7MMO
Moderator
The Mongoose is in theaters now.
There’s a scene in the 1971 sci-fi cult classic The Omega Man where Charlton Heston’s helicopter is crash-landing, and just before the moment of impact it flies into an embankment just below the camera’s POV… where the craft’s explosion happens safely off-screen. It was a cheapo move in 1971 – they clearly didn’t really blow up the helicopter – and it’s a cheapo move in 2026, too, when Liam Neeson’s The Mongoose – now, somehow, playing at a multiplex near you! – pulls a similar stunt.
Sure, in The Mongoose the helicopter doesn’t even blow up off-camera, but that’s not the point (the crash-landing winds up being played for a laugh instead). What I’m talking about here is the threadbare sense that such a moment evokes for the viewer, the “a third of the budget of this movie must’ve gone to Liam Neeson” feeling that permeates the not-quite high-octane, not-quite thrilling picture.
And yet, there’s a likability factor wafting around this story, thanks largely to Neeson’s disarming “yeah, I am taking a third of this film’s budget, and I’m gonna have fun doing it” affectation as he drives a stolen hotrod – do we still call them hotrods? – across various states while on the run from the police due to a crime he did not commit. Along for the ride, so to speak, are Ving Rhames, Marisa Tomei, and Michael Chiklis, all cashing in less than a third of the budget, presumably, but hitting their marks efficiently enough to get this thing over the finish line in a “Maybe just catch it on Prime Video eventually” kind of way.
The Mongoose tells its story through a mix of the chase Neeson’s Ryan “Fang” Flanagan is involved in and flashbacks to the former Special Forces soldier’s time in Afghanistan, specifically when he and his comrades (Rhames’ Tanker, Marcus Thomas’ Munch, and Ryan Morgan's Wiz) were captured by the enemy. Further flashbacks eventually fill in why Fang is on the run; specifically, his ex-wife Tara’s (Marisa Tomei) fiancé – “Todd something or other,” Fang growls – turns out to be not a nice guy, and when Fang attempts to help Tara move out of the guy’s place, violence erupts. Next thing he knows, someone’s dead, and he’s stolen Todd something or other’s fancy, and quite fast, Ford Mustang. Other than that, all he’s got is a bullet in his leg, a vow to never be imprisoned again after his experience in the war, and the Mustang's built-in AI assistant, named Helene. “Is this, like, Siri?” Fang – and maybe Neeson too when he first read the script – asks.
Neeson's Fang is surprisingly chill about this situation, as he clearly has a death wish, having decided that he is not going to allow himself to be taken alive.
Helene, like many of the other characters (“characters”) in the episodic The Mongoose, serves as a foil for the surprisingly at-ease Fang to toss one-liners at while out-driving the various police who are pursuing him by land and air. Fang is surprisingly chill about this situation, as he clearly has a death wish, having decided that he is not going to allow himself to be taken alive. As the chase drags on, he eventually finds temporary refuge through the help of some other vets, and soon Fang begins to take on a legendary man-against-the-system status, thanks no doubt to his war hero status, as well as the “live” CNN coverage of the high-speed pursuit, which IRL TV personality Laura Coates awkwardly hosts.
On the side of the law, there’s Maurice Marvel Meredith as Major James Tilton and Chiklis as Major Walter Pope. Suffice to say, one’s the good cop and one’s the bad copy, and never the twain shall meet, but also, never the twain shall have anything interesting or realistic to do or say. Rhames, unfortunately, seems to be struggling to deliver his lines at times, even while his very presence brings a sense of good will to the film. Tomei, meanwhile, is always likable, but most of her scenes are essentially just her on the phone with Neeson’s character, even as she miraculously overcomes some seriously life-changing events over the course of 24 hours or so.
As for the Mongoose of the title, it’s the beach in Mexico where Fang and Tara had their best days together, and as such it’s the ideal that Fang has fixated on – his “retirement” – if he somehow can escape his current, dire situation. But what he also must escape is the guilt of the men he left behind in Afghanistan, and it is this thread that director Mark Vanselow somehow scores with by the time the credits roll, aided no doubt by some keenly picked, and timed, needledrops, and a couple of very cleverly edited shots in the final moments of the film. The Mongoose may be working just one level above a direct-to-video cheapie for a lot of its running time, but it’s still got some heart, too.
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