Movie · 2023 · War, Action, Thriller · 2h 3m · R · English
Curator score: 5.1/10 (452.9K ratings)
A bond. A pledge. A commitment.
Overview
After an ambush, Afghan interpreter Ahmed goes to Herculean lengths to save US Army Sergeant John Kinley's life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must return to the war zone and repay his debt.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.1/10
IMDb: 7.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.55/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 63
TMDB: 7.7/10
Director
Guy Ritchie
Production
STXfilms, Toff Guy Films
Cast
Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Sean Sagar, Jason Wong, Rhys Yates, Christian Ochoa Lavernia, Bobby Schofield, Emily Beecham, Jonny Lee Miller, Alexander Ludwig, Reza Diako, James Nelson-Joyce, Gary Anthony Stennette, Saboor Sahak, Antony Starr, Abbas Fasaei, Hadi Khanjanpour, Ash Goldeh, Walid Shahalami, Babrak Akbari
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A sturdy, old-school combat thriller with a strong central premise: loyalty, debt, and the moral cost of abandonment. It’s not especially subtle, but the action is crisp, the tension is effective, and Dar Salim gives the film its emotional spine.
Best for
viewers who like mission-driven war thrillers
fans of rescue-and-repay stories
audiences who want a straightforward, tense, crowd-pleasing action film
people interested in Afghanistan-war dramas with a human focus
Skip if
you want a deeply nuanced political critique
you dislike patriotic or military-adjacent framing
you need a fully believable, restrained Jake Gyllenhaal performance
you prefer slow-burn war films over cleanly engineered action
Overview
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant works best as a lean, emotionally direct war thriller. It turns a simple promise into a survival story, then keeps tightening the screws with desert pursuit, battlefield improvisation, and the practical nightmare of getting one family to safety.
Worth noting
The movie is at its strongest when it centers Ahmed’s competence and endurance, and when it treats the rescue as a debt that can only be repaid through action. Dar Salim grounds the film with real gravity, while the action direction stays clear and propulsive even when the script leans hard into sentiment.
Bottom line
It is less convincing as a character study than as a genre piece. Some of the dialogue and performance choices are uneven, and the film’s politics are more earnest than probing, but it remains an effective, watchable piece of mainstream war cinema with real momentum.
Top Letterboxd reviews
theyo theyo (3★) · 2323 likes
brokeback mountain but this is afghanistan
nolan (3★) · 2305 likes
there are 3 types of jake gyllenhaal performances:
1. ooh he’s cooking🥵2. aw he tried something🥹3. damn he didn’t try at all😐
and here you get to see all three!!
Quinn Duffy (3.5★) · 1880 likes
Another perfectly good mirror broken by Jake Gyllenhaal…
GodIsASquirrel (2.5★) · 1499 likes
Homelander jump scare
Hank (4.5★) · 1271 likes
To be honest I would do all of that for Jake Gyllenhaal too