The Gray Man — “A Reckless Mystery Man”

UPCOMING AMERICAN ACTION THRILLER

Have you heard about the release of the most expensive Netflix original movie ever? What if I tell you, not only does it have an ambitious budget of a whopping $200 million, but also it is directed by the Russo Brothers, and its screenplay was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen Mcfeely. This team gave us epic Marvel movies like Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame, Captain America: Civil War, and The Winter Soldier. This time they are here with an action-packed, spy thriller The Gray Man.

Anthony Russo describes it as — “a throwback action film… with intense characters, best at their particular craft or have a certain level of skills that allowed them to survive, but just barely… And that’s what The Gray Man is all about.”

Another way the creativity of this film pushes beyond limits is by using up to nine action set pieces.

The directors like to play on different levels of absurdism for the action genre, at the same time switching between the tones. With this fusion of quirkiness and action, the movie plot is filled with a constant shift of emotions that keeps the audience wondering about what’s next?

When can we see the movie and what is the plot idea?

The Gray Man was announced in 2020 and finally, it will be released in theaters on Friday, 15 July 2022. After only a week of wait, it will be streamed on Netflix on 22 July 2022

Based on the 11-part novel series, published over a decade ago in 2009 with the same name by Mark Greaney, The Gray Man’s protagonist is a CIA agent named Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six. He possesses special skills in infiltration and assassination. He is someone who is impossible to catch and has a minimalistic character with a hidden identity. He is betrayed which lands him in prison, but Gentry manages to escape and reforms his new life as an assassin. Gentry accidentally discovered dark agency secrets which makes him the primary target of his old colleagues, one of them being Lloyd Hansen. Lloyd is described as a psychopathic savvy manhunter who is given a gentry’s bounty by some shady French organization. The Duo plays like cat and mouse.

Serious character development can be observed in the case of the protagonist who is identity-less for the major part of his life but as the story unveils, he discovers what he wants and his goals.

“What I liked about this character is that he wants something that most of us want, which is just to be free. His goals aren’t monetary, treasure, or revenge but freedom!”

-says Ryan Gosling (playing Gentry).

Who is featured in this movie?

“The Gray Man” movie project had been in development hell since 2011, before Netflix. At one point, both Brad Pitt and Charlize Theron were reportedly in talks to appear in the film, and it wasn’t until early 2020 that the movie solidified its cast and directors. The movie has a dynamic cast consisting of -

• Ryan Gosling is the protagonist named Court Gentry / Sierra Six aka Gray Man, a CIA black op who is forced to go on the run after uncovering dirty secrets about the agency.
• Chris Evans starring as the lead antagonist Lloyd Hansen, a sociopathic former colleague of Gentry who leads the manhunt to capture him. This is a risky role taken up by Evans differing from his Captain America reputation.
• Dhanush with his first Hollywood debut starring as Avik San, one of the topmost assassins in the world
• Ana de Armas as ‘Dani Miranda’ who is another fellow CIA agent working closely with Sierra, and figuring out if the duo can be allies. She might be able to help Sierra escape Lloyd. This character is not directly mentioned in the book so it’s possible that it is inspired by one of the characters or an amalgamation of them.
• Billy Bob Thornton as Donald Fitzroy is one of the only allies Six is left with.
• Jessica Henwick as Suzanne Brewer
• Regé-Jean Page as Denny Carmichael
• Wagner Moura
• Julia Butters as Claire Fitzroy
• Alfre Woodard as Margaret Cahill
• Callan Mulvey
• Eme Ikwuakor as Mr. Felix
• Scott Haze
• Michael Gandolfini
• Sam Lerner
• Robert Kazinsky as Perini
• DeObia Oparei

What can we expect in the future?

Officially Netflix hasn’t announced the sequel of the movie. But some reports say that the scripts for the sequel and prequel to The Gray Man are already being written which is not a shocker because the 11-part series has plenty of inspiration for a long-running movie franchise. The prequel would be focusing on the backstory of antagonist Lloyd Hansen. It is likely that Netflix’s goals for this movie can reach beyond its budget and yield huge profits for them, just enough to make The Gray Man into a franchise. This scenario is very likely to happen given its diverse and flamboyant cast and team.