Directed by Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale), Dirty Angels is an action thriller starring Eva Green, Ruby Rose, and Maria Bakalova. Jake, an Army Ranger, was brought onboard to carry out a rescue operation in Afghanistan in 2021, disguised as a member of a medical relief team along with other female American soldiers. A group of school students, all daughters of American ambassadors and foreign ministers, were abducted from a school in Pakistan. The kidnappers, headed by ISIS leader Amir, demanded ten million dollars for each student, as well as the release of Sheik al-Shimali. While most of the students were American, the former Afghan Minister of Education’s daughter, Badia Durani, was also among those abducted. Badia’s mother was convinced that her daughter would be the first to be beheaded and that ISIS would use her to force the Americans to come up with a way to pay for the release of their daughters. Jake and her team managed to enter Afghanistan disguised as a medical relief team, but will they manage to rescue the girls? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
How did Jake plan on conducting the rescue operation?
Soon after landing in Pakistan, Jake contacted her Taliban informant to locate where the American girls were being held. Even though her contact was reluctant to help, her hatred towards ISIS convinced her to dig deep. Meanwhile, Amir asked one of the American girls he had abducted to hand over a letter to the Taliban police, after which she would be allowed to return home. The girl assumed he was being generous and agreed to it. As soon as she handed over the letter to the police, a bomb went off, killing her and the policemen at the station. It was deduced that the attack had been planned by ISIS. The rescue mission had to be executed immediately, given the danger the young girls were in.
After meeting with her contact upon entering Afghanistan, Jake informed her team that the girls were being held at an abandoned tobacco factory. Even though their leader, Travis, was hesitant, Jake confirmed that her informant had gathered the details from a midwife who had been to the factory. Travis had complete faith in Jake, and even though her team wondered if the source was trustworthy, he decided they must follow Jake’s plan. By the time they reached the factory, the girls were nowhere to be found. A shootout between the Taliban and Jake and her team ensued immediately after they broke into the factory. Travis and the doctor assisting the team were shot during the conflict. Even though their lives could be jeopardized, Jake prioritized retrieving the doctor’s body over running away from the scene. Her teammates assumed it was a desperate attempt to make up for her past mistake—the rumor was she had killed her team leader before, but that was not the whole truth. Her team leader was about to be stoned to death, and she did what he expected her to — kill him in her first attempt. The guilt consumed her to the extent that she was ready to jeopardize her life if it meant keeping her team safe. Knowing how the deceased were treated, Jake believed the least they could do was to bring the bodies with them.
ISIS was blamed for the attack on the Taliban, and when Jake and her team made it to their Taliban contact, Bashir’s house, Durani showed up. She had managed to make it to Afghanistan, and she brought along with her a bag full of counterfeit money. She was confident that Amir would not be able to tell that the notes were fake at first glance, and it would buy Jake and her team enough time to conduct the rescue operation. Jake’s Taliban contact also met them at Bashir’s house and told them that after the attack the previous night, Amir had decided to move the girls to a different location. She believed that Jake’s best bet was to hijack the Taliban van that would be moving Sheik al-Shimali to a high-security prison. Jake and her team decided to abduct the sheik and trade him along with the counterfeit money they had.
Who betrayed Jake and her team?
Jake and her team attacked the police van when Sheik al-Shimali was being transferred. In the process, one of the team members, Rocky, ended up getting injured. Unexpectedly, a bus was coming from the other side, and to protect the civilians, Rocky risked their life. Their leg got crushed under the bus, and they became immobile, making them an easy target for the Taliban. Even though Jake tried her best to help them, she did not have enough time. She advised Rocky to tell the Taliban that they were an American soldier, because only then would they be released and allowed to return home (in 2021 the US had begun evacuating from Afghanistan). But giving away their identity meant their team’s rescue mission would be interrupted, and Rocky was not ready to take chances. When Rocky was captured by the Taliban, they lied about being an ISIS soldier. To make an example of Rocky, the Taliban slit their throat right in front of a camera. While their plan was a success, Rocky’s horrific death was the price they had to pay for it.
Jake walked into the adjacent room, where they had held Sheik al-Shimali captive. She pointed her gun at him, but what she did not expect to find was her Taliban contact using a cell phone at their secret location. Jake attempted to choke her informant and bashed her head with her gun. She dropped to the ground unconscious, and Jake checked her phone. She realized that her informant had betrayed her, and she had been constantly providing information to the ISIS kidnappers. This explained why their first rescue attempt had failed, and Jake was confident that ISIS would raid their current location to get the sheik. By the time the ISIS soldiers arrived, Jake and her team had managed to hide away, and they secretly watched the men in action. Amir and his men took the bag of cash and the sheik with them. The informant apologized to Amir for failing to hand over the rescue team, and she accompanied Amir to his camp. Jake had placed a phone in the bag of cash and used it to track Amir’s location.
Why did Amir demand Sheik al-Shimali’s relief?
Sheik al-Shimali assumed that Amir was one of his dedicated disciples or well-wishers. He was grateful to the leader, but he wondered why Amir went out of his way to ensure his safe return. On their way to his camp, Amir explained that the sheik had married his parents and that was why he was eternally grateful to him. The sheik was surprised to see how well Amir had built his den—from surveillance cameras all around to trained men at his disposal, Amir seemed very clear about his goals. But the sheik could not shrug off the feeling of unfamiliarity—he did not recognize Amir, and he wanted to know who his parents were to understand the relationship he shared with them. The sheik did not seem to know his parents, but he chose not to pry, since Amir had stated that they had passed away. The leader also added that he had chosen a bride he wanted to marry (the daughter of the former Afghan minister), and he wanted the sheik to officiate their wedding. The sheik readily agreed to the proposition, and the bride was dressed for the occasion.
Badia Durani did not have a choice, considering Amir had suggested that she could either marry him and ensure that her friends were also married to ISIS soldiers, or they would be traded in the slave market. When the sheik started to read from the holy scripture, Amir prodded him, asking him to simply announce them as man and wife without getting into the details of the text. As soon as the sheik announced that they were officially married, Amir pulled out his sword. He stated that his father was a religious man, and yet the sheik had denounced him and his wife. He was the reason why his parents were executed by the Taliban. From then on, he had sworn that he would kill the sheik with his own sword. With one swift stroke, Amir slit the throat of the spiritual leader.
Was the rescue plan a success?
While Amir was busy avenging his parents, Jake and her team had entered his den disguised in burqas. Jake had figured out the floor where the girls were held hostage, and gradually her team started to hide explosive devices all around the den. The security men started to suspect the women working there. Two of the team members were with the abducted girls. They had killed the guard, and Jake waited for the perfect opportunity to safely help the girls find their way out of the den. All women working at Amir’s facility were asked to line up and reveal their faces. Medic (Ruby Rose) had no choice but to give herself away, but she did not care anymore because she had already planted a bomb at the spot.
During Dirty Angels’ ending, the explosion created a distraction, and Jake entrusted Badia to lead her friends down the escape path. The girls manage to make it to the van, and in the end, Jake got into a physical fight with Amir. She used his sword to slit his throat, and he bled to death. Jake had no choice but to leave one of her teammates, Geek, behind. It was almost impossible to rescue her, and she had advised Jake to prioritize saving the girls. Geek had signed up for the job knowing the risks involved, and she was willing to sacrifice her life for the greater good. Jake had dropped the coordinates of the location with the American air evacuation team, and they arrived in a helicopter to safely take the girls home. Jake chose to stay behind because she believed she still had a lot to do in Afghanistan. She was at a stage in life where she had lost too much, and she could not imagine going back to a normal life. Situating Dirty Angels in Afghanistan was to highlight the glaring contrast of beliefs and also to showcase the courage that it took for a group of skilled women and queer fighters to enter a space that was intolerant of them and safely bring the abducted young girls home.
