The year is 2036, and the struggle for control of Ukraine has escalated to the point that the U.S. military, acting as peacekeepers, have begun deploying mechanized troops known as "Gumps" to supplement human forces in the field. In the middle of this conflict, Lt. Michael Harp (played by Damson Idris), serving as a drone operator from back in the mainland United States, makes a judgment call which results in the deaths of two soldiers. The fallout from this decision results in Lt. Harp being sent to Ukraine in person, to see the battlefield with his own eyes as he assists Captain Leo - an android - in trying to prevent a Russia-backed warlord from escalating the situation still further.
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played lightly but relatively straight in the case of the Gumps; there are occasions when one of these robotic soldiers fires preemptively. Captain Leo appears to avert this until The Reveal that he's the Big Bad.
- Arms Fair: Leo, Harp, and Sofiya go to one of these to track down an arms-dealer.
- Androids Are People, Too: A seemingly intentional part of Leo's design - far from being an unfeeling machine, he is highly compassionate (but still pragmatic) and moral. Juxtaposed against the actually human but emotionally reserved and detached Harp.
- Artistic License – Gun Safety: Averted - The various military characters display appropriate gun safety throughout, particularly with regards to trigger discipline.
- As You Know: Happens a lot in the first third of the movie but drops off once the main action starts.
- Batman Gambit: How the Big Bad manipulates Harp into allowing him to carry out his plan. He can only go outside his programming if the human he's with shows impaired judgment, so he repeatedly puts Harp in situations where he knows that Harp will do what seems to be the right thing even if it's going against orders.
- Big Bad: Victor Koval is the mastermind behind a plot to nuke various American cities. In actuality, Leo is the one pulling everybody's strings, as he wanted to carry the plot out himself.
- Bottomless Magazines: Averted - characters on all sides are routinely shown reloading or discarding empty weapons.
- Collateral Damage: What kicks off the main plot, after Harp shows a willingness to count the two Marines caught in the blast from his drone strike as acceptable losses in order to save the other thirty-eight. Also how the Big Bad feels about their plan.
- Court-martialed: Harp narrowly avoids one of these despite disobeying a direct order.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Leo breaks out a couple of these.
- The Dead Have Names: The words aren't spoken directly, but the surviving members of the platoon whom Harp's drone strike was meant to assist take very poorly to his arrival at their base, blaming him for their comrades' deaths.
- Death from Above: Harp's MO before he disobeys a direct order and gets busted off of drone duty.
- Double Standard: Sofiya knew that Leo's true plan was to nuke the U.S., and when Harp asks her to let him go so he can return to base and stop Leo from killing innocent people, she notes that suddenly, the Americans care about saving innocent lives and not when innocent lives were in the way of the war in Ukraine, so now that the opposite is happening, she doesn't care if Leo succeeds and even welcomes it.
- Establishing Character Moment: The movie opens with a group of soldiers engaged in a brutal firefight, while Harp is safe on the other side of the world eating gummy bears.
- Exact Words: Leo is incapable of lying but very, very good at getting around that by using careful phrasing - he couldn't call command himself and lie about Koval being at the bank, nor could he lie to Harp, but he could order Harp to "tell them Koval's here with the codes", because then Harp would be the one lying (albeit unknowingly).
- Genius Bruiser: Capt. Leo is terrifyingly effective in a combat situation, able to mop the floor with his enemies even when completely outgunned. He's also smart as heck and manages to out-manoeuvre three different factions simultaneously. Ties in with Manipulative Bastard, below.
- Gun Fu: When he really needs to, Leo makes John Wick and John Preston look sloppy.
- Hidden Badass: Sofiya might be running an orphanage, but it's an orphanage in a war zone and she's operating as an arms dealer to fund the place. We also see her incapacitate a mook using just a coat, which clearly impresses Harp.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Leo's motive for wanting to nuke the US.
- I Am a Monster: How Leo comes to view himself.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Justified with both Leo and the Gumps.
- Improbable Weapon User: It's not even a sharp flag pole!
- Info Dump: Leo to Harp when he reports for assignment. Partially justified in that he's bringing him up to speed on the situation on the ground, though some of it is clearly for the audience's benefit.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: When Leo questions the sniper.
- Made of Iron: Somewhat literally with Leo
- Manipulative Bastard: Leo proves to this after he's exposed as the Big Bad.
- More Dakka: While the US Gumps are essentially bigger, tougher soldiers and are built along rough human proportions and movements, the Russian equivalents are basically mobile bi/quadripedal heavy weapons platforms.
- The Needs of the Many: How Leo justifies his plan.
- Near-Villain Victory: Leo is mere seconds away from achieving his goal before finally being stopped by Harp. Ironically, it's his humanity and unwillingness to kill Harp that scuppers his plan.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Leo is twice presented with the chance to kill Harp but finds himself unable to do so either time.
- Nicknaming the Enemy: Viktor "Butcher of the Balkans" Koval
- One-Man Army: Justified with Leo.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Averted with the decidedly non-action Col. Eckhart but played completely straight with Capt. Leo.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Miller and Eckhart come across as hardasses at first, and are initially skeptical when Harp tells them that Leo has gone rogue, but it doesn't take them long to realise he's telling the truth, and to start working together to formulate a plan.
- The Reveal: Leo aligned himself with Victor just so he could eventually betray him and take over his plan.
- Robotic Reveal: Done willingly by Leo shortly after Harp meets him, while they're preparing to venture out to deliver a cholera vaccine to a clinic.
- Title Drop: Repeatedly during the early parts of the film. Less so after Harp and Leo actually go Outside the Wire.
- Took a Level in Badass: Leo after he decides that he no longer needs human authorisation, and he was already fairly badass to start with. To a lesser extent, Harp after his first in-person kill and baptism by fire at the bank siege.
- War Is Hell: Harp's deployment to Ukraine seems to be an object lesson in this, as a drone operator whose only view of the battlefield has been from the altitude of a remote-piloted drone and the relative safety of American soil. Predictably, being in actual combat doesn't go well for him at first.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Leo
- Would Hit a Girl: Leo has no issue with killing female enemy combatants when they're trying to do the same to him.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Harp has an astonishing 56,000 hours (about 6 and a half years solid) of flight time as a drone operator despite only being 3 years out of basic.
