‘Call of Duty’ Director’s Cult Favorite War Thriller Officially Hits Streaming

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema. 

With the second season of Prime Video’s The Terminal List now streaming and director Peter Berg back with a new war movie, there couldn’t be a better time to revisit Berg’s 2013 military film with The Terminal List star Taylor Kitsch. The movie will soon be added to the peacock library, giving a new generation of fans the opportunity to check it out. While successful, the movie in question was a bigger hit in the United States than it was abroad. However, with military-based titles such as The Terminal List and Fury having done so well at home, perhaps there’s a huge audience for Berg’s 2013 film out there as well.

In addition to Kitsch, the movie also featured Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch. The lead character was played by Mark Wahlberg, who worked with Berg on a string of movies in the 2010s, from the disaster epic Deepwater Horizon to the police procedural Patriots Day. Their 2013 film was based on a real incident during the War in Afghanistan, during which a group of American soldiers were ambushed by Taliban forces. The movie received mostly positive reviews, although it was also criticized for its tone by some.

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

The Movie Paved the Way for More Modern Warfare Films

We’re talking, of course, about Lone Survivor. Produced on a reported budget of $40 million, the film grossed nearly $155 million worldwide. Somewhat unusual was the ratio of the film’s domestic and international earnings; Lone Survivor made $125 million in North America and roughly $30 million overseas. It was released just one year before Clint Eastwood‘s American Sniper, which made nearly $550 million globally, of which $350 million came from North America. Lone Survivor now holds a “Certified Fresh” 75% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “A true account of military courage and survival, Lone Survivor wields enough visceral power to mitigate its heavy-handed jingoism.” This is higher than the 71% score of American Sniper, by the way. Another modern warfare movie, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, will also be added to the Starz library this month. Meanwhile, Berg’s The Mosquito Bowl was released theatrically on October 30, ahead of its Netflix debut later this month. After that, Berg will direct the long-awaited Call of Duty movie written by Taylor Sheridan. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Lone Survivor

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  Mark Wahlberg

  Petty Officer First Class Marcus Luttrell

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  Taylor Kitsch

  Lieutenant Michael “Mike” Murphy

Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.