On Aug. 30, 2021, then-Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue boarded a C-17 at Kabul Airport, making him the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan. For two weeks, U.S. forces defended the airport after the Taliban captured the Afghan capital.
While U.S. and NATO troops were being evacuated from the country via the airport, thousands of foreign and at-risk Afghan citizens waited to join that evacuation. Hundreds of American citizens and Afghans with U.S. visas were left behind, along with potentially tens of thousands of former translators and their families.
"Warhorse One" takes place after this chaotic withdrawal of Americans and other foreigners. Navy SEAL Master Chief Richard Mirko (Johnny Strong, "Black Hawk Down") is isolated inside the country after his helicopter is shot down during a rescue mission. He must reach a rendezvous point while evading hostile forces and protecting a young girl he encountered along the way.
The movie also stars Raj Kala ("Black Adam") and Athena Durner as the young girl. It was picked up for North American and international distribution ahead of the Cannes Film Festival.
"Warhorse One" is the third movie about American rescue missions in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal since the beginning of 2023. "Guy Ritchie's The Covenant," a movie about an Army sergeant (Jake Gyllenhaal) rescuing his Afghan interpreter (Dar Salim, "Game of Thrones"), hit theaters in April.
"Kandahar," starring Gerard Butler, featured an intelligence operative escaping across Afghanistan with his translator (Navid Negahban, "Homeland") after their cover gets blown. It was released in theaters in May.
Almost as soon as the evacuation was completed, Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum signed on to an as-yet untitled film about special operators who go back into Afghanistan alongside Afghan troops to rescue their families.
If the lineup of "Left Behind in Afghanistan" films feels familiar, especially to older audiences, there's a reason for that. As the evacuation of Kabul continued in the summer of 2021, many news outlets (especially foreign ones) were quick to point out the similarities between it and the American evacuation of Saigon in 1975.
Hollywood's slate of films following the end of the Vietnam War were filled with "Left Behind in Vietnam" stories. Only instead of Vietnamese translators, the issue of the day was Vietnam's prisoners of war and missing in action. This led to a stream of films that continued into the 1980s.
"Missing in Action," "Rambo: First Blood Part II" and "Uncommon Valor" were all action-adventure movies centered around the idea that American POWs had been left behind in North Vietnamese prison camps, and all it would take is a handful of special operators to free them.
As far as Hollywood digging into military themes goes, the issue of rescuing Afghan interpreters and civilians left behind under Taliban rule isn't so bad. There are still 150,000 Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas trying to leave Afghanistan, and the Taliban is only increasing its reprisals against former interpreters. A slate of continuous action movies are a pretty good way to keep the issue alive.
"Warhorse One" is due in theaters on June 30, 2023, and will be available on digital July 4.
-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on LinkedIn.
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