Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Heart of Stone’ is an action spy thriller that follows Rachel Stone, an agent for a secret organization called The Charter. Stone and other agents like her are used to working in the shadows, often embedding themselves in other spy organizations like MI6. They have to keep the existence of the Charter a secret because it is directly related to a very powerful weapon that can destroy the world if it falls into the wrong hands.
While the Charter considers itself one of the good guys, it has a complicated past which catches up to it in the movie, leading to its near-destruction. If you are wondering whether the Charter is based on a real secret organization that walks a fine line between saving the world and destroying lives, here’s what you need to know about it.
The Charter is a Fictional Organization
‘Heart of Stone’ is a fictional story by Greg Rucka, known for his work on several novels and comic books, including Marvel and DC Comics. He also wrote the comic book, ‘The Old Guard,’ which he adapted into a screenplay for a Netflix film starring Charlize Theron. Given his track record, Rucka is no stranger to creating complex worlds full of action and adventure with complicated characters and dicey secret organizations. He created The Charter in the same vein to give a solid foundation to ‘Heart to Stone.’
One thing that defines the Charter’s existence and work ethic is the artificial intelligence, the Heart. According to the film, the Charter is just around two decades old and has depended on the Heart for a good part of its existence. The presence of the Heart allows them a direction to follow without giving much thought to the moral dilemmas they would face otherwise.
Talking about the importance of AI in the Charter, director Tom Harper explained: “The whole question of A.I. and technology, of how we can use them and harness that power as a tool, but at the same time, how do we manage it in a responsible way? How do we not lose sight of our humanity and rely on technology too much? It was the thrill and the scope, and the spectacle of it, combined with some social resonances, that I thought was very interesting.”
The core of the film and its secret organization are its agents, who are out in the field and often rely on their own judgment, even if it goes against what the Heart says. This is something that the filmmakers wanted to explore through ‘Heart of Stone,’ and this is where Gal Gadot’s Rachel Stone comes into focus. Like many secret organizations we have seen in movies and TV shows over the years, the Charter encourages its secret agents to be lone wolves without any personal attachments. Stone lives that life for a while, but by the end of the film, she realizes that this lone-wolf philosophy might have been the Charter’s undoing.
Harper revealed that the idea behind ‘Heart of Stone’ was to establish a protagonist that would break out of the shell of having the weight of the world upon their shoulders with no one to share it with. They “wanted Rachel to be a character that wasn’t just a female actress playing a sort of male character, but a woman at the heart of it who was responding differently. She needs to rely on the relationships and the trust that she builds up with other characters. It’s a team effort.” Considering all this, we can say that the Charter is a fictional organization, but the filmmakers have tried to ground it and root it in reality as much as possible.
