The Contractor

Director: Tarik Saleh Tarik Saleh

Overview

Former Marine James Harper (Chris Pine) faces the unthinkable upon earning an involuntary discharge from the American Special Forces. Harper scrambles to make ends meet for his young family without his military income until his longtime friend (Ben Foster) recruits him to serve in a paramilitary unit under the command of a grizzled and disillusioned veteran (Kiefer Sutherland). As the team embarks on a covert mission abroad, Harper soon finds himself caught in the crossfire of long-standing animosity, forcing him to find a way home by any means necessary. Directed by Tarik Saleh.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/07/2022
UPC:	0191329225233
Original Release:	2022
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	1:43:00
Sales rank:	60,432

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Chris Pine	James Harper
Gillian Jacobs	cast
Sander Thomas	Jack Harper
Toby Dixon	Young James
Chris TC Edge	Church Actor
Timothy Carr	Soldier
Regina Ting Chen	Army Doctor
Patti Schellhaas	Church Goer
Cory Scott Allen	LTC Roberts
George Pistereanu	Carlos
Brian Lafontaine	Captain
Nicolas Noblitt	Mike Jr.
Mike Capozzola	Civilian Contractor
Dustin Lewis	Pastor
Nico Woulard	Dave
Jaclyn White	Church Goer
Cathy Wheeler	Church Goer
Aristou Meehan	Yanis
Hannes Schmidhauser	cast
Ben Foster	Actor
Eddie Marsan	Actor
JD Pardo	Eric
Florian Munteanu	Kaufman
Kiefer Sutherland	Actor
Fares Fares	Actor
Tait Fletcher	Dalton
Nina Hoss	Actor
Matthew Marsh	Gray
Alexej Manvelov	Asset
Amira Casar	Actor
Tyner Rushing	Christine Denton
King	Congregation Member
Thomas Sander	Jack Harper
Cosmin Padureanu	Lab Guard
Hannes Schmid	Actor
Jaime Corona	FBI Officer
Marcus S. Allen	Soldier
Andrei Barbu	Assistant nr. 1
Diane Tavegia	Mother of Soldier
Cameron Galbreath	Church Goer
Jim Tavegia	Church Goer
Alexandra Murarus	Salvina Concierge
Alex Belcher	Composer

Technical Credits

J.P. Davis

J.P. Davis	Screenwriter
Tarik Saleh	Director
Josh Bratman	Executive Producer
Michael Flynn	Executive Producer
Dan Friedkin	Executive Producer
Jonathan Fuhrman	Executive Producer
Micah Green	Executive Producer
Esther Hornstein	Executive Producer
Chris Pine	Executive Producer
Robert Simonds	Executive Producer
Basil Iwanyk	Producer
Erica Lee	Producer
Daniel Steinman	Executive Producer
Liviu Lupsa	Sound Mixer
John Skoglund	Sound Mixer
Florina Fernandes	Casting
Constantin Dinu	Sound Mixer

Editorial Reviews

The Contractor is a fast-paced thriller starring Chris Pine (Star Trek), who gives a stunning, emotionally charged performance as James Harper, a US Special Forces sergeant. When he is discharged from the armed forces and stripped of his health insurance and pension, he finds himself neck-deep in bills and desperate to find some way to support his family. Along comes Mike, a friend James saved when they were fighting in the war (played superbly by Ben Foster), to offer him a way to use his skills at a private security company called "The Ranch." James needs the money for his family, the primary motivation for his actions in the movie, so he takes a job that takes him across the world. Unfortunately, what starts as a movie about the toll war taking on our soldiers quickly turns into a Bourne-Esque spy story. As a result, the audience may feel slightly cheated by the story. What could have been a commentary on the effects of service to the country barely skims the surface as the movie turns into a series of chase scenes and near misses. Pine and Foster have a lot of heavy lifting in a film that does not effectively use an excellent supporting cast. Gillian Jacobs plays Pine's wife, and she doesn't do much except stare longingly out the window. But it is not entirely her fault, as the female characters are underdeveloped afterthoughts. The child actors exist to serve the story as emotional pawns, and even Kiefer Sutherland is not given enough real estate to flesh out his role. Where the movie works is the on-screen chemistry between Chris Pine and Ben Foster; this is their third collaboration (most notably as brothers in Hell or Highwater), and their scenes are dynamic, authentic, and focused. Whatever the movie, directed by Tarik Saleh (Ray Donovan, Westworld), lacks in the development of anyone but the leads, it makes up for in the action sequences. The fighting is clean and precise, full of shootouts, underwater special effects, and chase scenes; this is precisely what one would expect from the producing team of Erica Lee and Basil Iwanyk (John Wick, Sicario). However, unlike those films, the concept isn't particularly original. It is a 108-minute action movie that only touches the surface of the commentary on country, loyalty, and trust. As a result, viewers could enjoy this one just as comfortably from their living room couch.