Nick McKinless’ “Take Cover” (2024) focuses on the primary outline of a sniper actioner, chucking everything about plot and character development. Those specifics don’t seem to have played into the making of the screenplay, which is largely contrived, frequently conducive to the hammy performances and frantic bouts of all-out action. There is a deception at the center of the thin narrative. It’s designed to be a key turn, a significant revelation but it lands so weak, bogged under the burden of a gimmicky exterior there’s no salvaging it or rendering it remotely plausible.
No thought or logic has gone into the crafting of the screenplay. It seems hurried and unreasonably specious, lacking in the development of the characters, and their motivations. Therefore neither of the extreme realizations nor the delineations of the stunts strike as specifically rooted and grounded in persuasive textures. McKinless inserts a heavy emotional dose to buttress the world to make us connect. But all of it seems arbitrarily plucked with no rhyme or reason from a generic understanding of the private military, resulting in a deathly bore.
Take Cover (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
When Loyalty and Morality Collide: Sam’s Journey of Conscience
Sam (Scott Adkins) is a skilled sniper. He and his spotter, Ken (Jack Parr) work closely together. They are also close buddies, their friendship extending far beyond the folds of intense work loyalty one of them ought to have towards the other. Their lives hinge on this mutuality of trust and deep kinship. Both have to look out for the other. There’s also a repartee and easy bonhomie between the two. They make fun of and rib each other. It’s a carefree relationship, though one may be more chary than the other. Sam and Ken are both highly trained and terrific at their job. Yes, there are erring slights but they get off spectacularly otherwise.
The first professional heartbreak arrives as a catastrophic realization for Sam, which completely reorients his worldview. They are supposed to kill a terrorist. They arrive on the spot. But just when he is about to fire, the terrorist’s girlfriend comes in the way and she gets shot dead. The incident radically shatters his perspective toward his work. He sincerely believes in saving the world and has a strong core of morality. Ken couldn’t be bothered at all. He is fun-loving while Sam is more sober and approaches his hitman work with serious consideration. The woman sacrificing herself holds massive ramifications for him. It alters everything he believes in his work.
Sam’s Final Mission: The Cost of Breaking Free
He confides in Ken that he will quit. They arrive in Frankfurt for what would be Sam’s final mission. Ken is obviously not at all happy about Sam’s decision. He tells Sam that Tamara, their boss, will be very incensed about the decision and will take it very unkindly. But Sam is not worried about this. He patiently listens to whatever Ken lashes out at him, though in a humorous manner. Sam knows perfectly well his choice to quit won’t be an easy, clear-cut one. There are several variables involved, and considerable risk since he knows that Tamara and the company may deem him too valuable. He can’t just be allowed to extrude himself from the secret system.
Tamara has assigned a hotel room for the two as a penthouse for them to wait and lie low before they can plunge into their next operation. Sam also reveals why he is so aggrieved about Sam’s quitting. Being a spotter for Sam, his position at the company also stands imperiled now. Sam assuages him, but Ken insists he works better with him as a team together. Without him around, he wouldn’t be able to deliver at his job. He buries his grievances for the time being. Two massage girls, Mona and Lily, are sent into their room. It delights him; he slips into a mood of revelry but Sam is hesitant. There are several things about the situation that arouse his suspicion and unsettle him.
Can Sam Trust Tamara, or Has His Loyalty Sealed His Fate?
It’s when the concierge walks back into their room with a waitress, insisting the drapes be opened, Sam gets supremely alert and apprehensive. But he is too late to stop the circumstances from snowballing lethally. Sam and Ken have walked into an elaborate setup. Bullets rain on them. There’s an ensuing scuffle between the concierge and waitress and the two men. With some difficulty, the men are able to take out both.
Sam and Ken decide to help the girls out of the situation once they gauge they aren’t involved in the situation. They get through to Tamara on Lily’s cell phone. She promises them she is extricating them from the scene. There is a whole conversation between Sam and Mona, who isn’t convinced by his reasoning of his work being righteous if it involves such merciless killing. He was hired by Tamara to join the company of mercenaries after he became involved in fighting terror once he saw the carnage of 9/11. He trusts Tamara, which turns out to be his fatal flaw.
Take Cover (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Do the snipers manage to escape?
Unfortunately, Ken gets hit. Lily and Mona get shot as well. Mona makes Sam promise that he will look after her daughter upon getting out of the situation. It is also revealed that Tamara is behind the whole setup. She couldn’t just let Sam go with all his high-intel knowledge. So he and Ken had to be disposed of. This is why the operation was mounted. Sam doesn’t feel so betrayed. But then the entire film is emotionally vacuous and dispirited. It feels like a random, generic collation of scenes, with a raving antagonist pulling the strings and acting like she’s the boss of the situation, prevailing over it from a distance. Ken doesn’t survive the hit but he advises Sam. With silk bed sheets, he drapes himself, leaps out of the window, and lands to safety.
In the final scene set at an airport, Tamara tells Sam on the phone she is jetting off to Dubai to cut a deal with a billionaire. Sam says he has given up his life as a sniper and believes in settling personal scores. She doesn’t take his threat seriously. Two of her supposed bodyguards shoot her dead in the washroom. Sam and Milena, both who were around, walk away from the spot. Of course, there will be repercussions for Sam, which the next installment may unravel.
