Aahana Swrup
The action thriller film ‘Dirty Angels’ charts a riveting path to glory as it follows a tenacious team’s undertaking of a dangerous rescue mission. Jake, a US marine, loses her squad to a dreadful ISIS leader, Amir, following a harrowing capture. Years after her successful escape, she finds the opportunity to settle scores and save numerous lives after Amir attacks an all-girls International school in Pakistan and takes various students hostage. Thus, the soldier teams up with a team of skilled fighters who plan to infiltrate the organization’s lair under the cover of providing medical relief.
Naturally, complications arise as Jake and her team progress with the mission. Still, with numerous young lives on the line, the soldiers refuse to give up and improvise on the ground. As the narrative operates within high stakes with plenty of scope for things to go wrong, the audience will inevitably become engrossed in the fate of Jake’s mission. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Dirty Angels Plot Synopsis
In 2021, Jake and her squad end up captives of the ISIS leader, Amir. However, before he can execute Jake publicly, the American forces manage to intervene with rescue choppers. Nonetheless, in the gunfight that follows, they’re only able to save the marine from the situation, leaving the rest of her team to their demise, despite her insistence otherwise. Years later, once Jake is back on duty, she attempts to charge the officer who flew the helicopter with cowardice for leaving her fellow marines behind. Her stance remains controversial, even unsupported by her superior officer, who points out that doing so would only air out her own past actions, including the murder of her Commanding officer. Nonetheless, Jake remains firm in her decisions.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, an International school for girls finds itself under attack from ISIS. As numerous armed men charge into the school and corral young girls into trucks, Badia Durani, the daughter of the Minister of Education, tries to help her friends hide and escape. Nevertheless, Amir’s men catch up to them. As it turns out, Amir has a particular bone to pick with Badia and her parents for their progressive views on women’s rights. Therefore, to punish the young girl, he kills her friends by throwing them off the school’s rooftops before abducting Badia with her classmates.
News travels of the abduction of the students—many of whom are American kids of ministers and other political figures. As a result, Jake’s friend and superior officer, Travis, put her on the rescue mission for these kids. Thus, the marine travels under the fake name “Jessica Rabit.” Upon arrival, she meets up with her team. However, given her no-nonsense attitude, she has no names and only functions. Therefore, she familiarizes herself with her crew, some of whom include Bomb, Shooter, Rocky, Geek, and Jane—the medic. Travis and the team’s doctor, Mike, will also be accompanying the group as they go forward under the disguise of a medical relief team.
However, before Travis arrives, Jake slips out to tend to personal matters and attempts to contact an associate. Afterward, she and Travis meet up with Camilla Durani, Badia’s mother. Apparently, Amir has asked for ransom for each of the minister’s daughters in millions of dollars—along with the release of a prisoner, Sheik Al-Shimali. Even though the authorities haven’t gone the ransom route yet, Camilla wants Jake and her team to pay off Badia’s ransom and save her in a last-ditch attempt if their plan ends up going south. She also gets them in contact with Bashir, an officer at the border who will help them in their travel toward Amir’s camps.
Two local brothers, Abbas and Malik, also join the team, fulfilling the roles of truck drivers. As the group arrives closer to their destination, complications arise. As it turns out, the weapons stash Travis was relying on is no longer accessible. On the other hand, Jake has some success with her contact, a Taliban member who owes the marine her life. Through her, she manages to get the exact location of Badia and the other girls. As for the weapons issue, the team comes up with a plan to raid a local military warehouse. Although the mission is successful, it leads to Mike and Travis’ death. Moreover, their raid tips off Amir, who relocates the girls to another location. Thus, their plan is essentially rendered useless.
Dirty Angels Ending: Why Does Amir Kidnap Badia and Her Classmates?
Amir’s actions remain the driving force behind the film’s premise, setting up the central mission for Jake and her team to undertake. However, his motives tend to be a little more ambiguous. Amir’s attack on Badia’s school and the subsequent death of various young students is a direct result of his hateful beliefs against women’s education. For the same reason, he has targeted the International school in Pakistan to capture the numerous daughters of ministers and American officials to hurt the people he holds his grudges against directly.
However, there’s actually another plan at play. While the fates of the majority of Amir’s victims are unknown—with only allusions to the fact that he’s keeping the young girls as slaves for his soldiers—he seems to have set plans for the daughters of the ministers. He uses one of the students, Halle, an American girl, to his wicked ploys by manipulating her into thinking he’s releasing her from his hold. In return, he asks her to deliver an envelope to the Taliban police station. Once the girl completes the task, he reveals his true intentions and sets off a bomb at the station. Thus, it becomes evident that despite his ransom demands, the ISIS leader actually has no intentions of releasing his victims.
Amir reveals the same to Badia when he proceeds with the next step of his plan. He actually wants to marry Badia and marry her classmates off to his loyal soldiers. Even though he maintains it because he wants “strong children” from strong women, it is likely a way to exact revenge upon the girls’ parents. Amir adds another twisted turn to his plans and offers Badia the illusion of choice in accepting his proposal. If the girl refuses, she’ll be killed, and her friends will be enslaved by his armed men. So, really, there’s no choice for Badia at all. Ultimately, Jake and her team remain the only hope for the young students.
Why Did Jake Kill Her Commanding Officer?
Even after Jake and her team’s plan continues to spiral out of control, they try to regain their footing. Initially, after losing the location of the hostages, Jake comes up with another, infinitely more dangerous plan. Initially, Rocky and the others planned to break out of the Shiekh to deliver him to Amir and covertly infiltrate his lair. While this would have been near impossible while the Shiekh was in prison, it becomes slightly more achievable once they get news that the authorities are transferring him to another location. Therefore, Jake and the others come up with a plan to intercept the envoy.
Although they succeed in this plan, Rocky ends up getting left behind. This further cracks open the dysfunction brewing around the group. Rocky, Jane, and the others couldn’t fully trust Jake due to her past. Thus, the aftermath of Rocky’s demise leaves everyone vulnerable, which allows the marine to open up to Jane. Years ago, when Jake and her team got caught by Amir and his men, they were kept in inhumane circumstances. Still, they preserved. However, near the end, Amir becomes even more malicious and brews up a harrowing plan to torture the group.
Amir wanted Jake and her squad to kill their commanding officer by stoning him to death. When they refused, he killed a civilian woman and child as punishment. Jake knew that the burden of the civilian’s deaths would be too much on her squad, as would her CO’s murder. For the same reason, she picked up a heavy rock herself. Her CO, who knew all about her childhood as a baseball pitcher, supported her decision and smiled at her before turning his temples to her—a clear, wordless command. Thus, Jake threw the stone and killed the CO in one hit. Later, Amir tries to do the same to Jake, the second soldier-in-command. Nonetheless, she ends up getting rescued before death and is forced to leave her comrades to their fates.
Does Jake’s Team Save the Girls? How?
Once Jake shares her past with Jane, it helps the latter understand the de facto leader of her group better. Even though the others aren’t privy to this information, Jane’s inevitable trust in the marine naturally puts the others at ease. However, a different betrayal brews in the background. As it turns out, Jake’s Taliban contact has been a mole for Amir all this time. Therefore, now that they have the Shiekh, she contacts Amir to share the group’s location. Even so, Jake manages to come up with a last-minute plan. She stuffs the traitor’s phone in the bag of counterfeit money and leaves it at the barn for Amir to find along with the Sheikh.
As such, Jake efficiently installs a tracker that will help her and her team locate Amir’s new lair. On his part, Amir remains oblivious to the entire thing and takes the bait. Apparently, the reason he wanted the Shiekh to be released was so that he could kill for a previous betrayal. However, while he’s engaged in marrying Badia and planning for Shiekh’s death, Jake and her team infiltrate the underground caves where Amir’s operation resides. Since all the women in the base wear burkas—a garment that covers their faces—the soldiers effectively disguise themselves and blend in with the surroundings. This helps them set traps and locate the prison holdings to enact the final steps of their plan.
Eventually, Amir realizes that his base has been compromised, putting his guards on alert. Therefore, this initiates a battle between the soldiers and Amir’s men while Jake tries to get the hostages out without any harm. Badia—whose marriage to Amir was interrupted by the attack—also manages to slip away and reunite with her classmates. In the end, as the soldiers help the girls flee—not without a sacrifice or two—Jake confronts Amir in a one-on-one battle.
Ultimately, Jake kills Amir—brutally slitting his throat and letting him choke on his own blood. Meanwhile, the rescue choppers arrive in the nick of time outside the caves and quickly take off with the hostages and the soldiers. However, Jake decides to take another route out—in the truck with Malik. Her parting decision to opt for the car instead of the chopper likely signifies her decision not immediately to return to the States. Perhaps she and Malik plan on continuing their hunt for groups similar to Amir’s.
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