Ok so Uncharted is now out in the UK and the movie brings Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan
to the screen in a big bad way. I'm aware that the movie isn't out in the US yet so
if you wanna learn our spoiler free thoughts on it then time codes will be linked below.
The end of the video should give you our general thoughts without going into too much detail
but from here on out it's full spoilers ahead.
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With that out the way, huge thank you for clicking this, now let's get into Uncharted.
Ok so though Uncharted isn't a direct adaptation of the games, it does cherry pick certain
parts of them. Like we learned in the fourth game, Nate grew up with his brother Sam in
an orphanage overseen by Nuns. Told that they were direct decendants of Sir Francis Drake
the pair became fascinated with history. After a run in with the police Sam ended up being
a naughty dog and he ran away from the Orphanage. However he left behind a ring which belonged
to Drake that I'm sure you'll recognise from the games. This plays heavily into the post
credits scene which we'll talk about later on in the video and how that sets up a sequel.
Nate spent 15 years on his own in New York, making a living through Bartending whilst
also pick pocketing on the side.
Well, youve got to pick a pocket or two.
One fateful night he meets Victor Sullivan an old friend of Sams who'd worked with him
in trying to track down the Magellan Fortune. This is the largest amount of undiscovered
gold in the world and the key to finding it lies in two crucifix keys. Sully initially
tells Drake that they can help find his brother but it's revealed in the film that Victor
actually believes that Sam is dead and he's just really using Nate. Sam used to write
postcards to Nate all the time and Sully believes that there's a secret he told him which will
help uncover the fortune.
Much like the original game, Nate kinda goes back and forth over whether he should trust
Sully or not and at several points, the side characters say he must-ask what really happened.
Now the pair set off to uncover the mystery of where the treasure is buried and there
are several key scenes that riff directly on the source material. The first crucifix
is held at an auction and this somewhat pulls from the level in the fourth game titled once
a thief. Much like the original title, Nate is tasked with cutting the power and it's
here that he meets the two main antagonists of the movie.
The first is Moncada, a wealthy treasure hunter who's angered by his father's insistance that
they give away their fortune because of the blood that was shed when making it. Obsessed
with uncovering the Magellan Gold he hires two people to track this down, the first of
these being Joe Braddock.
Now she's a completely original character for the franchise but she's heavily based
on Nadine who also appeared in the fourth entry. Braddock is a cold blooded mercenary
that's completely ruthless and not only has she got up close and personal with Sully,
it's also believed that she killed Sam.
Now the other person that Moncada hired is Chloe Fraizer, a femme fatale from the games
who was first introduced in Uncharted 2. Chloe is completely distrustful of everyone and
this is because when she was growing up she found a platinum trophy that her dad took
and ran off with for the clout.
Ey those Playstation games were hard.
Initially she joins Nate and Sully in Barcelona but after they uncover a map to the whereabouts
of the gold, she ends up stealing it and going back to Moncada. As they ascend into the sky
Braddock reveals her true plan and ends up killing Moncada and just before she can put
an end to Chloe we get the awesome plane scene from the third game. I was lucky enough to
see the film in IMAX and this entire part completely blew me away. It really felt like
they'd perfectly captured the games and there's several iconic things from it such as the
cargo crates that Nate has to climb up. During this time Sully parachutes away and Chloe
ends up driving Moncada's car off the plane in order to escape.
Now in the original game Nate ended up catching up to one of the crates and he used the parachute
on it to slow his fall. Here though he goes to the car, gets Chloe and then the pair drop
together before they swim to a resort on one of the neighbouring islands.
You might recognise one of the guests here as being Nolan North who voiced Nathan in
the game series. He even makes a joke about how he fell out of a plane once too and it's
one of my favourite camoes in a thing well ever.
Pouring over the maps, Nate realises that his brother wrote messages to him in the postcards
in invisible ink. Using his lighter he manages to uncover them and this item actually popped
up at several points during the fourth game. Sam was somewhat retroactively added into
the lore but I do appreciate that they just hit the ground running with him here and showed
him at the earliest possible opportunity. I never really liked how he was kinda crowbarred
into the franchise and when you think about it Chloe was too.
She appeared in the second one with us being told that she and Drake had history but like
with Sam, we see that play out in Chronological order. This is very much the same with Elena
who is completely missing from this movie and we know from the game timeline that Nate
doesn't meet her until long after he's met Chloe.
Now the postcards point Nate to where the treasure is buried and he somewhat leaves
a test for Chloe to see whether she will work with him or ditch him at the first available
opportunity. She fails and thus Drake heads off on his own. These moments on the speedboat
feel like they're ripped directly from a Thiefs End and the climax of the movie takes place
at a similar location to how that entry wrapped up.
The fortune is held within two ships hidden within a cavern and a lot of the iconography
of the approach to them is taken completely from the fourth game.
Sully reveals he's been tracking him the entire time and after Nadine and her gang arrive
there it all goes down. Using helicopters they pull the ships into the air and it somewhat
also plays upon the finale of the first game in which nate flying through the sky whilst
hanging off some treasure.
Sadly what's missing from the movie are the more supernatural elements that tended to
come as the games drew to a close.
I remember I did Nat-see the big zombie twist at the end of the first movie and I know that
the fan community is kinda divided on whether the monsters that tended to appear at the
end are good or not. I was always fine on em but they did try and drift away from doing
more supernatural things because the games weren't really designed for creatures that
just flanked you.
Whether that will appear in the sequel we don't know but after a chase through the sky
Nate ends up getting the upper hand and he uses a canon and Sam's lighter to bring down
Braddocks forces.
Leaving just her and Nate hanging off the ship, Sully has to decide whether the gold
means more to him than Nate and he ends up choosing the latter.
He ends up dropping it on Braddock who falls into the ocean and then the ship drops on
her head. Canoe believe it, should've given her a stern talking to.
Ey.
Now Sully grabbing Nate's hand is somewhat mirrored in the opening of the movie when
Sam did the same thing during his introduction. Nate also offers Sully the last of his gum
which he wastes and this mirrors an interaction that Nathan had with his brother when they
were kids.
Though Nate managed to salvage some Gold it won't be enough to count for the billions
that Sully was expecting but the real Uncharted was the friends we made along the way.
Nate suggests diving for it and in the fourth game we opened with him doing this though
there was a bit of a funny reveal when it turned out he wasn't hunting for treasure.
They fly off into the sunset with Chloe missing out and that takes us into our first post
credits scene which drops immediately after the title.
In an undisclosed jail cell we find that Sam is still alive. He writes a post card to his
brother saying that he has to watch his back and this somewhat ties into the scene that
follows it. Sam is played by Rudy Pankow and I believe that the second film will have him
reuniting with his brother.
In the fourth game we actually had a prison escape level involving Drake and his brother
which could end up popping up next time. If we are going off the games then this is Panama
and he's been sending these post cards out to show Nate that he hasn't died. Someone
is clearly stopping these postcards from getting out though and it'll be interesting to see
if they bring in Hector Alcazar in order for him to escape.
Now Sam wants to give his brother a warning more than anything and this likely ties in
with Gabriel Roman who gets name dropped in the second post credits scene. This moment
was actually shown in trailers and it was revealed that Sully now has his moustache.
Here we meet Pilou Asbaek's Gage who is working for Roman and similar to the villain he wears
all white. Incase you don't know, Roman is the villain from the first game and he ended
up looking for El-dorado which turned out to be a giant gold sarcophogas.
Inside of it was a mumified corpse that turned all who came into contact with it into flesh
hungry zombies. The Germans in World War 2 actually managed to uncover it and this transformed
the entire unit on the island into the undead.
Everyone was completely unaware of this and they thought it was just gold but it turned
out to be far more sinister. The second scene has a discussion about a map in it that was
used by the Germans and it's likely setting up the events of the first entry. Both the
pair look a lot closer to how they do in the games and Sully even gets a cigar whilst Nate
has one of his classic T-shirts.
This moment revolves highly around trying to buy Nates ring which is also riffing on
the scene that opened up the third game.
Sully and Drake escape the bar only to be stopped dead in their tracks and who this
could be we don't know. Potentially it's Eddy Raja and as there's a gold gun thats used
in this scene it could be hinting towards him.
All in all we don't know but I am excited to see what they do next time.
Now that kinda takes me into the review section of the video and though it's getting hated
on I actually quite liked the movie. I'm a big uncharted fan and even bought a psp just
to play Golden Abyss. I think that they made the best Uncharted movie that they could make
for a first outing and though it does have some issues, I think overall it's still a
fun ride.
I'm someone who completely hated the casting when it was first announced and the trailers
didn't really do much to change my mind.
When the movie first opened on the plane scene and Holland started off I cringed a bit and
just thought that they'd completely dropped the ball in terms of getting the actors right.
However, as the movie went on, I actually thought that he grew into the role and come
the end of it I think that both Holland and Wahlberg managed to just fall into place really
well together. They've got some good back and forth and the movie does a good job of
recapturing the exploration scenes where characters just walk about and have conversations.
They also do the spectacles really well and the plane scene is exactly as good as you'd
expect it to be.
Though Antonio Banderas does get underused I think that Braddock is quite a good villain
but I do wish that we learned more about her history and got flashes of her attempting
to kill Sam. The movie is pretty by the numbers and if you've played any of the games you'll
see the plot points coming a mile off. They of course took heavily from Indiana Jones
and this movie even name drops him to let you know that it's ribbing from the iconic
archaeologist too.
Perhaps that's why they avoided bringing up the Nazis in this one as it would lead to
more comparisons but out of all the Indy clones, I think this one ranks nearer the top. I think
I prefer it a lot more than Tomb Raider and though it doesn't get everything right, it
gets enough.
What I'm saying is, is that this movie is fine, it's not gonna break the internet but
it's also not bad and it handles everything it tries to do quite well.
As a fan of the game, I think they adapted the source material really well and didn't
drop the ball on any of the action.
Overall Uncharted was a fun ride and it gets a...
7/10
Now I'd of course love to hear your thoughts so make sure you comment below and let me
know.
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If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it's definitely worth
checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time. Take care, Peace