flashback to her and Andy after they’ve been captured] I’ve never been burned alive before. What do you think it’s going to be like?
Andy: Excruciating.
Quynh: Just you and me.
Andy: Until the end.
Nicky: [after we see Andy and Quynh were separated and Quynh was drowned in an iron coffin] After Andy escaped, we spent decades searching for her, or anyone on that ship who could tell us where she was cast off.
Joe: She’s lived with that guilt ever since, but she blames herself for Quynh’s fate.
Nile: Why do you blame yourself?
Andy: I lost a soldier.
Nile: [referring to Quynh] I feel her pain. Her rage. She feels crazy.
Joe: Over five hundred years in a box, at the bottom of the ocean, would make anyone insane.
Nicky: That’s the reason why we dread capture. To spend eternity in a cage.
Nile: I don’t want this. I don’t want any of it.
Andy: I know. I know.
Nile: There isn’t one good thing in any of this.
Andy: I know this is hard. But it’s happening whether you want it or not. I know you’re scared, Nile. Me and those three men in there will keep you safe.
Nile: Like Quynh?
Andy: We’re all you’ve got.
Andy: [as she goes after Copley and Merrick’s men after they’ve been ambushed] Wait for my signal.
Nile: What signal? What does that even mean?
Booker: [chuckles] You’ll know it when it comes.
Copley: [as he sees Andy killing Merrick’s men] Mr. Keane, I strongly recommend that we leave right now.
[they all quickly leave the surveillance van]
Nile: Let’s move!
Booker: Wait for the signal.
Nile: How the hell can you even tell?
Nile: [there’s suddenly an explosion] Oh.
Nile: [referring to all the dead bodies of Merrick’s men] Andy did all this herself?
Booker: Yeah. That woman has forgotten more ways to kill than entire armies will ever learn.
Soldier: [after Nicky and Joe have been captured by Merrick’s men] What is he? Your boyfriend?
Joe: You’re a child. An infant. Your mocking is thus infantile. He’s not my boyfriend. This man is more to me than you can dream. He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness and warmth when I shiver in cold. And his kiss still thrills me, even after a millennia. His heart overflows with the kindness of which this world is not worthy of. I love this man beyond measure and reason. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s all and he’s more.
Nicky: You’re an incurable romantic.
[Merrick’s men then watch in shock as they kiss]
Merrick: [to Nicky and Joe] Ah, gentlemen, welcome. I am truly honored to meet you. Together, we shall do such things. What they are yet, I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the Earth. Or rather the saviors. Lear. Shakespeare.
Merrick: We brought a cancer drug to the market last quarter. It’s already saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Yet, in development, it killed a quarter of a million lab mice. Now, I didn’t ask for their little permissions. I’m not going to ask for yours.
Joe: He thinks you’re a mouse, Nicky.
Merrick: There’s genetic code inside you which could help every human being on Earth. We’re morally obliged to take it.
Booker: [to Nile] Just because we keep living, it doesn’t mean we stop hurting.
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