Aaron Taylor-Johnson's 2017 War Thriller With John Cena Is A Hidden Gem On Prime Video

In the spirit of similar one-location nail-biters like 2010's "Buried," Doug Liman's psychological war thriller, "The Wall" — currently streaming on Prime Video — is a lean, mean bullet of a movie. The status quo of the Iraqi War is just a backdrop for a cat-and-mouse game between U.S. Army Sergeant Shane Matthews (John Cena), his spotter Ize (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and expert Iraqi sniper Juba (Laith Nakli).

Dwain Worrell's screenplay tosses us in the middle of an operation in the Iraqi desert with limited information. Matthews and Ize are in top-to-bottom camouflage, surveying the site of a pipeline construction from afar, where a security detail team has previously been killed by a sniper. After baking in the sun for 20-plus hours without any sign of movement, Matthews decides to investigate. He leaves Ize behind for cover while keeping in contact with him on the radio, but when he gets close to examine the bodies, he quickly realizes that something isn't right.

Soon after, Matthews and Ize are shot at by a hidden sniper beginning a game of physical and psychological warfare. Once Ize realizes that the sniper isn't who he says, he tries everything to outsmart him and survive the situation before bleeding out.

Despite its desolate setting, characters, and combat, "The Wall" is barely a war movie. Underneath its military coating, Doug Liman's film is classic suspense fare that gets more out of its intense, and at times cryptic, dialogue than the actual action. As fairly bare-bones as its premise is, "The Wall" never drops the ball on holding onto the viewer's attention. 

The vast and seemingly endless desert manages to be incredibly claustrophobic when the only safety you can find is behind a dilapidated wall. Add to that an ominous silence only interrupted by whistling wind, scorching heat, and suffocating sand and dust, and you have a film that succeeds in having its environment effectively serve the story and its characters all the way to the end.

Naturally, none of this would work without a capable lead like Aaron Taylor-Johnson. With John Cena's sergeant taking the backseat early on, the task of carrying this movie falls on Johnson, who runs with it just like he did in "Kick-Ass," "Nocturnal Animals," and more recently, "28 Years Later." You suffer, think, and wail with him as he wretchedly tries to save his brother in arms and himself from evil. Cena delivers a restrained yet compelling performance in one of his best movies, and Laith Nakli's nerve-wracking voice on the other end of the radio give Taylor-Johnson an apt adversary.

"The Wall" wasn't exactly a home run when it released in 2017. While critics generally appreciated its strengths, the overall reception was mixed, with viewers complaining that it required too much suspension of disbelief. The thriller didn't make the biggest dent at the box office either, garnering nearly $4.5 million at the worldwide box office against its $3 million budget.

Undoubtedly, "The Wall" has its implausible plot points and questionable character decisions, but its intriguing setup, relentless suspense, and sleek direction easily outweigh those flaws. It's also a plus that the viciously mean and cynical script never once tries to be overly didactic about the war (or individual beliefs) on either side, and lets the viewer make up their own mind about the villain's motivation and the guilt that quietly torments the protagonist.

It might not be deep or subtle, but "The Wall" is a gripping and unsettling romp with a tight 85-minute runtime that never promises more than what it delivers — a quality that can hardly be said about many war thrillers these days. Liman's flick is a hidden gem that Prime Video subscribers should seek out if they're hungry for something relatively brief yet worthwhile.