Old Ain't Dead

Charlize Theron in The Old Guard 2 Photo by Eli Joshua Ade/Netflix © 2025 - © 2025 Netflix, Inc.

The Old Guard 2 keeps up the fight

The Old Guard 2 is a continuation of the story of the immortals we met in The Old Guard. A few new characters and twists bring some changes but basically the story remains pretty much the same.

The Old Guard 2 starts about 6 months after the end of the first movie. As things were left then, Andy (Charlize Theron) is no longer immortal. Quynh (Veronica Ngô) has returned from 500 years in an iron coffin at the bottom of the sea. Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) is still exiled for betraying Andy.

Greg Rucka wrote the graphic novel the series is based on and wrote the screenplay with Sarah L. Walker. That means the characters are consistent and feel like old friends. Victoria Mahoney directed this one and she maintains the vibe and feel – especially in the many beautifully choreographed fight scenes – that we enjoyed before.

There’s plenty of action and hand to hand combat with stunts in cars, motorcycles and helicopters to add to the excitement.

Charlize Theron, Luca Marinelli, Marwan Kenzari, Henry Golding, and KiKi Layne in The Old Guard 2
Photo by ELI JOSHUA ADE/NETFLIX © 2025 – © 2025 Netflix, Inc.

The returning characters are Nile (KiKi Layne), the newest immortal, Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), the gay couple, Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who is not immortal, plus Booker, Andy, and Quynh.

New characters are two immortals we didn’t know about before. Tuah (Henry Golding) keeps the history of the immortals in a hidden library. Discord (Uma Thurman) is the one who pulled Quyne out of the sea. Discord is making trouble and wants to eliminate all the immortals except herself.

Discord is the villain in this one. She’s dealing in arms and plans a trap for all the immortals by planting a bomb in a nuclear plant that could mean the death of thousands of people. They all rush to prevent that and Discord has them where she wants them.

Here’s a spoiler for The Old Guard 2. I promise I’ll keep it vague. Immortality can be lost, we knew that. But it can also be regained. That does make a difference to several of the characters!

If you liked the characters and the action in the first movie, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one, too. The cliffhanger at the end makes me think a third movie with these characters could be possible.

The Old Guard 2 is now streaming on Netflix. If you watch it, I’d love to hear your reactions in the comments.

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3 responses to “The Old Guard 2 keeps up the fight”

  1. GreyWolf Avatar
    GreyWolf

    I like action films. I like women leads. I like Charlize Theron. I was disappointed by this film, ‘The Old Guard 2’. trite dialogue and emotions, tritely/flatly/low acting level delivered. Good action, but otherwise jerky plotting and scene sequencing. A lot of film was action people trying to be serious and talented actors. We know Theron can (Atomic Blonde!), but was less than here (perhaps overwhelmed by all her jobs and asks for this film, including not being uplifted by fellow actors except for Thurman?). It takes really good acting and directing/editing to make trite dialogue seem good. (Anora!)
    The Old Guard 2 was merely ok, but leaving the ending for a sequel really made this prequel unstatisfying and underscored it’s lacks. Kathryn Bigelow might have been stronger with directing/script improvement/editing/shot selection, etc, if one takes another female director.

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    1. Virginia DeBolt Avatar
      Virginia DeBolt

      Interesting that you think Kathryn Bigelow would have been better. I personally love Gina Prince-Bythewood who directed the first one. Victoria Mahoney has done a ton of episodic TV, but I think this was her first chance to lead a feature film in a while. I thought she did a fine job, especially with keeping the characters consistent. Again, you thought Uma Thurman lifted things up, but I found her less interesting. She did look awfully confident hanging on to the side of an open helicopter door. I kept trying to picture all the rigging they must have had on her to have her do a stunt like that and look so powerful while doing it.

      Reply
    2. GreyWolf Avatar
      GreyWolf

      Adding to my comments: I shortly after happened to rewatch The Equalizer film. Ok, not female lead or director, but same genre. Gender aside, Equalizer was so much better than Old Guard 2. Acting, directing, flow, pacing, establishing, build, shot selection and editing. And non-actor action guys were not asked to try to deal with lines much at all. See and feel the difference? (Again has nothing to do with male or female.) And they did not need to cut off ending to justify a sequel (or 2!). And as for my Bigelow comment: that shows my age and current dis-connect a bit, as good as she was and is. Certainly there are some very fine Nordic women directors who should be considered, among others.
      And I get the dis-connect some may feel about Thurman here. My opinion is she acted great, but the direction/characters/acting/script/story/editing, around her, did not help her much outside of action scenes.

      Reply

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