Right before he became the internet’s go-to director for thought-provoking science fiction with films like “Arrival“and “Blade Runner 2049,” Denis Villeneuve delivered the critically acclaimed crime thriller “Sicario.” That film starred Emily Blunt as an FBI agent who gets embroiled in the U.S./Mexico drug war. It also marked the first entry in screenwriter Taylor Sheridan’s unofficial trilogy exploring the moral complexity of American law enforcement, followed by “Hell or High Water“and last year’s “Wind River.”
Now, Sheridan and incoming director Stefano Sollima continue that legacy with “Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado.” While Blunt served as the audience surrogate in the first film, the sequel goes deeper into the drug war and Blunt is nowhere to be found. The film shifts the primary focus over to returning stars Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro, the latter of whom stole “Sicario” as mysterious assassin Alejandro Gillick. That perspective, according to Sheridan, means the film will be “ten times more unsentimental” and “more vicious” than its predecessor, leaving audiences in decidedly amoral territory.
Here’s the official synopsis:
In Sicario 2: Soldado, the drug war on the US – Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) reteams with the mercurial Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro).
And judging by the footage seen in the new trailer, Sheridan is absolutely right. The first trailer previously hinted at just how far Brolin’s Matt Graver and del Toro’s Alejandro will go to take down the Mexican drug cartels. Now, in the newest trailer, we see more of what Graver and Alejandro have in mind for their unique war on drugs/terrorism. It’s clear that Sollima has turned the violence up a notch in the sequel.
“Sicario 2: Soldado” stars Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Donovan, Catherine Keener, and Matthew Modine and hits theaters June 29.
