The Marksman is a 2021 American action drama film[5] directed by Robert Lorenz. The plot follows a rancher and former Marine (Liam Neeson), living in an Arizona border town, who must help a young boy (Jacob Perez) escape a Mexican drug cartel. Katheryn Winnick, Juan Pablo Raba, and Teresa Ruiz also star.
The film was theatrically released in the United States on January 15, 2021, by Open Road Films and Briarcliff Entertainment. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Neeson’s performance but criticized the film as being formulaic.[6]
Plot
Former US Marine Corps Scout Sniper and Vietnam War veteran Jim Hanson, a widower, lives along the Arizona-Mexico border with his dog, Jackson. While tending his ranch, which he is behind in payments on, he reports illegal border crossings to the United States Border Patrol, where his step-daughter Sarah works. One day he encounters Rosa and her son Miguel, Mexican citizens fleeing from the Mexican Mafia.[7] As Hanson calls border patrol, a cartel gang led by Mauricio approaches and a shootout ensues, in which Hanson shoots and kills Mauricio’s brother and Rosa is fatally wounded. Before dying, Rosa gives Hanson her family’s address in Chicago and a bag of cash, begging him to take Miguel there, to which Hanson reluctantly agrees.
Border patrol show up after her death and take in Miguel. One of the cartel members comes in and claims that he’s a relative of Miguel. Hanson happens to see their car there and sneaks Miguel out to go to safety. Meanwhile the gang bribe corrupt patrol officers to gain entry to the United States, and conduct their own manhunt in search for Miguel.
After Hanson uses his credit card to repair his truck, Mauricio tracks the pair to Route 66 in Oklahoma. However their road journey is interrupted when a patrol officer pulls them over and instructs Hanson into his squad car using an apparent cover story. The officer then telephones the gang in order to turn in Miguel, in which Hanson becomes suspicious. Knowing that the cop is corrupt, Hanson confronts him and a struggle ensues. Hanson and Miguel flee to a nearby hill, where they witness the gang cartel arrive and roughly question the officer (who awoke from unconsciousness), then shoot him dead.
Hanson and Miguel continue to make their way north. While staying at a motel, Hanson bribes the receptionist to not register him and Miguel as guests before the cartel shows up and during the escape, they kill Jackson. The patch on the truck’s radiator fails while attempting to get away from the cartel and they are forced to stop. Eventually, Mauricio and his men catch up to Hanson and a firefight breaks out on a nearby farm. Hanson manages to kill three of the cartel members, but Mauricio captures Miguel.
After a skirmish, Hanson is stabbed but seriously wounds Mauricio with a gunshot. Hanson offers him a coup de grâce leaving a single bullet in his gun or a choice to shoot Hanson. As Hanson and Miguel leave the farm, they hear a gunshot.
The pair eventually reach Miguel’s family in Chicago to drop him off at his family’s home, but when Miguel turns back to look for him, Hanson has gone.
The film ends with the seriously wounded Hanson getting on a bus, slowly finding a seat, lifting his eyes in remembrance of his dead wife, then smiling and breathing his last.
