The Contractor

James Harper is a former U.S. Special Forces soldier who is discharged against his will. Struggling to provide for his wife and son, he accepts an offer from his best friend Mike to work for a private contracting firm run by Rusty, a fellow veteran. The company sends Harper and a team on a covert operation overseas. When the mission goes wrong, he finds himself cut off from his employers and hunted, and he has to survive long enough to work out who betrayed him and get back to his family.

The film was directed by Tarik Saleh, his second English-language feature, following The Nile Hilton Incident and arriving in the same year as Cairo Conspiracy. J.P. Davis wrote the screenplay, and Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee produced for Thunder Road, with financing from Ingenious Media and 30WEST and distribution through STX Films. Chris Pine leads as James, with Ben Foster as Mike, Kiefer Sutherland as Rusty and Gillian Jacobs as Brianne; the credited production involved 48 cast members and 253 crew.

Released in March 2022, the film runs 103 minutes and earned about 2 million dollars worldwide, a modest return for a production of this scale. On IMDb it holds 5.8 out of 10 from roughly 35,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.3 out of 10 from around 1,100 votes. A critics' rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 87 reviews places it slightly below the audience scores.