The Wall is a 2017 American war thriller film directed by Doug Liman and written by Dwain Worrell. The film follows two American soldiers (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena) trapped by an Iraqi sniper. Produced by Amazon Studios, it was released on May 12, 2017 by Roadside Attractions. The film received mixed reviews from critics and audiences and grossed $4.5 million against a $3 million budget.

Plot

At the close of the Iraq War, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Shane Matthews is a sniper who is sent to investigate a pipeline construction site in the desert of the country, with his spotter, Sergeant Allen Isaac.

The pair patiently wait 22 hours on overwatch before determining that the site is clear. Matthews proceeds to investigate the site, but is shot by famed Iraqi sniper nicknamed “Juba. Isaac tries to rescue the dying Matthews, but he is also wounded in the right knee and has his radio damaged and his water bottle destroyed in the process.

Alone, Isaac takes cover behind an unsteady wall and tends to his wounds. The sniper has a radio tuned into the American channel, and uses it to communicate with Isaac under the pretense of being a high ranking allied soldier at another site. The deception allows the sniper to get other useful information from Isaac. Throughout their various one-sided attempts at conversation, we learn that the sniper does not claim to be the mythical Juba mentioned earlier in the film, a nom de guerre for various Iraqi Insurgent snipers notorious for filming their attacks on American soldiers.

Isaac s attempts to call headquarters for help are stymied by the loss of his radio antennae. He attempts to repair this item with one from a dead contractor s radio, only to discern that the sniper had used the earlier response team as a ruse to call for help and lure another response force into his jaws.

Matthews regains consciousness and subtly gets Isaac s attention that he is still alive. Matthews slowly crawls towards his rifle in the midst of the dusty wind along with Isaac distracting Juba with small talk. Matthews believes that the sniper is hiding at the top of some rubble nearby and fires in that direction. The dusty wind settles quickly. The sniper sees Matthews and fires, injuring Matthews in the left shoulder as he crawled towards the wall, but a second shot kills him.

Isaac hears the rescue helicopters coming, so he pushes down the wall and uses Matthews rifle to try and kill Juba, or at least flush him out so the rescue chopper can see the trap. Juba fires at Isaac twice and misses. Isaac now has the sniper s location and fires his only round. Isaac stands up and waits for Juba s next shot, but it never comes. Thus he assumes his shot was successful, and Juba is either injured or dead. The helicopters then land and the rescue team picks up Isaac and Matthews. Once the helicopters dust off, Juba successfully shoots down both in rapid succession. He is then heard over the radio, calling for another rescue to set a new trap.

Cast

• Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergeant Allen Ize Isaac
• John Cena as Staff Sergeant Shane Matthews
• Laith Nakli as Juba (voice)

Production

On November 12, 2014, it was announced that Amazon Studios had bought its first ever original spec script by Dwain Worrell, about an American sharpshooter trapped behind a wall by an Iraqi sniper. Worrell wrote his screenplay while teaching English in China. Worrell drew from his background as a playwright to flesh out the second act of the screenplay, which focuses on Isaac s conversation with the sniper. Worrell said, What interested me about it was the simple conversation between two people. That could almost be had on a New York City park bench with two guys playing chess. There is that sort of dynamic between the characters in the film. The script appeared in the 2014 Black List of most liked un-produced screenplays.

On March 29, 2016, it was reported that Doug Liman had been hired to direct the psychological thriller. Glen Basner s FilmNation Entertainment handled the film s international sales at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, allowing for a theatrical release.

On May 9, 2016, Variety confirmed that Aaron Taylor-Johnson had joined the film s cast to play Isaac, the junior American soldier. On November 29, it was reported that Amazon had partnered with Roadside Attractions to distribute the film, which would also star John Cena, and the film would now follow two American soldiers. Amazon produced the film along with Big Indie Pictures, and Picrow, and Dave Bartis.

Principal photography on the film ended in November 2016 with a release of first look image. US Ranger Sniper Nicholas Irving The Reaper was an on-set adviser for the film.

Director Doug Liman reveals on the DVD commentary that the original ending of the film was a happy ending with the successful rescue of Sgt. Isaac. After the first public showing, Liman went back to Amazon Studios for additional money to reshoot the ending.

Release

Theatrical

The Wall was scheduled to be released on March 10, 2017, by Roadside Attractions but was pushed back to May 12, 2017.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 65% based on 125 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site s critical consensus reads, The Wall makes the most of its limitations — albeit perhaps not quite enough to stretch its tight-focused action into a consistently gripping feature-length thriller. On Metacritic, the film has a score 56 out of 100, based 26 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews . Common Sense Media has given a rating of 4/5, while Washington Post has given a rating of 3/4.

Year	2017
ReleaseDate	2017-05-18
RuntimeMins	88
RuntimeStr	1h 28min
Plot	Two American Soldiers are trapped by a lethal sniper, with only an unsteady wall between them.
Awards	Awards, 1 nomination
Directors	Doug Liman
Writers	Dwain Worrell
Stars	Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Cena, Laith Nakli
Produced by	Ray Angelic,David Bartis,Alison Winter
Cinematography by	Roman Vasyanov
Film Editing by	Julia Bloch
Casting By	Mindy Marin
Production Design by	Jeff Mann
Art Direction by	Cassidy Shipley
Set Decoration by	Kelly Berry
Costume Design by	Cindy Evans
Makeup Department	David Calhoun,Jamie Kelman,Tami Lane,Francisco X. Pérez,Mike Smithson
Production Management	Nicole LaLoggia,Georgina Marquis,Jason Tobias,Ian Watermeier
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Matt Haggerty,Michael J. Moore
Art Department	Raul Contreras,Robbie Duncan,Jade Fox,David Loitz,Kris Peck,Kristeen Reimnitz,Victor M. Shannon
Sound Department	Gina Alfano,Marko A. Costanzo,Gerald Donlan,Mariusz Glabinski,Lawrence Herman,Dan Korintus,George A. Lara,Duncan McRae,Michael Miller,Geoffrey Patterson,David Raymond,Nicholas Renbeck,Michael Rivera,Tricia Schultz,Brian Vancho,Tony Volante,John Werner
Special Effects by	Brendon O’Dell,Matthew O’Dell,Elia P. Popov,Ken Rudell,Keith Suzuki
Visual Effects by	Jayaraman Adhikesavan,John Ashby,Justin Ball,Jessica Bascom,Andrew J. Bly,Brian Budak,ChanJun Chun,Caitlin Content,Luciano DiGeronimo,Luke DiTommaso,David Edwards,Chetan Gaur,John Grimaldi Jr.,Chris Healer,Katherine Hupp,Eric M. Levy,Pat McClung,Matthew T. Perry,Hieu Phan,Charles Self,Carolyn Shea,Eric Sibley,John Skeffington,Vikas Wadekar,Jeff Wozniak
Stunts	Robert Alonzo,Daniel Arrias,Bob Brown,Zack Duhame,Craig Henningsen,Josh Kemble,Samuel Le,Malosi Leonard,Casey O’Neill,Steve Stafford,Gino Woulard,Nico Woulard
Camera and Electrical Department	Alexander Alexandrov,Gabe Camacho,Oscar Cifuentes,Ryan Creasy,Manny Duran,Dennis Dwyer,Simon England,Michael-Ryan Fletchall,Josh Friz,Eddie G Gutierrez,David James,Kris Ostergaard,Chris Paxson,Joseph Arthur Soria,Joshua Stern,Rio Noel Zumwalt
Casting Department	Dann Fink,Angie Glover
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Jillian Daidone,Jason M. Moore
Editorial Department	Frederick Agyemang,Dylan Ball,Richard Caputo,Matt Caruso,Erik Choquette,Molle DeBartolo,Mark Anthony Dellas,Joe Gawler,Daniel F. Lyons,Glen Michel,Andrew Minogue,Samuel Rosenberg,Kathryn J. Schubert,Jenni Sorokin,Eric Spang
Location Management	Richard Schuler
Music Department	Abderraouf Djeffel,Mick Gormaley
Script and Continuity Department	Susan Malerstein-Watkins
Transportation Department	Brian Eastveld,John L. Grissom,Charlene May,Eric Miller,Terry Murphy,Al Valentine
Additional Crew	Rachel Aberly,Richie Adams,Noor Ahmed,Juree Parriott Andal,Wendy Bernanke Appelle,Bob Boden,Grace Breton,Michael Buster,Selena Carrillo,Joseph Cho,Jules Claassen,Jeremy Cross,Tara Dean,Nathan Ellis,Edward E. Giddens,Paul Giorgi,Christopher Haley,Veronica Hennessy,Michael Kolko,Harry Lu,Ric Maddox,Mary Ann Marino,Carole McGorrian,Liz Modena,Alan Pietruszewski,Carrie Prince,Savanna Salter,Yvonne Tejera,Spencer Thomas,Warren Upson,Cristina Wildzumas,Spencer R. Williams,Treva Wurmfeld,Brando MacLure
Thanks	Howard Berger,Alexander Black,Jane Horton,Andrew Mondshein,Elia P. Popov,Oday Rasheed
Genres	Action, Drama, Thriller
Companies	Amazon Studios, Big Indie Pictures, Picrow
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	6.2
ImDbRatingVotes	27339
MetacriticRating	57
Keywords	sniper,soldier,deception,wound,duel