You know that feeling when you're scrolling through the endless digital rows of a streaming platform and everything looks exactly the same? It's all generic posters with orange and teal lighting. But then, you hit a thumbnail that actually stops the scroll. For a lot of us, that was 2020. We were all stuck inside, and out of nowhere, Netflix dropped a movie that didn't just feel like another superhero clone. It felt heavy. It felt old.
The Old Guard wasn't just another addition to the pile of Netflix movies; it was a gritty, philosophical take on what it actually means to live forever. Honestly, immortality usually looks like a playground in movies. You get rich, you learn every language, you become a god. But Andy—played by a perpetually exhausted-looking Charlize Theron—shows us the reality: it's a curse. It is a grueling, repetitive cycle of watching everyone you love die while you keep waking up on a cold floor with bullets falling out of your chest.
The Brutal Reality of Netflix Movies and the Immortal Hero
Most action flicks treat death like a minor inconvenience for the hero. In this story, death is a constant companion that just won't take "yes" for an answer. Based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka, who also wrote the screenplay, the film centers on a small group of mercenaries led by Andromache of Scythia. She’s been alive for millennia. She's tired. You can see it in the way she holds her labrys—that giant, terrifying double-bladed axe.
Theron has this incredible ability to look like she’s carrying the weight of the entire world’s history in her shoulders. She’s not "girl-bossing" her way through the plot; she’s surviving it. When the team discovers a new immortal, a U.S. Marine named Nile Freeman (KiKi Layne), the dynamic shifts from a weary grind to a mentorship that feels surprisingly grounded. Nile doesn't want this. She’s horrified. That’s a perspective we rarely get in the "superpower" subgenre of Netflix movies. Usually, the protagonist gets powers and there’s a fun montage. Here, there is only grief and confusion.
Why the Combat Feels Different
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood brought something to this film that most big-budget directors skip over: tactical intimacy. The fight choreography isn't just flashy flips. It’s a mix of ancient techniques and modern military precision. Because these characters have lived for centuries, they fight like people who have mastered every weapon ever invented.
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One minute Andy is using a pistol with a suppressor, and the next she’s flowing into a CQC (Close Quarters Combat) move that looks like it belongs in the Bronze Age. It’s seamless. It makes sense. If you lived for 6,000 years, you wouldn't just use a Glock. You’d use whatever is closest to your hand with the muscle memory of a hundred lifetimes.
The plane fight between Andy and Nile is a perfect example. It’s cramped. It’s ugly. It’s loud. There’s no music swelling to make it feel heroic. It’s just two women—one who wants to leave and one who is forced to stay—beating the hell out of each other in a metal tube.
Breaking the Mold of the Modern Blockbuster
Let's be real about the "streaming movie" reputation. For a while, people thought Netflix movies were just the stuff that wasn't good enough for theaters. The Old Guard helped kill that narrative. It landed at a time when we needed big-screen stakes on our small-screen TVs.
It also did something quiet and revolutionary. It gave us Joe and Nicky.
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In a genre that usually relegates LGBTQ+ characters to the background or "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" moments, the relationship between Marwan Kenzari’s Joe and Luca Marinelli’s Nicky is the heart of the film. That scene in the back of the van? Where Joe gives that speech about Nicky not being his "boyfriend" but being everything to him? It’s legendary. It wasn't just a win for representation; it was a win for writing. It showed that even in a movie about stabbing people with ancient swords, you can have a moment of pure, poetic vulnerability.
- The film reached 78 million households in its first four weeks.
- It sits as one of the most-watched original films in the platform's history.
- It successfully avoided the "origin story" trap by dropping us into a world that was already established.
The Problem with Modern Immortality Stories
Too often, writers forget that time changes a person. If you've lived through the Crusades, the Black Death, and the Industrial Revolution, you're not going to be shocked by an iPhone. You're going to be bored by the cycle of human stupidity.
The Old Guard handles this by making the "villain," a Big Pharma CEO played by Harry Melling, feel like a modern annoyance rather than a world-ending threat. He’s a tech-bro who wants to harvest their DNA. He represents the ultimate modern sin: trying to commodify something sacred. It’s a bit on the nose, sure, but it works because the stakes are personal. The team isn't trying to save the world; they're trying to keep their freedom.
Looking Toward the Sequel and Beyond
We’ve been waiting for The Old Guard 2 for what feels like an eternity (pun intended). Production has been a bit of a rollercoaster, dealing with the usual industry delays and the massive scale of the project. But the interest hasn't waned. Why? Because the first film ended on a massive cliffhanger involving Quynh, the teammate who was dropped into the ocean in an iron maiden, doomed to drown and revive for five hundred years.
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That is the stuff of nightmares. It’s the kind of dark, high-concept storytelling that keeps Netflix movies relevant in a crowded market.
People want more than just capes. They want to know what happens to the person who spends centuries at the bottom of the sea. Does she come back as a friend? An enemy? A ghost of their collective conscience? Victoria Mahoney took over the director's chair for the sequel, and the buzz suggests it’s going to lean even harder into the historical flashbacks that fans loved.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Movie Night
If you're planning to dive back into this world or watch it for the first time, here’s how to actually get the most out of it:
- Watch the background. The production design is littered with artifacts from the characters' pasts. Andy’s living spaces are museums of her own life if you look closely enough.
- Compare it to John Wick. Both films share a "stunt-first" philosophy, but where Wick is about the beauty of the kill, this is about the burden of the killer.
- Read the source material. Greg Rucka’s comics offer a much deeper look into the characters' psychological states, especially the trauma of the "gaps" in their memory.
- Pay attention to the score. Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka created a soundscape that feels both ancient and synth-heavy, perfectly bridging the time gap.
The Old Guard proved that action movies don't have to be mindless. They can be sad. They can be romantic. They can be incredibly violent while still asking if the violence is actually worth it. It’s a rare feat in Hollywood, and it’s why, years later, we’re still talking about it.
If you haven't revisited it lately, do yourself a favor. Turn off the lights, ignore your phone, and watch Charlize Theron remind everyone why she’s the reigning queen of modern action cinema. It’s a film that stays with you, much like the characters themselves—refusing to fade away just because the credits rolled.
Check out the "making of" specials if you can find them; the training Theron went through for the axe work is legitimately terrifying. She did the majority of her own stunts, which adds a layer of authenticity you just can't fake with CGI. This isn't just a movie to "put on in the background." It’s a study in endurance.