Critics hate this movie while the audience absolutely loves it. Uncharted: The Movie has a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes but an 89% audience score. I believe that this is the case because movie critics is in no mood to give a videogame movie a good score. Numerous videogame movies have flopped at the box office but I see Uncharted being an outlier in that category. If you are looking for some action and a few comedic reliefs, this is the movie for you. You don’t even need to play the four games in order to follow the plot for this movie. However, if you are a fan of the videogames, you will be thrilled with the call backs in the movie. You get the airplane scene from Uncharted 3, Chloe from Uncharted 2,3 & 4, Sam and Nate from Uncharted 4, the main piece (St. Avery’s Cross) from Uncharted 4, and the exact scene when Nate finds the missing pirate ship from Uncharted 4. The only thing missing from that scene was the fight scene with Nate and Rafe, since Rafe wasn’t in this movie. You even get a cameo appearance from Nathan Drake himself, Nolan North, which I was expecting to see one way or another. The only thing that was disappointing was not seeing Elena in the movie. She wasn’t even mentioned either. She is one of the fan favorites in the videogame but I fully expect to see her if there is a sequel. I really enjoyed this movie. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones knockoff, you should see this movie. I will definitely see it again when it hits Blu-ray/steaming services.
Young Nathan and Sam
I wanted to highlight this because it was a homage to the fourth game when Sam was taken away from Nate because he got kicked out of the St. Francis Boy’s Home. We all know he ended up leaving but that’s all we got in the flashback scene. I thought we were going to get the scene straight from the game when Sam went to “kidnap” Nate to find the truth about his family but we didn’t get that. Instead we got the way that Nate got Drake’s ring in the first place. Nate ended up stealing it in the third game inside the museum but Sam already had it in the movie. The most iconic Uncharted piece is now in Nate’s hands. Also maybe the most iconic quote in Uncharted was said too in this scene “greatness from small beginnings: Sic Parvis Magma”. When Sam left the school Nate got numerous post cards wherever Sam went. This is the most important plot point of the movie because one of Sam’s post card was the key for Nate to find the treasure at the end of the movie.
Nathan & Sully
Nathan Drake was played by Tom Holland. Tom is a perfect Nathan Drake and is becoming one of my favorite actors in the field today. Anything that Tom Holland is in, I will give it a watch. He has the exact charisma that Nate portrays in the game and even has the sarcastic remarks that he has too. Mark Wahlburg played Victor Sullivan in the film. When the casting was announced I hated this choice for Sully because I didn’t see it at all but he grew on me by the end of the film. Tom and Mark obviously had chemistry throughout the whole movie. However, this movie focused on how Nate and Sully met each other in the first place. Sully set Nate up by wanting him to help him find the same treasure that Sully and Sam tried to a few years prior. The only reason why he chose Nate in the first place was Sully believed that Nate knew something that Sam told them when they were growing up. Their relationship was rocky throughout the whole movie. Sully didn’t trust Nate and Nate ended up blowing up on him when he found out that he left Sam to die. Nate and Sully ended up setting aside their differences and found the treasure. When all hope was lost, since the ships with the treasures went on the bottom of the Philippines water (something Uncharted fans always expect, since they either never find the treasure or the treasure gets destroyed in the process), Nate even gives Sully some treasure that he smuggled away in his pocket. This was obviously an important movie to develop their relationship, since they worked together for 30+ years throughout the franchise. Nate and Sully’s relationship is one of the strongest ones in videogames history, since Nate and Sully would die and do anything they need to for each other.
Chloe Frazier
Nathan’s girlfriend in the second game but definitely was a homage to the fans of the videogames. This was my favorite side character in this movie. She brought it all during this whole movie. She was one of the keys for the movie, having the other cross needed to proceed for the whole plot. This is how she was teamed up with Nate and Sully in the first place. She knew Sully from before but didn’t trust anyone that crossed her path. She warned Nate that Sully wasn’t the guy who he portrayed and had a secret about his brother Sam. This is important later because Sully ended up telling Nate that he saw Sam die by Sully leaving Sam behind when he was shot. Chloe double crossed everyone in this movie. She knocked Nate out and left them for Braddock and Moncada. She also double crossed them by leaving them inside the plane and jumping out with Nate. She even got double crossed by Nate himself by Nate leaving her the false coordinates to the treasure. She found out this at the end of the movie but she wasn’t seen in the ending scene with Nate and Sully. I fully expect her to comeback in the sequel, setting up the romance between her and Nate, since they were together during the skip between the first game and the second one.
Santiago Moncada & Braddock
One of the most underwhelming antagonists ever in a movie. Moncada believed that the treasure was his because the crosses was made by his family. Moncada showed no remorse in this movie, even killing his own father for the treasure but that wasn’t enough. Moncada’s second in command, Braddock ended up double crossing him and killing him on the plane. I know that every movie needs a villain but I believe that they were the worst two characters in this whole entire movie. When Braddock was alive, she was always one or two steps behind Nate and Sully. She made questionable decisions at times, especially at the helicopter chase scene at the end, when she could have landed one of the ships on her boat and then chased after Nate and Sully, but decided to chase after them with the ship still hooked onto the helicopter. Hopefully in the sequel we get a better antagonist and a stronger villain presence in the movie.
End Credits Scenes
There were two end credit scenes in this movie. The first one showed that Sam wasn’t actually dead and stuck in jail. If you played the fourth game, you know that Sam didn’t actually die and escaped from jail with a deal, setting up the plot for the fourth game. This leaves the door open for Sam to either return in the second movie or return for another movie down the road (if they choose to do a trilogy). It will be an interesting dynamic because Nate thinks that Sam is dead and will be surprised to see him again.
The second end credit scene was the more important scene and this will set up the plot for the second movie. You see Nate trade his ring for a Nazi map with a character named Gage. We don’t know who Gage is but we know who he works for. Gage works for Roman, the primary antagonist for the first game. If they choose to make the second movie, I think they are going to use events from the first game, trying to find the treasure in El Dorado. Gage goes to double cross Nate, but Sully ends up saving the day and saves Nate. Sully finally has is iconic mustache in this scene, a staple we got in all four of the videogames. As an Uncharted fan and it being my second favorite game of all time, this gets me excited that the story is not ending and ultimately the franchise is just starting up again.