Mark Wahlberg Plays a Notorious Navy Scammer in 'Uncharted'

"Uncharted" is a new action movie based on the wildly popular series of video games for the Sony PlayStation platform. Tom Holland plays the game's protagonist, Nathan Drake, and Mark Wahlberg takes on the role of his mentor and partner, Victor Sullivan.

The movie is set to open exclusively in theaters on Feb. 18, 2022. Holland's most recent movie, "Spider-Man: No Way Home," is still in theaters and has enjoyed record-setting box office at a time when pretty much every other movie has been a bomb. "Uncharted" will give us a clue as to whether people love Holland or just like him when he's in a spider costume.

But it's our job here to talk about Sullivan, the former U.S. Navy officer. His backstory has been adapted for the movie, but he's still the master thief who got kicked out of the Navy.

Wahlberg's Victor Sullivan was a helicopter pilot who crashed in Iraq because his bird was too loaded down with precious artifacts from a Baghdad museum. He got busted with the loot, and his military career was over.

Still, he's got that Navy training and it's put to good/nefarious use as he travels the globe acquiring lost artifacts. In "Uncharted," Sullivan enlists Drake on a quest to locate billions of dollars of missing gold allegedly acquired by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

Drake is supposedly a descendant of English explorer Sir Francis Drake, so he's got the wandering gene in his blood. Holland once again masters an American accent with such skill that most of his young fans might not realize that he's actually from London.

Holland and Wahlberg are aiming for a James Bond vibe, but it's mostly closer to a "Fast & Furious" movie, with tons of computer FX that recreate scenes from the games. There's even a cameo from actor Nolan North, who created the character in the games and is credited with developing Drake's wisecracking personality. If you're not a gamer, you might not even notice Holland's encounter with North on a beach, but "Uncharted" fans are supposed to find it hilarious.

We're set up for a sequel at the end, and odds are good that "Uncharted" will continue as a movie series. Will we get more Navy backstory for Victor Sullivan in any future movies? We all know that Wahlberg loves his military roles ("Lone Survivor," "Shooter," the upcoming "The Six Billion Dollar Man"), so it's likely he'll want to play up the Navy thing as much as possible.

For now, we've got "Uncharted." Enjoy the banter and the action and try to forget that you're watching a movie called "Uncharted" with a plot in which every single step involves someone decoding a map. You know, maps, those pieces of paper that are created when a location is charted by a cartographer.

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