Film / SAS: Rise of the Black Swan

aka: SAS Red Notice

"Less than one percent of the population is psychopathic. Psychopaths often inherit the trait, and are incapable of love. They manage their relationships with clinical precision, succeeding in all walks of life. Psychopaths that can learn to love are even more rare; as rare as a black swan."

— William Lewis

SAS: Rise of the Black Swan (originally SAS: Red Notice) is a 2021 action thriller adapted from the Andy McNab novel SAS: Red Notice. The title was changed by Netflix to avoid confusion with Red Notice (which was released the same year).

William Lewis runs a family-owned PMC company called Black Swan. When the Swans are caught on video massacring a village in Georgia, an Interpol red notice is issued on William and his two adult children Grace and Oliver, both Swans themselves. The Special Air Service is chosen to execute the warrant, but as their commander George Clements was the go-between for the British government in hiring the Swans, he has every reason to want the Lewis family dead before they can be put on trial. Clements kills William but his two children are able to escape and put into action a contingency plan involving the hijacking of a train inside the Channel Tunnel. On that train however is SAS operator Tom Buckingham, a man with more in common with the Lewis family than he would care to admit to his traveling companion, his intended fiancée Dr. Sophie Hart.

It stars Sam Heughan (as Tom Buckingham), Ruby Rose (Grace Lewis), Andy Serkis (George Clements), Hannah John-Kamen (Dr. Sophie Hart), Tom Hopper (Sgt. Declan Smith) and Tom Wilkinson (William Lewis).

---

The movie has the following tropes:

• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Tom is on the Chunnel train to Paris for a romantic outing with his girl that he hopes will result in an engagement. In the original book, his girlfriend had just dumped him and was moving to France, and he was on the train to chase after her and hopefully win her back.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: William Lewis is willing to pay the villagers $200,000 to let the pipeline through their land, but says if they refuse that offer Grace is to cut their tongues out. When the local militia open fire as the Swans are walking into the village, Grace decides to kill all the men and boys and burn the village down, but spare the women and girls to spread fear so other villages will have a more reasonable attitude. It works, but unfortunately a teenage girl records the faces of the mercenaries on her mobile phone.
• Appropriated Appellation: When dialing up the SAS commander after being cited for crimes against humanity, Grace has the user name "Warcrim".
• Axe Before Entering: Tom and Declan try this but find the wooden door is a façade for a reinforced steel door, so have to use an explosive entry.
• Awful Wedded Life: Declan is bemused by the idea of Tom getting married, and Clements jokes that the hijackers did him a favour by interrupting his plan to propose.
• Big Bad: Grace Lewis.
• Birds of a Feather: In the Opening Monologue, William Lewis says that a psychopath who can feel love is as rare as a black swan (that's in the Northern hemisphere, of course). In their final scene Grace tells Tom that they are the same, like black swans.
• Boom, Headshot!: Well nasal spine, actually.
• Blinded by the Light: Tom comes across a Swan planting explosives in the Channel Tunnel, who on being confronted threatens to set off the radio detonator. To see what he's doing in the dark tunnel the Swan is wearing a torch strapped to his forehead, meaning Tom can't be sure of getting an accurate kill shot with the light shining in his face.
• Buy Them Off:
  • Clements complains that he bribed the Georgian village militia with $100,000 but they just spent it on women and vodka and now they want more. He authorises the Swans to make a final offer of $200,000, but the militia decides to make a fight of it instead.
  • Grace demands a $500 million ransom plus safe passage to free the hostages, not blow up the pipeline and quietly disappear—which BritGaz regards as cheap at the price. She blows up the tunnel anyway, then posts a message to social media exposing everyone's role in the Georgia massacre.
• Code Name: Grace refers to Tom as "The Player" until she discovers his name.
• Contrived Coincidence: Tom is stood down after shooting dead a Swan during the raid on the Lewis home, so takes the opportunity to go to Paris with Sophie. The train he's on just happens to be the one Grace hijacks.
• Couldn't Find a Lighter: Oliver uses the pilot light of his flamethrower to light a cigarette, but rather than showing off his badass nature he just gets contempt from his father for his lack of professionalism.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: BritGaz and the UK Government could have avoided the entire mess if the company had actually bought the land they needed for their pipeline before starting construction or at least reach legally binding agreements with the owners and villagers for easements through their land. During the initial feasibility study alone, they would have known about the issues with the village militia months or even years ahead of time and avoided the last-minute construction delays seen at the beginning of the film.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The CEO of BritGaz is implied to be complicit in hiring the mercenary group to clear the village. That they ran into the trouble with the village militia late into construction and hired the Black Swans suggests major corner-cutting. As with any major infrastructure project, they should've known about and settled these sorts of problems long before the pipeline construction ever began.
• Crazy-Prepared: Clements warns the Prime Minister that William Lewis will have a contingency plan in case the British government decides to turn on him. It's that plan that Grace is carrying out, even though their simulations predicted a zero chance of survival.
• Creative Closing Credits: The Stinger showing the Robo Cam of a drone closing in on its target has the actors' names in the bottom left corner.
• Dark Action Girl: Grace is the Big Bad and the leader of the terrorists.
• "Die Hard" on an X: In this case a Channel Tunnel train.
• Decoy Getaway: Grace demands a helicopter pick them up at the tunnel entrance, but instead of escaping with the other Swans she removes a panel from the BritGaz pipeline and—while wearing a gasmask and oxygen—uses a powered sled to travel down the pipeline to France so she can escape. After she exits at the other end, she detonates the gas which has then flooded the tunnel.
• Disguised Hostage Gambit: The Swans attempt this by dressing in civilian clothes and slipping out with the hostages. It doesn't work; SAS snipers are still able to identify the Swans thanks to facial recognition and gun them down.
• The Dragon: Oliver Lewis.
• Engineered Public Confession: Grace has Zada record her conversation with Clements, and later releases it on social media.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Both William and Grace deny having loved anyone in their entire lives, despite showing open affection for each other. Whether this is true, or just that they are incapable of recognizing it, is left for the audience to decide.
• Eyes Never Lie: Grace (and it's implied her father) peg Tom as akin to themselves once they look into his eyes.
• Facial Recognition Software: Used to identify the Swans at various points, though Grace is able to slip past it using Latex Perfection.
• Foe Romance Subtext: In their final confrontation, Grace tells Tom that Sophie will eventually leave him because people like themselves are incapable of love. Grace caresses his cheek and offers to help him embrace that part of himself. Tom agrees and embraces that part of himself by giving Grace a Slashed Throat.
• Heirloom Engagement Ring: The ring Tom intends to give to Sophie is a family heirloom that his ancestor chopped off the ring finger of a Maharaja during the Indian Rebellion.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • William Lewis remains in his house for the SAS raid to lull the authorities into thinking the entire family is there, despite knowing Clements intends to kill him. Not because he loves his children, but because he believes Grace is a worthy (and in fact, superior) successor.
  • Realising Tom is closing in on them, Oliver stays behind to fight him and give his sister a chance to escape. After treating her brother with patronizing condensation the entire movie, Grace tells him their father would be proud.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Black Swans deliberately leave survivors of their massacre in Georgia in the hopes that they will spread the tale of what happened to anyone else who thinks to stonewall efforts to install the new gas pipeline. They do, but unfortunately for the Swans their tale includes legally actionable evidence of who did it, which they leak online.
• Hollywood Psych: Psychopathy is hardly a guarantee of success as claimed in the Opening Monologue, not least because in the long-term your friends and work colleagues learn not to trust someone who's proven to be a self-interested manipulator who lacks empathy.
• Honor Before Reason: When Grace finds out that the SAS is coming to arrest (actually kill) them, she suggests to her father that they charter a private plane, flee home to the United States and take their chances there. Her father immediately shoots that suggestion down as he considers England their home. His decision not to leave leads to his, his children's and their employee's deaths . ( Not that he cared ) .
• I Can Change My Beloved: Averted; during their wedding vows, Sophie and Tom agree that Sophie will take the lead in matters of peace while Tom will do so in times of war.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • Tom kills his first hijacker (to steal his weapon) using an emergency window-breaking hammer.
  • Grace lets Clements have a glass of champagne. He smashes the glass and tries to cut her throat.
  • When Tom runs out of bullets, he blows up the carriage he's in with a propane gas tank.
• Irony: Clements tells Grace she should Leave No Witnesses, especially women with mobile phones. Turns out he's being recorded by another woman with a mobile phone.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: Grace stabs Sophie in the leg to make Tom stop and treat her. Sophie gets Tom to tie on a tourniquet, then encourages him to chase after Grace and finish her for good.
• Jerk Ass Has A Point: What Grace and the Black Swans do is horrible. But she is not wrong when she points out what the true cost of energy is: namely the U.K. Government willing to hire PMCs to intimidate and kill people in another country who get in the way of a gas pipeline just to reduce the average U.K. citizen's energy costs.
• Karma Houdini: In the end, it appears that Clements and the Prime Minister aren't going to answer for their crimes.
• Lack of Empathy: Quite a few characters have that trait, but the Prime Minister stands out. His Establishing Character Moment is eating a bowl of cereal while watching the video of the massacre and discussing the matter with Clements like it was a business deal gone south instead of the crime against humanity it is.
• Lamarck Was Right: Grace and Tom both inherited their psychopathy; Grace from her father and Tom from his grandmother.
• Latex Perfection: A more realistic version with fake skin being used to change the shape of the face, backed up by contacts, fake eyelashes and wig, plus Grace is in a wheelchair. After locking herself in the toilet she has to peel the latex off in pieces rather than the usual Dramatic Unmask version.
• Make It Look Like a Struggle: Sophie refuses to leave the carriage because she has to treat the wounded, making Tom rescue the little girl she's treating instead, then gets him to buttstroke her in the face to explain why she was left behind.
• The Mole: Grace has a "snide" tipping her off about every move the SAS makes. It's Tom's friend, Sergeant Declan Smith.
• No Endor Holocaust: No mention is made of what the economic impact of Grace blowing up a major natural gas pipeline, taking the Chunnel with it is. The political fallout on the other hand is quite clear: they want the Prime Minister's head. The CEO of BritGaz is also under scrutiny.
• Non-Indicative Name: It's called SAS: Rise of the Black Swan, when SAS vs. The Final F**k You of the Black Swan would be more appropriate.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Grace has a gun to Sophie's head, while Tom has a gun to Grace's brother.
  Tom: Let her go! Once she's gone, so am I.
  Grace: It's not in our nature. We're more alike than you know.
  Tom: I don't recall torching any villages.
  Grace: How many people have you killed?
  Tom: I don't think about it.
  Grace: Neither do I. Don't think about it, don't dream about it. (whispers in Sophie's ear) So he switches on and kills people, and then he switches off and takes you to Paris.
• Not What I Signed on For: The snide isn't happy that helping Grace escape has somehow turned into a major terrorist operation.
• Oh, Crap!: The Prime Minister has one when Grace blows up the gas pipeline and posts Clements' engineered public confession all over social media.
• Out-of-Character Alert:
  • Tom identifies the six-months pregnant woman tending the garden is a guard because she misidentifies the flowers and claims the doctors doesn't know if her child will be a boy or girl, when they can do that at three months.
  • Grace uses Sophie's phone to send a text message asking for Tom to rescue her, but he knows she wouldn't leave the train while there were wounded on board.
• Parental Favoritism: William Lewis thinks his daughter Grace is an even better version of himself, and openly states to her that his son Oliver is replaceable and he doesn't care if he knows this.
• Pervy Patdown: Zada grabs Sophie's breasts and crotch while searching her for a mobile phone. Rather than being played for fanservice they come to blows instead and Sophie is on the verge of being shot when Grace intervenes.
• Pillow Pregnancy: There's a woman tending the garden by the gate of the Lewis residence, who tries to fob off Tom's questions by indicating she's six months pregnant. Tom injects her with a knockout drug and opens her coat to reveal she's wearing a belly pouch, a Bulletproof Vest and an automatic weapon.
• Psychos For Hire: A literal version with Black Swan, a family-owned company of Private Military Contractors whose CEO and his two adult children are all higher-functioning psychopaths hired by BritGaz and the British government to do their dirty work.
• Old Retainer: Callum for the Buckingham family. Tom even has him perform the wedding ceremony.
• Only a Flesh Wound
  • When Grace gets shot in the ear in the Georgian village, Zada jabs her with an anaesthetic, saying it's "just a scratch".
  • Grace shoots her own brother during the Mexican Standoff, but afterwards explains she was aiming for this trope.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: As the last survivor standing, Declan ends up with the entire half billion ransom all for himself, but the British government pin the blame on him and the ending shows that Clements has located where Declan is hiding with the money and is sending Tom after him.
• Snow Means Death: The final fight between Grace and Tom takes place in a snow-covered forest in France.
• Sociopathic Hero: Tom, like Grace and her family, is a higher-functioning psychopath, with the Deliberate Values Dissonance and Birds of a Feather tropes being a plot point.
• Static Stun Gun: As they are just supposed to be serving a red notice, the SAS team storming the Lewis mansion have revolver grenade launchers firing some kind of taser charge. Unfortunately the Swans aren't cooperating.
• Suicide Attack
  • Tom shoots a female Swan who tries rushing them with a grenade strapped to her hand. Tom and Declan have to Super Window Jump to escape the explosion.
  • At various points it's suspected that Grace is planning this as an act of revenge on the British government, or at least she's Not Afraid to Die. Grace points out that as the government is planning to kill them anyway, anything else that happens is a bonus so she has nothing to lose.
• Taking You with Me: "The Safeguard" is meant to publicly expose Clements and the Prime Minister with an engineered public confession posted on social media and destroy the gas pipeline that was built on land that the Black Swans helped clear.
• Tears from a Stone: After having seen Beneath the Mask, Sophie decides to reject Tom's marriage proposal, but seeing him shed a Single Tear changes her mind, realising he does have feelings for her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In her video message posted on social media, Grace gives the U.K. citizens one for being ignorant of the real cost of energy. She then proceeds to throw that cost in their faces.
  Grace Lewis: People are always complaining about the cost of heating rooms, heating water, heating pizzas for their fat kids as they sit on their fat asses mesmerized by Reality TV.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Tom thinks he's in love with Sophie but isn't quite sure, given that he lacks the feelings associated with love.
• Would Not Hurt A Child: Grace shoots dead a man on the train, then right afterwards gets Sophie to patch up a wounded French girl. Sophie refuses to escape and insists that Tom rescue the girl instead; at one stage it looks like Tom is considering abandoning her, but he gets her to safety instead.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Grace is perfectly willing to kill the boys along with the men in the village, but spare the girls along with the women to spread the fear.
  • Clements was perfectly fine with any children being killed in the Georgian massacre, even taunting Grace for failing to spot and kill a kid with a phone who recorded the whole thing.
• You Know Too Much: Clements kills an unarmed William and makes repeated attempts to kill Grace, but his efforts only succeed in putting the hostages at jeopardy. Even when the government has agreed to safe passage for the hijackers, he orders the snipers to kill the Swans in the belief that Grace is among them.

---