oh dear I appear to have watched The Old Guard... again.

[kaberett]

and I am still getting more new things out of it

New catches:

• Booker actually as Andy turns to go into the hotel pulls the face of feeling guilty for exploiting how much she loves him... while simultaneously not! actually! recognising! that she loves him!
  
• ... good grief but Booker is just drinking alcohol pretty much constantly throughout the entire damn film, starting from settling down in the hotel room, spiking his tea, and swigging from the hipflask before putting it away (while the others mostly aren't looking, and I think that's consistent -- he's drinking when it's unremarkable or when they're looking away or distracted)
  
• the series of facial expressions Booker pulls as he holds his breath over whether Andy will bite, having clearly coached Copley on how to set the bait for her
  
• the shot of the four of them silhouetted, walking down the ridge, after they've landed in Sudan? is a beautiful wildlife documentary shot, which I think is actually doing an amazing amount of work in terms of lampshading how -- well -- how exotic they are, how much they do not belong here (because of the contrasts & juxtapositions), how much their being there is not good actually
  
• Nicky! and Joe! always check on each other first thing. always.
  
• I love, so much, the choice of the injury for Nile where there is absolutely no way she could survive, like, there is no ambiguity here at all, you'd probably struggle to survive that in a hospital let alone--
  
• which is absolutely underlined by the Expression on the face of the medic in the background of the hospital tent.
  
• and also, and I only just twigged this, her bunkmates having packed up her shit like that? I'd been reading it as "fuck off, you freak" but it's not, is it, of course it's not, it's... the thing you do when you know. you know. that your colleague's died. it's a ritual it's a solace it's a farewell, and she walks in and she sees that and she absolutely categorically cannot any more -- well, act like anything that's going on is normal, but also she absolutely cannot Cope any more, I think. I think that's her first real point of "fuck. fuck, I died."
  
• fuck her sergeant, though, who knows exactly what's coming for her and feels vaguely bad about it but not bad enough to protect her, just... bad enough to do the vague gesture of handing her back her tags. as though that matters, given what they'll do to her. as though they're somehow protection. fuck that.
  
• love that Andy left Nile completely unrestrained in the boot of the car... and also that Nile was sufficiently freaked to take advantage of it but not to twig what it meant.
  
• "You want answers? Get back in the car." Sounds like a rhetorical question and its answer, the latter phrased as an instruction, with an implied "then"! Actually two completely unrelated sentences. (Because Andy doesn't actually lie, I don't think. Obfuscates and omits, but... doesn't lie.)
  
• Niiiiiiiiiile knew there was no way that made sense for Andy to know about her getting her throat cut, and Andy knew it toooooooooo, and good Grief that scene in the plane
  
• esp. the pilot's little face of "wait are you shitting me--" when Andy first says she's gonna shoot him
  
• in the back of the car, on the way from the conference to HQ: Keane's face of "yeah whatever I'm not impressed" as Kozak starts watching the footage... turning into the horrified leaning-in-and-staring as it rolls on
  
• Booker's face in the church as he's saying, to Andy, "I don't know": the reliance on pain and urgency to cover for him and how shitty he feels about what he's doing and how he's doing it anyway.
  
• the beautiful wonderful brilliant silent conversation as Booker and Andy and Nile leave the church: Nile's you and those three men will keep me safe, huh? and Andy's ... get in the car.
  
• Copley hating working with Keane and doing it anyway; as sebenikela points out, v similar to Andy's "Sometimes you gotta work with people you don't wanna eat with." on the plane (which is itself also juxtaposed beautifully with the Guard all sitting down for a meal).
  
• love the contrast between how Copley says "Mr Merrick" and "Ms Freeman" (the former absolutely dripping with scorn, the latter... very much an honorific)
  
• Book's dawning moment of "... oh shit" as he realises that with Nile around with, you know, basic computer literacy and counterintelligence training? it just got a lot harder to bullshit the rest of them on What The Tech Is Doing while, you know, simultaneously he kinda needs the tech to... communicate with Copley!
  
• the way! the pharmacist! goes ... ah when Andy flinches at the siren!
  
• the incredible scene where Andy... is not the expert. and is not in control, or In Charge. and is vulnerable, and accepts help from another person for the first time since... well, since Quŷnh, probably, I reckon. the quiet shaking apart of her world as someone quietly offers her sympathy and compassion and just... wants her to pay it forward. (the parallels with her telling Nile that she needs help!)
  
• "You come from warriors", from Andy to Nile, as high praise and recognition of lineage.
  
• "guys I found something" = "I've managed to get in touch with Copley [while you'd both fucked on off out of the cave for five minutes thank fuck, thank you sebenikela] and we've worked out what the fuck our next step is"
  
• more from sebenikela: the point where Nile opens up the weapons to dump them and realises they're empty? ... she's also realising that she watched Booker check them before handing them to Andy. she! knows! all of a sudden! that Booker set Andy up! and that's some of why she goes back.
  
• the beautiful delicious tension between Booker saying "I did this for you, finding out how we can die is what you wanted" and Booker desperately not wanting Andy to bleed out on Copley's carpet. he is absolutely frantic with fear there.
  
• I had not previously clocked the expression on the face of the Black member of Keane's security personnel after Keane knocks Copley out with... well, essentially no regard to whether it hurts him. he hesitates there. he has. a Feeling.
  
• "I'm not doing this" to Andy, at the car, from Nile? same energy as "It wasn't your gift to give." to Copley.
  
• when Nile gets shot at Merrick Pharma? she deliberately stays down until the security detail is in the perfect position for her to kick him square in the balls on her way up. I had not caught that before and I'm delighted.
  
• the beautiful beautiful conversation between Andy and Nile in the lab: "You came back." "Yeah." Which means: I didn't have to, and I chose to, and you can choose too, as Andy's world breaks open and starts to reset itself.
  
• the beautiful beautiful detailing on the axe, specifically, the way the blade moves from matte to shine as you get to the places that are kept bright by the scraping away of sharpening.
  
• during the breakout: the way Nicky turns to keep eyes on Andy. sure, they're all taking bullets for her, but specifically the way he keeps eyes on her in a way that is otherwise absolutely 100% reserved for Joe.
  
• in. the penthouse. Nile's "wait 'til tomorrow", re how much Andy hurts. it's for herself as much as for Andy: that's what you say when you're grimly holding on to the determination that there will be a tomorrow. Nile is so, so scared, all of a sudden, that this is it -- this is as much of Andy as she gets -- she will never get to know her. she is terrified. it's beautiful and beautifully done. (it's like Dizzy, back at the beginning, telling Nile that she's gonna be fine. Except this time it... works differently.)
  
• Merrick fucking telling Andy that she's priceless while putting a price on her
  
• OH HEY
  
• THE PUB
  
• WITH THE LINGERING SHOT ON "... TRODDEN FOR OVER 500 YEARS..."
  
• QUŶNH AND ANDY ABSOLUTELY DRANK THERE WHILE THEY WERE IN ENGLAND, BEFORE... EVERYTHING
  
• sebenikela: they'll meet you here, not we'll meet you here.
  

New speculation and/or analysis, varying degrees of wilderness:

• we start the film out with "none of them will actually go through with an action without Andy giving the go-ahead": Nicky and Joe won't take the job from Copley if she says no, even though they and Booker perfectly well could do it without her. this... is important, actually. as is Nicky calling her "boss", now and throughout. And in the lab: Nicky's been telling Joe to knock it off re Booker for some time, and he doesn't and he hasn't, but by the gods does he shut up the moment Andy says "No." to him.
  
• the thing IS though, right, the reason Booker's all "ugh let's not go scoop her up--" re Nile? is because he doesn't want to drag her into this. it's not just that he Hates Immortality, or that he thinks her being there will fuck up the plans: she's a surprise to Copley when she comes back for Andy at the end of the film, because in spite of all the contact Booker's had with him, all the planning they've done together ("if you can't grab all four of them, leave Booker"; setting up the trap at Copley's place), Booker actively chooses not to tell Copley about Nile. he is still hoping, I think, that she will somehow be able to get out. he is surprised and relieved when Andy follows him in to Copley's garden and Nile isn't there.
  
• the beautiful, beautiful bracketing of Andy calling Nile "kid" at the beginning, in the plane, and how Nile reacts then, versus Booker calling her "kid" at the end, in the pub, and how she reacts then
  
• Andy phrasing shit to Nile as "I lost a soldier" is fascinating, because the other thing we see is that Andy... actually treated Quŷnh as an equal, I think. With Quŷnh she wasn't The Boss, Quŷnh wasn't Her Responsibility, Quŷnh was someone who could take care of her and where the relationship really was reciprocal, I think -- and I really truly wonder how much of that is gendered, especially given her clear passing of leadership to Nile, as they storm the penthouse, and Nile then clearly handing it back (as symbolised by the axe) as they leave... she's responsible for the others in a way that she wasn't, for Quŷnh, until. They'll all do what she tells them (see point one in this section); Booker's pushing back is circumspect and completely dependent on outside actors.
  
• and then. outside Copley's. Nile doesn't. she insists that she gets a choice. even while she knows Andy can beat the shit out of her? she asserts her independence and her morality and her right to sodding choose even when all the choices are shitty.
  
• Andy... doesn't really sleep. At all. We see her dozing a little in the train, at the beginning. We see her sleeping on the plane, after downing about half a bottle of vodka. I wonder: does she not sleep because, if she dreams of Quŷnh (and she does), it's... only dreams? they're not real. they're not proof that Quŷnh still exists. they're ghosts and a haunting and she Can't.
  
• the breakout from the lab? is an absolutely pivotal moment for Andy, again, regarding choice and agency and whether she's fundamentally alone, fundamentally responsible -- whether she can be taken care of, by these people she feels responsible for, as well as taking care of them. she has to accept their help, for her own sake but also for theirs, and -- goodness.
  
• and then. when they think Merrick is getting away from the penthouse. the four of them work together, with Andy sidelined, and the look on her face as Nile tells the boys what to do and they comply unhesitatingly... yeah she picked good on who to have take over from her.
  
• and then. at the pub. Andy didn't want them to exile Booker for a hundred years. she didn't want to never see him again when she had the option otherwise. her boys knew she didn't want this. and they did it anyway. EVOLUTION OF TEAM DYNAMICS: AAAAAAAAAH.

Comments

[lunabee34]

I love your thoughts on this movie.

[kaberett]

I hit post too early and have just finished editing to put in thoughts on the second half!

[lunabee34]

Yay!

*checks it out*

[randomling]

I love these thoughts!

The only Thing I have managed to notice independently in my several watches is this:

When Booker comes towards Andy on his bike, right at the beginning of the film, all the direction and framing indicates that he might be a threat. The first twist is - he's not a threat, he's her friend.

The second twist is, he is a threat.

I love how that moment works on two levels.

[kaberett]

as;dflkasdflsjf YES YES YOU ARE QUITE RIGHT

I hadn't articulated it but there is SUCH a sense of impending doom and then...!

[sebenikela]

oh my GOD YES goddammit Booker

[delight]

I have such issues with the end and I desperately need Andy to get her immortality back in the sequel event hough I know she absolutely won't because it would be against the real point of the story, I am just super pathetic when it comes to even the possibility of character deaths.

[sebenikela]

omg SAME

dnw Andy dying and dnw Quynh being a "bad guy" PLEASE??????

[alexseanchai]

Andy's dreams of Quynh have to be the ordinary sort, don't they? it's Nile and (as of before the sequel hook) Booker who haven't met Quynh, and who are therefore getting the magic-or-whatever dreams until they do.

[kaberett]

Yes, precisely, and I posit that it's exactly that that she finds so distressing about them!

[cesy]

Kudos

[brainwane]

Thank you for highlighting that pharmacist. I only saw the film once but you're making me want to rewatch just that scene.

[booksarelife]

I love reading these and you’re making me want to go rewatch the movie!

[jack]

Oh gosh yes, I love seeing how much more there is in this film.