Listen to your heart, we’re told.
But what is the heart? A muscle pumping blood through our bodies? The object we attribute our emotions to?
Well, in the case of Rachel Stone, the Heart is a quantum computer capable of hacking into anything, anywhere. It simultaneously monitors every person on the globe through cameras, microphones, computers, etc. And because it’s constantly watching (and learning), it can predict with near-perfect accuracy exactly what someone will do and what will happen after.
Stone’s employer, the Charter, uses the Heart to watch the actions of terrorist organizations, dangerous militant governments and global disasters. Then they use that information to save as many lives as possible.
But when a group of villains learns about the existence of the Charter and the Heart, they decide to steal the Heart for themselves. Because whoever owns the Heart, owns the world.
Rachel is told to listen to the Heart to stop this from happening—no matter the cost. But what the Heart says is a bit different from what her own heart is saying. And even though she knows the bad guys absolutely cannot gain possession of the Heart, she wonders if the ends truly justify the means.
By and large, the Charter acts for the good of humanity. The Heart is programmed to “maximize lives saved.” And that’s certainly not a bad thing.
That said, Stone realizes that blindly following the Heart’s directives can still hurt a lot of people, even as it saves many others. While difficult choices must be made sometimes, Stone knows they could and should do better. And she negotiates with her employers to create a less lethal, more moral system for the future—one that tries to help all people in spite of the odds, not just the ones the Heart says they can help.
She also learns that the Charter’s strict no-relationships policy for its agents (which includes no family or friends), ironically, takes the heart out of the agency’s own workings. People need to have relationships. They need to have someone they care for, someone they’re fighting for, someone who has their back. And she convinces the Charter to let her create a team of people she cares for who will help her change the world for the good.
A woman is rightly imprisoned for her criminal actions. But she shows genuine remorse after watching several innocent people murdered by her cohorts and is eventually allowed to atone for her mistakes by working for the Charter. Another woman makes a kind gesture to a deceased man’s family.
The Charter, despite some of its early flaws, still manages to save thousands, if not millions, of lives. And we hear about some of the heroic things its members have done.
As he dies, a man says to his enemy, “See you in the next life.”
A couple kisses in the background of a scene. A young woman sits on a much older man’s lap. Several women wear form-fitting or revealing dresses. A man somewhat lustfully watches a woman swimming in a modest swimsuit. Later, she looks at him in a similar manner as he changes shirts.
Violence is pretty par for the course in spy thrillers, and Heart of Stone is no different. From start to finish, this flick is filled with gunfights, knife fights, fistfights, car chases and crashes, explosions and more. And yeah, people—including many innocent bystanders—often die during these clashes (though we don’t see a lot of blood or gore).
What might be a bit jarring for some viewers in these action sequences is the violence toward female characters. Sure, these gals can hold their own in a fight, but watching one big dude after another toss them around like rag dolls is pretty rough. (One woman is thrown onto a table and then yanked off by her hair.)
A bad guy electronically drops an elevator from many stories up, killing the passengers as well as several folks waiting down in the lobby. Someone dies via cyanide poisoning. A few people are garroted. Someone cuts the power to an underground bunker in an attempt to suffocate the people inside. We see the people pass out from lack of oxygen, but they’re saved in the nick of time.
A woman uses a syringe filled with an unknown drug to give a man a heart attack. A woman is temporarily paralyzed after getting cut with a poison-tipped knife. Stone uses a scalpel to cut out a hacking device that was embedded into her arm.
Someone hacks into the live footage of ongoing military operations and displays the violent videos on several television screens (which we see glimpses of) so that people can bet on the body counts. (And we learn this was done to lure a dangerous arms dealer.)
We learn the Charter once used drone missiles to take out a group of compromised agents to prevent the weapons they carried from falling into the wrong hands. (A survivor from that attack sports several burn scars on his back.)
Keya, one of the bad guys working against Stone and the Charter, reveals that her adoptive father was actually responsible for the deaths of her parents, conducting lethal medical experiments on them and thousands of others.
There are 14 uses of the s-word. We also hear uses of “b–tard,” “b–ch,” “h—,” “p-ss” and the British expletive “bloody.” God’s and Christ’s names are abused four times each.
People drink alcohol at parties and restaurants throughout the film. Someone tosses a used cigarette on the ground. Stone takes some pain relievers after getting injured.
As can be expected of most spy thrillers, people (even the good guys) lie, steal, bribe, betray, hack into computers and commit other crimes, such as reckless driving. Folks gamble at a casino.
A man says that great men don’t get power because they earn it or deserve it. Rather (he posits) when the moment comes, they take it. Several people are fueled by their desire for revenge.
Listening to your heart can be difficult. Sometimes the heart just wants things that aren’t necessarily good for us. (And sometimes the Heart forces the Charter to make some hard decisions.) But Stone learns that pairing her own heart with the Charter’s Heart actually makes her a better agent.
The risk might be greater—and she could even perish—but she knows she’ll save a lot more lives by doing so.
But speaking of risks, there are a few with watching this Netflix flick.
Language isn’t super frequent, but there are still 14 uses of the s-word to watch out for, along with other profanities.
Violence is the most brutal offender, really. Heart of Stone is packed practically nonstop with a plethora of action sequences. People often die in these scenes. And even when they don’t, some of the fights involving men against women get pretty intense.
In terms of spy thrillers, Heart of Stone is about what you’d expect in terms of its content. But just because it’s what you’d expect doesn’t necessarily mean you should plop the whole family in front of the TV screen to watch. You’ll need to listen to your own heart, and head, to determine that one.
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.
