Upamanyu Biswas
The comedy thriller ‘The Union’ follows Mike McKenna, a construction worker, who journies into a life of spydom after being recruited by his former high school girlfriend, Roxanne Hall. Her agency, The Union, is in dire straits after a failed operation in Italy forces their hand to try an alternative method to rescue the precarious situation. However, as Mike joins their ranks, evidence of a mole emerges, jeopardizing the delicate nature of their missions. The film’s narrative hinges on discovering the traitor, whose actions pose a security threat and a mortal one for operatives inside The Union! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Mole Bides His Time Before Revealing Himself
The mole in ‘The Union’ is none other than Nick Faraday, the Union agent who gets shot and killed in the film’s opening moments. The movie starts with Nick undertaking a special ops mission to extract a drive containing sensitive intelligence, which spins out of control as the enemy outnumbers him. At the end of the operation, Nick finds himself cornered on a canal bridge, where he waits for a pickup vehicle to rescue him and his extraction subject from their pursuers. However, the help never arrives as he is instead gunned down from a distance and falls into the river water. Subsequently, Mike and Roxanne are stunned to discover he is alive and well later in the narrative. Unfortunately, it is also revealed that he is the mastermind behind all the nefarious activities that have occurred thus far.
As it turns out, Nick staged his death very carefully to ensure that no suspicion or links could be drawn to him when all hell broke loose. He was worried about Roxanne and Tom Brennan connecting the dots about the real mole and jeopardizing his grand plan for escaping his meager existence as a Union agent. Therefore, when he returns, he uses his cunning to make Roxanne and Mike believe that the mole is Brennan himself. The head of the Union has an unknown origin, something Nick utilizes to concoct a version of events that suits his purpose of dividing the agency from the inside out. In truth, he is the one behind the deaths of all the agents, including the bombing of the BT Tower, citing it as a necessary move to stop the Union from chasing him down.
Nick Faraday’s Plan is a Selfish One That Costs the Lives of Many
After the truth about his identity comes out, Nick Faraday manipulates the evidence to frame Brennan and Roxanne to take the fall for his crimes. Ultimately, he plans to gather the intel everyone wants and sell it to the highest bidder, earning himself a handsome amount of money. As a former member of the Union, he knows the ins and outs of the agency like the back of his hand. Therefore, it gives him an advantage over his competition, allowing him to target them precisely. With Brennan and Roxanne out of the way, mainly in the clutches of an incompetent CIA, he can concentrate on selling the intel and finally gaining credit as a freelancer he never got while working for the Union.
The events set in motion by Nick Faraday cost the lives of several operatives within the Union, including the ones who lose their lives in the film’s opening sequence. Subsequently, the former agent is also responsible for the murder of agent Athena Kim, who dies inside the support van during the raid on the Hampstead mansion. A trail of bodies is left in the wake of Faraday’s plan, who callously kills anyone he deems a threat in his internal conspiracy. When he does not kill Roxanne, it is because he has other plans for her, which ultimately show themselves to be a case of implicating her in his stead. The same happens to Tom Brennan and any other personnel who crosses his path. Despite his recklessness, he is calculative in his approach, which is probably a testament to his training as an effective operative in the Union.
A Lack of Recognition Drives Faraday In His Rogue Operation
There are certain similarities in the characterization of Mike and Nick in ‘The Union.’ They are both special operatives for the titular agency, who, at some point, had a relationship with Roxanne. However, while Mike is more receptive to Roxanne’s words and her feelings, the same cannot be said for Nick. The latter was frustrated with his position in the Union, feeling as if the other agencies and people often looked down on him and his work, including his then-wife, Roxanne. The words of his employers eventually started grating on his soul and ego, forcing him to take drastic measures to escape a life lived in total obscurity. He was driven by a need for attention and admiration, which he felt he never got at the Union or from Roxanne.
Therefore, he masterminded a plan to escape any criminal accusation while taking down the Union. Although his primary intention is to make a profit by selling the intel to an Iranian terror cell, he is also motivated by a personal vendetta against those who he felt had wronged him previously. Naturally, his long list of transgressions causes him to butt heads with Mike and Roxanne in the film’s final moments, where, after a long car chase to the harbor, he is shot by the former and falls into the river – a repeat of his earlier fate. However, this time, he is unlikely to surface back into the world of the living from his bloody end.
Read More: Best Action Movies on Netflix
