From regular guy to international spy in the blink of an eye!
That’s the setup for the moderately entertaining but wildly implausible and utterly predictable and quite dopey Netflix action flick “The Union” starring Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg, who must have read this script and thought to themselves, “Well, the lines are easy to remember, we get to spend some time in Europe and it’s an easy paycheck, why not?”
For all his fame and fortune, Mark Wahlberg can still pull off the everyman persona, and he slips comfortably into the role of one Mike McKenna, a steelworker in New Jersey who has had the same job, same buddies, same life he’s had since high school. Mike is pounding beers with his co-workers at the local dive when Berry’s Roxanne walks into the bar, sporting an edgy haircut and leather ensemble that makes her look like a video game character. Mike hasn’t seen Roxanne since they were a couple back in the day and he’s thrilled to reconnect with her after all these years — but when he wakes up the next morning, he’s in a hotel in London.
Mike exclaims, “Rox, what the hell, where did Jersey go?” (good questions!) and Roxanne explains Mike was tranquilized and transported to London “via freight.” Turns out Roxanne is part of a secret spy organization known as the Union, explaining, “Half the intelligence community doesn’t know we exist. The other half regret finding out.”
For further exposition, we turn to J.K. Simmons as the obligatory world-weary head of the organization, Tom Brennan, who tells Mike the organization is “looking for people that fly under the radar. An invisible army that keeps the world running … street smarts over book smarts. Blue collar, not blue blood.” Uh-huh.
This of course makes no sense, but in a matter of days, Mike undergoes training in hand-to-hand combat, firearms, etc., etc., and is designated the point man for a mission to bid at a black-market auction to obtain a piece of intel that, in Brennan’s words, contains “information about every man and woman who has ever served a Western Allied country.” Cops, Marines, MI5, MI6, FBI, CIA and yes, even the Union. If this information winds up in the wrong hands — well, I don’t have to tell you what that means. (It means disaster!)
Next thing you know, Mike is wearing all black, firing automatic weapons, getting involved in high-speed car chases, jumping around like he’s been doing Parkour for decades, all the standard-issue Action Movie Hero stuff, even though he was a construction worker in Jersey about two weeks earlier. All the while, even when Mike’s life is in danger, he’s preoccupied with his lingering feelings for Roxanne, who broke his heart when she left him without a word all those years ago. Hmmm, maybe by teaming up to save the world, Roxanne and Mike will team up for a rekindled romance as well? Anything is possible in the world of “The Union.” I mean, anything.