The Losers is a 2010 American action film directed by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt and based on Andy Diggle and Jock’s Vertigo Comic series of the same name. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, and Idris Elba star in the picture, which is directed by Sylvain White and stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, and Idris Elba.
“The Losers” is a gripping tale of betrayal and vengeance that follows members of an elite US Special Forces unit sent on a search and destroy mission into the Bolivian jungle. Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch, and Cougar find themselves on the receiving end of a deadly betrayal orchestrated from within by a powerful foe known only as Max. Presumed dead, the crew makes plans to settle the score when they’re joined by the mysterious Aisha, a stunning operative with her own goal. Working together, they must remain deep undercover while chasing the heavily-guarded Max, a merciless man bent on involving the world in a new high-tech global war.
Plot synopsis
The movie begins with introducing us to ‘The Losers’ in question, Clay, Jensen, Cougar, Roque and Pooch who are all highly trained but also have areas of combat or recon that they specialize in. Cougar for example, is a sniper while Jensen is a hacker and intelligence specialist. They are dispatched to Bolivia on a search-and-destroy mission against a drug lord. The Losers reach and before they start the raid, they notice slave children in the complex. Their job was to paint a target for a forthcoming air assault and seeing the children, they try to stop the attack, but their boss, Max, dismisses them and orders them to carry out the raid. Clay decides that the most important thing is to save the children and they put the raid into motion with that in mind. They manage to successfully kill the drug lord, Fadhil and save all 25 children before escaping in an old school bus.
However, Max then attempts to kill the squad by sabotaging them. As a helicopter arrives to take them up, Max orders it to be destroyed, oblivious to the fact that they had decided to rescue the children first. The Losers stand by and watch as a missile destroys the chopper, killing 25 kids. Knowing that they are being targeted, they stage their deaths and end up stranded in Bolivia, without the means or paperwork to return home. This is only the beginning.
Four months later, Clay is approached by Aisha, a guarded and elusive woman who gives him the chance to assassinate Max, whom she is seeking vengeance against. The arrival of Aisha into the mix shakes things up and allows them the opportunity to return home. We observe the gang cross into the country in coffins after Aisha arranges for them to return to the United States. The team’s objective is to capture Max, clear their names and kill him. The crew tries to catch Max by attacking a convoy rumoured to be carrying him, only to find a hard drive and understand Aisha hasn’t told them everything. They realise that their apparent ally Aisha isn’t who she has led them to believe and this causes a fight between Roque and Clay.
They figure that they are as good as dead since Wade, who worked for Max had recognized Pooch during the attack. This causes them to use the hard drive as leverage to clear their names and get their lives back.
In order to access the files, Jensen brilliantly infiltrates the company that made the drive, with support from Cougar and steals an algorithm that allows him to crack the code. He then discovers that the drive contains credits for a $400 million transfer in Max’s name, which he received for selling “Snukes,” or Sonic Nukes, which are environmentally friendly sonic bombs with the potency of a nuclear warhead that use sonic fields to crush the surrounding environment. He plans to sell these weapons to international terrorists. Jensen tracks the money trail to the Los Angeles International Port of Entry, which the Losers believe to be Max’s base and they devise a plot to attack it and assassinate him.
In the meanwhile, we keep seeing scenes and shots of Max making deals with various people, most notable and Indian businessman whom he kills later on in the movie. These deals all seem to surround his quest for a global war that he believes will be good for the world.
Jensen discovers when researching the drive that their mission in Bolivia was a cover for Max to kill the drug lord who had uncovered his scheme, and that Aisha is the man’s daughter seeking vengeance for his father’s death. When this is revealed, Aisha shoots Jensen in the arm and flees. The Losers decide to hurry up their attack on Max’s base, fearing she may betray them, only to be betrayed by Roque and captured by Max and his chief of security, Wade.
Aisha reappears and ambushes Max’s team as the Losers are lined up to be executed. Clay confirms that he killed Aisha’s father during the ensuing brawl but they put aside their differences to take down Max and the climax ensues. Roque tries to flee by stealing Max’s jet, which is laden with his money. As Roque’s plane takes off down the runway, Wade hops on his motorcycle and chases him down to get Max’s money. Cougar fires a shot at the motorcycle’s engine, hurling Wade into the jet’s engine and the flaming motorcycle into the plane’s cockpit, where it explodes, killing Roque. Max then kills the scientist responsible for their development.
Clay then follows Max to a crane, where Max claims to have activated a Snuke that will destroy Los Angeles, and Clay must choose between deactivating it or killing Max. Clay picks the former, and Max flees, but Clay says that he now recognises Max and will locate him and kill him.
Max manages to get away on a bus, but is robbed by two thugs. The Losers then help Pooch in getting to the hospital where his pregnant wife is giving birth to their kid, as well as attending Jensen’s 8-year-old niece’s soccer game.
Keeping track of all the betrayals
There is more than one betrayal in this movie and each one is more shocking than the next. The first betrayal comes with Max blowing up the helicopter filled with children, in an attempt to kill Clay and the team. They were left to fend for themselves after it and they throw their dog tags into the wreckage so that Max, who had ordered the kill would think that they were dead.
The second betrayal comes with Aisha’s true intentions being revealed. Aisha’s presence caused a couple of fights between the otherwise tight crew, especially between Clay and Roque. Roque wanted nothing to do with Aisha’s revenge mission and he simply wanted to go home. We also see multiple scenes where the rest of the team and roque warn Clay about getting involved with a woman and causing that to cloud his judgements and decision. It is important to note that this betrayal stings Clay because the two of them became physically and to some extent, emotionally involved as the movie progressed. It is also understood that Clay had made wrong decisions because of a woman, prior to this. Thus, when the betrayal was revealed, Clay felt guilty for allowing a woman to lead him astray.
However, while we all knew that Aisha was hiding her own secrets, the final betrayal in the movie is the harshest. Roque betrays the rest of the team during the raid on the port and sells them out to Wade, along with working for Max. This isn’t something that I saw coming while watching the movie because despite their squabbles, they had been through a lot together. Roque says that he was tired of following Clay everywhere, even when he made the wrong decisions and that he just wanted his life back. However, he does die in the final shootout.
Is Max alive in the end?
Another central question which comes up is, is Max alive? In the final scene, we see that Max runs up to a place from where he can board his helicopter and fly away from all the chaos that ensues in the climax. However, Clay follows him and manages to shoot the chopper away, cornering max with nowhere for him to go but straight into the ocean. Max, being the evil genius that he is decides to release his finger from the pressure trigger that was attached to a snuke which would destroy the entire state. Max throws the trigger off into the ocean and Clay jumps in behind it, to catch it in time. While we do see Clay find the trigger and stop the explosion, this also means that he did not manage to kill Max.
Max flees the scene, taking the opportunity. We see him ride the bus to someplace with an injured shoulder where Clay had shot him earlier. However, we don’t know how things end for the villain because in the bus, two burly men come and demand that he hand over his expensive watch. Clay also gets a phone call from Max where Max warns him but Clay says that he now knows what Max looks like and will definitely come for him.
The Losers never got a sequel post the 2010 release even though it had a perfect set up. The good thing is that you can always read the comics to find out what happens next in the Losers’ pursuit for Max.
The Losers is a DC Comics comic book series written by Andy Diggle and drawn by Jock. It was released under the Vertigo label. From August 2003 through March 2006, it was published in 32 issues.
Do Clay and Aisha end up together?
The losers are assigned a final mission in the epilogue. Pooch’s wife is giving birth at a hospital, and with the help of his squad, Pooch descends into the hospital grounds. Pooch returns from the dead to see his wife, and the two are happy with the birth of their little boy. Later, Jensen attends his niece’s football game. He is accompanied by his squad. When a player from the opposing side tackles Jensen’s niece incorrectly, he erupts in rage on the field causing an amusing ending to an action-packed film. One thing to note here is that in these missions to see their families, Aisha is a constant feature.
One could wonder, what happens to Clay. Clay appears to have no family outside of his crew, yet during the mission, he and Aisha build an ostensibly deep bond. So, do they end up together? Despite the fact that the film does not provide a realistic answer to this question, Aisha tells Clay that they must still remember their mission regarding Max towards the end of the film. Following that, Aisha reminds Clay of another unfinished business: the promised dance that never happened. When their objective is completed, Aisha proposes dancing with Clay, and we believe it is very likely that they will meet again in the future given their sizzling chemistry in the film.
While the movie isn’t the best thing I have ever seen, the star cast along with good comedic timing, action and a chain of betrayals make it a fun and entertaining watch.