the old guard 2: 2 old 2 guard is just gonna be booker and quynh working through their trauma together

@themoonwheniamlost​, please keep in mind you encouraged this massive display of nerdery from someone who might someday end up writing stuff and thus loves to overthink anything related to writing.

Your post here is the perfect opening for me to say: the pacing of this movie in incredible and I would love to see the script. More under cut because once again I do not know how to keep things short.

I heard reviews saying the movie is too slow and I'm sorry but they die 12 minutes in. What else do you need??

And before that, and the thing from your post that prompted this: the very thing you get, the opening even, is the very dramatic and curiosity inducing line from Andy “I’ve been here before. Over and over. And I'm so tired.” How many time did this woman lie in a pool of her own blood? Wait, is she dead? I want to know, I shall keep watching to find out! And that’s followed by the found family opening and giving you clear indications of every characters. Booker and Andy share a thing in common (it’s called depression kids) ie: the book, the alcohol in the tea; Joe and Nicky are JoeandNicky and also their hugs tell a lot about themselves -open and loud love or reserved and quiet love- Joe’s “Admit it Boss (another good element, she’s the boss and they don’t question it. Sexism who?), you’ve missed this” and Nicky’s “We can do some good” being fundamental piece of their characters, then cool team work showing all their skills and how well they work together, and then bam! Immortality and stakes of the movie in two minutes : can't die, people know they can't die, oh no gotta clear that up. Also Tired Andy has given up.

And then you have Nile, lots of elements about her in a short time : she's kind with the children when she has no obligation to, she’s a competent marine and a good person “Keep it respectful”. She’s also leading her team, and she’s good at her job, make the women leave the place before attacking, “we need him alive!” and oh no she's dead! But she's not, oh shit another immortal while they're being tracked? Gotta find her and Copley, let's split up. More characterisation of the team with how they deal with the dreams.

Moment focused on Nile with the Frank Ocean scene, how she’s feeling rejected and overwhelmed but music and art is a safe space for her that she finds comfort into. Then Andy finds her and the plane fight : introduce dynamics and personality. Tired Andy is woken up from her catatonic state by Nile (look how she smiles when Nile deck her), Nile is so smart and quick on her feet (the belt around Andy’s wrist) and also she's a fighter she doesn't give up easily. But she's still scared of what’s happening to her, and Andy is gonna help her.

Then moment of exposition and bounding that's not too dragged out and just enough info dumping while still being enjoyable to watch with the jokes (more like misery loves company/what he said, we killed each other/Many times) and the emotions (the entire Quynh scene) and then we focus some more on Nile (and her relationship with Andy); how scared she is, how she’s dealing with it all. And in a fluid transition (being a big explosion) another fight scene! And even in the action, we still get Andy and Booker and feelings, fear and love and care for another.

But this fight has more stake, and it serves to show the spectator the violence of Andy and how she deals with it (you need to feel it). Nile has doubt and fear over Andy’s actions, understandable when you see the state of the church when she leaves. Then the van scene for Joe and Nicky and to feed us little gays who clearly need the positive representation; then Andy finds she's mortal, then Booker's back story for Nile, then the scene with Celeste and then Nile and Andy talking on the car : developing the emotions and characters. On the side, Joe and Nicky with Merrick : bit of plot and characterization of the antagonists (Merrick is a sadistic asshole, the doctor is the same and Copley starts to have doubts) but also more food for us (oh, that time in Malta).

Then, betrayal!! Smart Nile figures it out on her own, but before Andy does so we know what’s going on when Andy steps into the room and we can watch Booker’s reactions. Oh no, Andy is gonna die, but Nile come back to save the day. Also, we learn their purpose! After the emotional scenes and development we get the last fight scene, but it's for the plot not just action for the sake of kicking ass (which they can do very well but that’s not the focus, it’s the ground for the inclusion of Nile in the team and the development of their relationships). We get Nile accepting her immortality (going down fighting, what a fitting song), Booker facing them, Andy standing up again despite how tired she is (she trust Nile’s word! “I’ve seen it, I know all the good you’ve done” and she gets up!) and the team getting out. Also, "I go first, next time it's you" and "he speaks Russian?" for the evolution of Nile and Andy's relationship, nicely done.

And now it's the end, it’s not as quickly paced, now we can settle down and feel again, bad guy's dead and they're safe. They heal and deal with the last problem: Booker. More Nile development, she's in the team now and she'll deal with her family. More Andy development, she’s ready to fight again! Moral of the story: human survive by helping each other and being kind and good. Survival through others, and it works! The movie tells us so!

The last scene is very obvious but still, cliffhanger needed : Oh No. Quynh's back and we have no idea what she plans to do but she's planning alright. See you in the next movie, bet you’ll want to see what’s gonna happen next.

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I would love to see the script because that movie deals really well with the plot and the progression of the stakes and the character's arc. It's all very fluid and at no moment it felt wrong or forced. Of course you feel the info dump at the church but it's done really gracefully compared to other movie where you get a lecture instead of a conversation between characters that feels natural and real, human.

All the character arcs are clear: Nile accepts her immortality and finds her place in the team, Andy finds hope again and a will to fight.