Tamal Kundu
‘Mile 22′ is a spy action-adventure that keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. The 2018 film tells the story of an elite taskforce code-named Overwatch, which is activated when diplomatic and military methods fail to produce a conclusive result. They are led by child prodigy turned experienced CIA agent James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) serves as their supervising officer. The film is predominantly set in the fictional Southeast Asian country of Indocarr (based on Indonesia).
Silva and his team are working out of the US embassy and trying to locate the last batch of cesium before it can be turned into a weapon of mass destruction. A local special forces officer, Li Noor (Iko Uwais), shows up at the embassy claiming that he has encrypted information about the cesium in the disc he is carrying and offers its code to the US government on the condition that he would be extracted out of the country.
After some consideration, the US government agreed to Noor’s proposal and activated Overwatch to take him to an airstrip 22 miles away, where an airplane would be waiting for him. But to get there, they must first travel through the streets of a hostile country. If the previous collaborations between Wahlberg and director Peter Berg have made you wonder whether this film is also based on real-life events, here’s everything you need to know!
Is Mile 22 Based on a True Story?
No, ‘Mile 22’ is not based on a true story. Writer and editor Lea Carpenter (‘Eleven Days’) made her screenwriting debut with ‘Mile 22’, which she adapted from a story she wrote with Graham Roland. Wahlberg and Berg produced the film along with Stephen Levinson. ‘Mile 22’ marks a clear departure from Wahlberg and Berg’s previous collaborations. It is their first film together that is not inspired by true events.
The first time the two worked together was in the 2013 biographical military thriller Lone Survivor. The film is a cinematic adaptation of Marcus Luttrell’s autobiographical book of the same name (written with the help of Patrick Robinson). It revolves around a group of Navy SEALs who are on a mission to neutralize a high-ranking Taliban leader. However, the mission proves to be a disaster from the beginning, and all of Luttrell’s men are killed.
Ultimately, a local Pashtun man rescues him and hides him in his home. The movie was a massive commercial hit after its release, earning $154.8 million at the box office against its $40 million budget. Their second collaboration, ‘Deepwater Horizon,’ was released in September 2016. It is based on David Barstow, David Rohde, and Stephanie Saul’s article ‘Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours,’ which was published in the New York Times on December 25, 2010.
The article itself documents the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and the massive oil spill that followed in the Gulf of Mexico. Their third film together, ‘Patriots Day,’ is inspired by the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings. Since the release of ‘Mile 22’, Berg and Wahlberg have made one more film with each other as of fall 2020, the Netflix action-comedy ‘Spenser Confidential.’ This one is not based on a true story but adapted for the web service platform from Ace Atkins’s 2013 book ‘Wonderland.’
Read More: Where Was Mile 22 Filmed?
