A Chris Hemsworth 9/11 Movie Is Dominating Netflix
For Chris Hemsworth, the summer of 2022 has been a banner time indeed. Topping the box office this month with the debut of Thor: Love and Thunder, the Australian actor continues to see his star rise with every project he lends his talents. Netflix unveiled his thriller Spiderhead, which also stars Top Gun: Maverick actor Miles Teller, and Hemsworth finished filming Extraction 2, a sequel to the 2020 original. It seems that Chris Hemsworth has a bit more celebrating to do since one of his films is currently dominating the charts on Netflix.
According to FlixPatrol, a site dedicated to keeping track of all titles climbing the charts for streaming platforms in 127 countries worldwide, Chris Hemsworth’s 12 Strong has been ranked in the Top 10 for the United States on Netflix this week. Much of that could possibly be due to Hemsworth’s performances in the recently released Spiderhead and Thor: Love and Thunder. Still, the other choices that audiences are watching on the streaming platform appear to range from several different genres. Rounding out this list of the other titles of interest to American streaming viewers are Girl in the Picture, The Sea Beast, Sing 2, The Man From Toronto, Mean Girls, Wanted, The Dark Knight Rises, Leave No Trace and Valley of the Dead.
12 Strong debuted in theaters in 2018, seemingly at the height of action movies surrounding events in wars that American soldiers were embroiled in at the time. The film concerns a group of U.S. Army Special Forces sent to Afghanistan immediately after 9/11. Based on the book Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton, the movie is directed by Nicolai Fuglsig in his feature film directorial debut. It features a cast of primarily male actors, including Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, Austin Stowell, and William Fichtner. In the movie, Hemsworth’s real wife, actor Elsa Pataky, makes an appearance as his character’s wife.
Making a movie like 12 Strong was a daunting task, in part because the stars of the film as they were playing fictional characters based on factual American heroes. Chris Hemsworth embodied the essence of Captain Mitch Nelson, who led his team to one of the earliest victories of the war in Afghanistan. The character is inspired by Mark Nutsch, according to The Huffington Post, and serves as a counterpoint to Michael Shannon’s character, Chief Warrant Officer Hal Spencer. Spencer, in turn, is inspired by the actions of Bob Pennington, who consulted on the movie’s production. The film was shot on location in New Mexico and grossed over $71 million at the box office against a budget of $35 million.
While 12 Strong was seen as a financial success for Chris Hemsworth and the distribution company Warner Bros., the critical reception to the film was anything but that. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the movie currently holds a “50%” on its Tomatometer among 173 verified critic reviews and a slightly better Audience Score of “62%” among over 5,000 audience ratings. Similarly, Metacritic presently reflects a Metascore of “54” based on 43 critic reviews, which denotes a mixed or average review ranking for the site. The same scale from users of Metacritic has given 12 Strong generally favorable reviews with a User Score of “6.3” among 129 user ratings.
Since the Chris Hemsworth vehicle is seeing a resurgence of interest on Netflix, other war movies have also come back into the spotlight recently. Currently available on Paramount+, Michael Bay’s epic 2016 entry 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi has a similar tone and story to 12 Strong, with an ensemble cast that includes James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, and Pablo Schreiber. Zero Dark Thirty also makes the list in this sub-genre, with fictional characters based on real American Seal Team 6 leaders who carry out the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. Zero Dark Thirty was released in 2012 and was viewed as controversial at the time due to its portrayal of torture tactics and CIA maneuvers. Still, the film is a direct companion piece to 12 Strong as it demonstrates the events that occurred post-9/11. Rounding out recent releases of war movies from the last 20 years is The Hurt Locker, the Oscar-winning Best Picture that depicts the psychological toll of the Iraq War on a team of bomb disposal soldiers. Both Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker are currently available on Netflix as well.
