Looking for something, anything to watch on Netflix this weekend, my wife and I settled on The Union, an action spy film laced with some amount of comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry.

It was not good. The Union felt generic on a level I had not seen in some time, and middling-to-poor critic and audience reviews seemed to say the same. When I watched it, it felt to me like this wasn’t just a film borne out of the Netflix algorithm which combines concepts and actors to films they think people would want to watch, it felt like something that could be replicated through AI, in an age where AI can indeed generate entire movie structures, albeit not very good ones. But again, The Union is not very good.

Out of curiosity I entered the following single-sentence concept into ChatGPT to see how similar the two would be. This is the very first prompt I entered, I did not re-run it in order to try and get a more similar storyline:

“Generate a plotline for a movie about a blue collar worker who is hired to be a spy for a secret non-government agency.”

The movie it came up with is “The Fixer,” described as “A skilled mechanic is unexpectedly recruited by a mysterious non-government agency to become a spy. As he navigates the dangerous world of espionage, he must rely on his blue-collar instincts and resourcefulness to stay alive and uncover the truth behind a global conspiracy.”

Given how generic the film is, the AI comes up with close to identical plot points in some instances, such as:

“One evening, after closing the shop, Joe receives an unusual visitor: Maya Davis, a sophisticated and enigmatic woman who claims to represent a secretive non-government agency known as The Network. She tells Joe that they have been watching him for a while and that his mechanical skills, sharp mind, and ability to think on his feet make him an ideal candidate for a dangerous assignment.”

This mirrors how Wahlberg is recruited in the film, the main difference being Halle Berry, his recruiter, is his ex-girlfriend from decades ago. The AI plot says he initially refuses, and he does in the film, before joining. Next up:

“Joe undergoes a crash course in espionage—learning the basics of combat, surveillance, and high-tech gadgets—but he’s no smooth James Bond. Instead, he approaches his new role like a mechanic solving a problem, using his hands-on skills and blue-collar intuition.”

Again, exactly what happens in the film, a montage of Wahlberg learning various spy things despite no formal training any time before this.

“He is partnered with Maya, who becomes both his handler and mentor. Together, they uncover a plot involving corrupt global corporations, cyber-terrorists, and rogue intelligence officers who are selling military secrets to the highest bidder.”

Exactly what happens in the film. An important hard drive is stolen containing the name of every soldier to agent in the US and there is a literal auction to sell it the highest bidder.

“As Joe delves deeper into this world of espionage, he begins to understand that he is a pawn in a much larger game. However, he soon discovers that The Network itself may not be as noble as it seems, and their true motives are shrouded in secrecy.”

The Union is in fact said to be run by a corrupt leader in a plot turn, albeit that reverses itself soon when a seemingly dead-agent is found to be a traitor in their midst and has orchestrated this thing. But the call is still coming from inside the house.

There are actually better developments in the AI script, including:

• Joe is given a daughter, giving him actual stakes in the story rather than “Wahlberg has nothing better to do” which is why he joins The Union in the film.
• There is real moral conflict here as Joe wrestles with whether he’s made the right decision to apply his skills to this somewhat murky organization. Wahlberg does none of that.
• The end of the AI film has Joe actually walk away from The Network as he believes it’s ultimately too dangerous for his family, but he has money to make a better life for them now. This did not happen in the film as Wahlberg stays on with The Union as the film very much seems to aim for a sequel.

I do not think that The Union actually was written by an AI, but it’s so generic, an AI that uses very generic plot points for a movie like this is able to recreate an extremely similar, actually better in some parts version of the story. And clearly Netflix needs to hold itself to a higher standard, no matter what movie stars they jam into films like this.

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