Steve Barnett’s Valiant One would have made for a decent subplot in a film, but spinning an entire film out of that narrative made it seem a little underwhelming. The basic problem is that there’s not much motive given to the characters, and at times, the writing seems to be very superficial, repetitive and shallow. The entire North Korea-South Korea conflict is totally wasted, as the writers just touch upon it and refrain from exploring the depths of the matter. If the filmmaker and his team of writers had created a lighthearted narrative solely for the purpose of entertainment, then I believe things would have still been fine. But Valiant One tries to pretend it’s a serious drama, and that’s where it falls short by a margin.
Spoiler Alert
What happened during the mission?
The American unit at the Camp Humphreys base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, was told that, somewhere in the demilitarized zone on the border of South and North Korea, a GPR unit had stopped working, and they needed to immediately go and repair it. A team of 5 soldiers, together with one technician, was supposed to accompany the crew chief. Originally, Edward Brockman was not meant to be a part of the team, but due to the absence of one of his colleagues, he was asked to fill in for him. Brockman didn’t have a very good reputation among his colleagues, and seemed as if he was not serious about his job in the past or had committed some careless mistakes during a mission. Stephanie Selby didn’t trust him one bit, but then the team didn’t have any option, and they had to make do with whoever was around that day. Joshua Weaver, the Quantico systems senior signal analyst, also joined the team, and he was the only one who didn’t have any prior combat experience, and it could be said that he was practically a civilian. It seemed like a pretty simple job at first, but the team had no clue that destiny had something else planned for them. The team was repairing the GPR unit when the weather suddenly started to change.
A storm was inbound, and the chief thought that it would be best to go back to base and come to repair the device another time. On their way back, their helicopter got caught in a severe weather event and probably got hit by lightning. The helicopter crashed, and though everybody was alive, a couple of team members got severely injured. Chris Lebold got stuck in such a position that he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it out of there alive. The crew chief was also in a bad state, and he didn’t know how long he would be able to survive. Chris Lebold called for help, and that’s when he was told that the “Valiant One” team was in enemy territory, i.e., the helicopter had crashed in North Korea. Lebold told Brockman to take the other team members and leave him behind. Lebold didn’t want to put their lives in jeopardy just because he got stuck in between the debris of the helicopter. Lebold told Brockman that he would try to buy them some time and also told him about the exact location they needed to get to in order to be rescued by the American forces. With a heavy heart, Brockman and the entire team made their way through the jungle, not knowing what kind of danger they would encounter on their journey.
How did Brockman and Selby save Binna?
Brockman, Selby, and the entire team saw the North Korean soldiers heading towards the crash site. Joshua Weaver got so anxious and frightened that he just got up and started walking towards them to surrender. He believed that their only chance of survival was if they surrendered to the North Koreans as, according to him, they would have followed the protocols of the Geneva Convention and released them following international pressure. Luckily, Joshua got so scared that he froze in position, and he wasn’t able to speak a word. The American soldiers pinned him down and got very angry at him for putting their lives at risk. They told him that the North Korean soldiers wouldn’t have thought twice before shooting him dead. The American soldiers reached the edge of the forest, and before them was a stretch of land with a cottage at the end of it. The team decided to take their chances and try to reach the cottage so that they could spend the night there. They reached the barn, which was just adjacent to the cottage, but before they could do anything, a North Korean showed up holding a gun in his hand. The soldiers were able to make him believe that they were not there to hurt him or his family. The crew chief took his last breaths in the barn, and his death shook something inside Selby. The Korean man had a wife and a small girl who were equally paranoid at the sight of the American soldiers. But they were good people, and it didn’t take long for the soldiers and the family to form a bond and trust each other. In the morning, Brockman and his team were just about to leave when they saw a small contingent of North Korean soldiers arriving at the cottage. The North Korean soldiers found the crew chief’s body lying in the barn, and they didn’t take long to kill both husband and wife without giving them an opportunity to speak in their defense. Selby was persuaded by the family and hid with the little girl, Binna, in a secret space beneath the floorboards while Brockman and his men eliminated the North Korean soldiers. Brockman realized that they needed to locate the point where the rescue team had asked them to arrive at and escape from the godforsaken land to save their lives.
How Did Brockman and his team escape North Korea?
The Americans were not so lucky, as they were once again stopped by a North Korean patrolling unit, and in the combat, Joshua Weaver ended up losing his life. The man had never held a gun in his hand, and just moments before he took his last breath, Brockman had handed him a weapon and told him that he might need it for his safety. Joshua killed a North Korean soldier and saved Selby’s life, something he would have never imagined doing in his life.
In Valiant One’s ending, Brockman and his team then reached the exact location where the rescue team had asked them to, but they couldn’t find any soldiers there. That’s when Binna, the native North Korean girl, accidentally found a tunnel, and Brockman realized that it would probably lead them to safety. The Americans reached the end of the incursion tunnel only to realize that it was a trap, and there were North Korean soldiers patrolling the exit gate. The “Valiant One” team tried to fight back, but they did not have the manpower or the ammo to tackle the North Korean forces. That was the moment when Brockman decided that he would sacrifice his life for his team members. He asked Selby to leave with others while he tried to stop the enemy. Brockman fought valiantly, but in the end, he got shot and lost consciousness. Brockman would have been killed, but the rescue team arrived at the right time and saved his life. Brockman was escorted back to safety, and he proved to his teammates that he was worthy of their trust.
