Working for a union has both its drawbacks and perks. On one hand, you probably won’t get as many vacation days as you want. On the other, you might get better dental coverage.
But working for the Union—that is, the super-secret intelligence agency—has its drawbacks and perks, too. One day, you’re getting shot at and thrown into a car trunk. The next, you’re thwarting international terrorist plans.
As a construction worker, Mike has a lot of experience with the former. But when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne, walks back into his life, he’s introduced to the latter.
Half the world’s intelligence agencies don’t know about the Union, Roxanne tells Mike. The other half regret finding out. And instead of Ivy-League-educated operatives, the Union is made up of former blue-collar workers. They have street smarts, not book smarts. They know how to get things done because nobody has ever handed them anything in life. And their most valuable asset is the ability to fly under the radar and blend into any crowd.
Unfortunately, Roxanne’s most recent mission for the Union failed. A hard drive containing information about every Western-allied intelligence agent, military officer and cop was stolen. And now, a woman known as the “Auctioneer” is planning to sell it to the highest bidder.
Because Roxanne and her comrades have been exposed, she needs a “nobody” to pose as an interested party to get the intel back.
Enter Mike.
Sure, he might not have combat training, hacking skills or years of espionage under his belt, but Roxanne knows she can count on Mike. He’s the guy who always tries to do the right thing. He’s stable. Reliable.
And boy, is he a nobody.
Roxanne and Mike might’ve dated once, but they don’t really understand each other. Roxanne thinks Mike’s life in Paterson, New Jersey, is “small.” And she believes that by giving him a position with the Union, she’s adding some much-needed meaning to his life. Mike, for his part, is still hurt that Roxanne traded in her own life in Paterson for something supposedly bigger and better. And he thinks her single-minded focus on the mission above all else is misguided.
They’re both wrong though. Yes, Mike still lives in the same house and has the same friends from high school. But he also knows he can count on those people. They would lie down in traffic for him, and he would do the same. And no, Roxanne’s life hasn’t been everything she thought it would be, but she believes in what she’s doing—and she risks her life for others every day.
Eventually, they both realize that while their lives aren’t perfect, they still have value. Mike makes an honest living and has people he can depend on, while Roxanne’s focus saves lives, often putting her own in danger.
The pair learn to set aside their differences, and they each put their own lives on the line for each other and the world. People apologize for past wrongs. Friends help each other out and trust each other.
The very premise of the Union celebrates blue collar workers. Brennan, the founder, states that these people are the ones who “build our cities” and “keep production lines humming.”
Someone says an earnest “God bless you” to the bride and groom at a wedding. Two characters stand outside a church. Someone says a CIA agent better “pray” the Union finds the stolen intel before it falls into the wrong hands.
There’s no nudity or sex scenes, but folks talk about their sexual encounters. We’re introduced to Mike, in fact, the morning after one such encounter as the woman (who turns out to have been his seventh-grade math teacher) kicks him out. Although the two are both adults now, several people are weirded out.
We see Mike in his underwear twice. The camera looks down on him as he showers, but nothing critical is seen. Women often wear cleavage-baring, form-fitting outfits. One woman pulls a hidden device from her brassiere.
A man moons his friends. Two people kiss. Roxanne and Mike sleep in a bed together, but neither makes a move on the other.
There are a few sexually charged jokes. During a psych evaluation with the Union, someone asks Mike how many fingers he can fit inside his rear.
Mike and Roxanne hint at sex frequently. They talk about their sexual history with each other. (The pair dated in middle- and high school. And somewhere in that timeframe they began having sex.) They come close to kissing several times, too.
[Spoiler warning] Mike gets angry when he learns that Roxanne is married, feeling that she led him on. She defends her actions, saying she’s separated from her husband, also noting that she thought her husband was dead. Later, her husband partially blames his illegal deeds on their separation (though his actions were largely due to selfish ambition and greed). Roxanne also learns her husband was cheating on her. And she later says it was a mistake to marry him.
It’s pretty much a given that any spy thriller is gonna have a lot of violent content, and The Union doesn’t deviate.
Right from the get-go, people start dropping like flies. Granted, most of the folks who take a bullet are intelligence agents, and guns are an occupational hazard. But more than once, bad guys start firing rounds into crowds of civilians in the hopes of hitting their target.
Explosions, high-speed car chases and massive exchanges of gunfire flood the whole film. Folks are killed in car and motorcycle crashes. We see multiple people hit by vehicles. Some fall from high locations. And many more are killed by gunshots to the head. One man manages to survive a bullet wound to the chest, but the rest aren’t so lucky. Brennan pointedly avoids numbering casualties after a bomb takes out many Union operatives.
Roxanne and her team are devastated after a member of their team is murdered. We don’t see the act onscreen, but we do see the body. Roxanne takes it hard when other members of the Union are killed in combat. And she cries after she’s forced to kill a former ally, feeling guilty and mourning the loss. We see a man’s bleeding corpse floating in water after he’s shot.
When guns and explosives run out, agents pick up any makeshift weapon they can find. Two women fight with knives. When a woman begins choking Mike with a faucet extension, he tries and fails to stab her with a pair of kitchen shears. Later, he throws a rock at an assailant’s head, knocking the man into an empty pool and effectively killing him.
We see a number of fistfights, as well. Roxanne even manages to kill two people with her bare hands, breaking their necks (and a fellow agent enjoys this display, exclaiming, “Yes, queen!”).
Many people are threatened at gunpoint. We hear that intelligence agents and police officers worldwide will be killed if the stolen intel falls into the wrong hands.
Roxanne says she was kicked out of college for breaking an athlete’s nose. She then says she did so because the guy had date-raped her best friend and the administration had ignored it.
During his Union training, Mike spars with other agents and is punched in the groin at one point. During his psych evaluation, he’s slapped in the face several times, so the evaluator can test his reaction.
After wrongly arresting Brennan, a CIA agent sports a black eye, courtesy of the Union man. Mike pointedly kicks a bad guy while the man is down.
We hear a single use of the f-word and nearly 50 uses of the s-word, along with several uses each of “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “d–mit,” “h—,” “p-ss,” “p–ck” and the British expletive “bloody.”
God’s name is taken in vain nearly 20 times, more than half paired with “d–n” or “d–mit.” Christ’s name is also abused thrice.
Folks drink throughout the film, often at bars. Roxanne orders shots for herself and Mike a few times. Mike recounts a time Roxanne vomited after consuming too much liquor. We hear a newly married couple met because the groom got drunk and took off his shirt in a bar. His bride was the bartender who drove him home.
Roxanne injects Mike with a tranquilizer in order to semi-kidnap him. …
… But when he awakens, Roxanne and Brennan confirm they are not kidnapping him. They just needed to get him to London without anyone knowing. Mike argues they could have just asked him.
Though espionage can be used for good, we also see here how it can be used for evil. Treason, betrayal, identity theft, larceny, blackmail and all other sorts of bad deeds go with the trade. We learn about several double agents who betray their comrades and countries for personal gain.
Characters lie to and manipulate each other. Mike’s mom is quite outspoken, and though it’s played for humor, it’s also a bit rude. A CIA agent is condescending to members of the Union.
We learn that Mike’s dad was racist, and Mike apologizes to Roxanne, who is Black, for not standing up to him. During a psych evaluation with the Union, Mike jokes that he argues with his dad a lot less now that the man is deceased.
We hear a man urinating in a bathroom stall.
Hollywood has produced a lot of films exploring what would happen if an “average Joe” was recruited into the world of espionage. But The Union may be the first film to test what it might look like if an entire agency was formed by blue collar workers.
The Union shows that heroes can come from some unlikely places. And ultimately, many good people lay down their lives to save countless others.
But not every element of the film is savory.
Violence here is on par with most any PG-13 spy action flick. Folks, good and bad, are killed in a variety of ways. Collateral damage takes its own toll. And though we don’t see any remorse in the film’s antagonists—indeed, one man claims it’s the Union’s fault he had to take things so far—there’s at least a sense of justice served by film’s end.
Language is other big hurdle for potential viewers. Keeping in line with its PG-13 rating, The Union only has one use of the f-word. Unfortunately, it also shows how far that rating can stretch with nearly 50 uses of the s-word, and it includes plenty of other profanities, too.
So while The Union puts a fun spin on the spy thriller genre, its not-so-secret problems undercut its mission for families.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
