# The Old Guard - Netflix movie. Anyone else see it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** netflix, movies\ **Created:** [July 27, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436 "2020-07-27T01:40:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/41 "2020-08-29T19:26:07Z")
I think people would gravitate to being warriors, because of the immortality. They lack the fear of death that keeps most of us out of harm’s way. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/42 "2020-08-29T19:59:43Z")
Yes, but they seem to have all been warriors _before_ becoming immortals (or discovering that they were immortal - the movie is less than clear if they’re born immortal, or become immortal after their first “death” in battle). New Girl was a Marine before she “died”. Nicky and Joe were knights, a Crusader and a Saracen, who met in battle before becoming immortals. Booker was a solider in Napoleon’s army before his “death”. Andy is _heavily_ implied to be the Amazon warrior Andromache, and to have been a Scythian warrior before she “died”. All of which raises another point, I guess. They all apparently gained/discovered their immortality by coming back to life after “dying” in battle. I suppose death in battle might be the necessary spark, so warriors in particular are more likely to be immortals just because they’re more likely to die in battle. On the other hand, a lot of civilians die in battles. On the other, other hand, maybe the spark is dying while fighting, as opposed dying while being massacred or being collateral damage. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/43 "2020-08-29T20:01:08Z")
If you live long enough, you will inevitably be caught up in lots of battles. Historically, there is a war fought somewhere every 2.8 days. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/44 "2020-08-29T20:25:59Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > All of which raises another point, I guess. They all apparently gained/discovered their immortality by coming back to life after “dying” in battle. I suppose death in battle might be the necessary spark, so warriors in particular are more likely to be immortals just because they’re more likely to die in battle. On the other hand, a lot of civilians die in battles. On the other, other hand, maybe the spark is dying while fighting, as opposed dying while being massacred or being collateral damage. Perhaps the source of the immortality will be explored in the sequel. Maybe you have to die under a blue moon or some other rare event, which is why it’s happened to only a handful of people. Perhaps someone speculates that dying in battle is part of the cause and tries to set up situations to prove that, even though such experiments mean many die in the process. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/45 "2020-08-29T20:29:22Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Damn you guys are tough. I saw this last night with several friends (watching separately while on a Google chat) and we all really enjoyed it! I thought it was excellent! I especially appreciated how the fight scenes were filmed so you could actually see what was going on, instead of quick cuts in close up. I see that all of my posts so far have been nit-picking various plot points (which is kind of my thing), but wanted to add that I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. I read or heard somewhere that it was supposed to be like “Highlander,” but better. Since the original “Highlander” was one of my favorite films in college, this intrigued me. (The sequel, on the other hand, was probably the worst film I’ve ever seen in my life. It was so bad that it turned me off from watching the series, too—which is unfortunate, because it had decent reviews—along with any other spin-off.) Anyway, after watching “The Old Guard,” I thought it was an accurate description. It’s like a better-done version of the original “Highlander.” I definitely recommend watching it, and look forward to anything that follows. P.S. I also thought that the fight scenes were particularly well done. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/46 "2020-08-30T13:25:26Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > , you know we are in a pandemic with theaters closed right? Oh, was this not sold before the pandemic? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/47 "2020-08-30T13:46:43Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > It’s not until the very end, when the Analyst brings in an outside, mortal perspective, and maybe more importantly access to modern information technology, **that they finally figure out that they seem to be part of a larger plan to help make the world a better place.** It seemed to me to be strongly implied that a part of the plan was that immortality was specifically granted to warriors of both great skill and great moral character. That it was granted to individuals who would both feel the need to fight for those who could not fight for themselves, and would have the talents and skills to do so. I didn’t get the impression that there was a larger plan at all. What there was was an examination of the far-reaching effects that their actions had; how their localized fight against any particular bad situation enabled something good that spread beyond that locale. But there’s no evidence of a larger _plan_. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/48 "2020-08-30T14:56:27Z")
That’s certainly a possible interpretation. But that’s not what I thought was being implied. When the Analyst first shows the event map to New Girl, he gives examples of how one life Andy saved lead to a descendant saving hundreds, thousands, millions of lives, even civilization itself. He tells her, “[Andy] saves a life, two or three generations later we reap the benefits.” Now, it’s plausible that he’s simply pointing out far-reaching, unintended positive consequences. But then, shouldn’t some of those descendants also have also been terrorists, serial killers, and war criminals? The implication, to me, seemed to be that the lives Andy and the others saved always somehow only lead to _good_ butterfly effects, which in turn seems to imply some sort of plan. In the last scene with the Analyst and the Immortals, as he’s showing them all the event map, New Girl says, “Maybe this is the ‘Why’, Andy.” A few lines later in the scene, Andy says, “We don’t have all the answers, but we do have purpose.” Now, it’s certainly possible that they’re just speaking philosophically. Andy’s found a renewed sense of purpose and a reason why she should continue to intervene in the world to save people, but it’s a purely internal psychological purpose. They don’t know how their immortality works or why they specifically are immortal, but they have now have evidence that what they’ve been doing is a good way to use that immortality. But, again, the implication to me seemed to be that there’s more going on than that. The whole premise, the fact that it’s specifically warriors that are immortal, the shared psychic connection that draws them together, the fact that the butterfly effects of their actions seem to be overwhelmingly, even exclusively, positive, all seem to point to some sort of larger plan. But I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/49 "2020-08-30T16:10:11Z")
Re: Source of their immortality. Here is a crazy, off-the-wall theory that literally just came to me as I was reading this thread. These warriors are being made immortal through some sort of alien intervention. Perhaps there is an alien race which, for reasons of their own, is attempting to improve the human race by preventing the deaths of individuals whose descendants will somehow benefit the human race. How they are able to determine this? Like I said, I just came up with the premise, so I haven’t had time to think it through (time travel? some sort of psychohistorical analysis?). Basically, I’m trying to think of an explanation that avoids the concept of “divine intervention”. Anyway, as I said, just a half-baked theory I’m throwing out here. And I am looking forward to any possible sequel or TV series which might follow, if only to see if it provides an explanation for the source of their immortality. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/50 "2020-08-31T15:57:48Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > These warriors are being made immortal through some sort of alien intervention. Do you want Highlander 2s? Because that’s how you get Highlander 2s. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/51 "2020-08-31T16:23:21Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > > [@LurkMeister](#): > > > > These warriors are being made immortal through some sort of alien intervention. > > Do you want Highlander 2s? Because that’s how you get Highlander 2s. 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436/52 "2020-08-31T21:38:46Z")
What is this Highlander 2 of which you speak? There can be only 1. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-guard-netflix-movie-anyone-else-see-it/916436.md?page=2)