WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Sicario: Day of the Soldado, in theaters now.
Denis Villeneuve's 2015 crime thriller Sicario was a brutal yet honest depiction of the war against a Colombian drug cartel at the Mexico-United States border. Three years later, Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima picks up the narrative in Sicario: Day of the Soldado. While Villenueve teased the vendetta of hitman Alejandro Gillick's (Benicio del Toro), working for the U.S. Defense Department to take down a criminal empire, the follow-up deviates far from the topic of the militarization of police, and cuts loose the character in his crusade against Mexico's drug lords.
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The thing is, though, Soldado (which means "soldier" in English) plays out like a standalone film, with little indication of where it falls chronologically in relation to Sicario. But upon close inspection, there are a couple subtle plot points that indicate whether these events come before or after the 2015 film, while also cleverly setting up the franchise's future.
Writer Taylor Sheridan, who scripted both films, didn't specify when Soldado occurs, because he wanted the audience to immerse itself in the characters, not the crime-ridden universe. “You have no idea if it’s before or after [the events of Sicario], if it’s five years—you have no clue," he told Screen Rant last year. "There is no reference at all to the first Sicario, so you don’t know when it happens … Sicario, the world isn’t that specific. It’s just these characters. And frankly we wanted audiences to experience the characters in real-time rather than having an exposition dump saying, ’Meanwhile in Sicario’…”
The reason for that comes to light in the second half of Soldado. These details were kept secret to disguise the surprising path Alejandro takes to avenge family's death, especially as he finally realizes he may have been creating monsters like the men he hated. More so, he seems to understand the U.S. government he works for may also be part of the problem.
Soldado reveals Alejandro was created and manipulated by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) to use as a weapon against rival Mexican cartels, the Matamoro and Reyes families. With drug lords now officially classified as terrorists, the U.S. Defense Secretary James Riley (Matthew Modine) and his right-hand woman, Cynthia Foards (Catherine Keener), enlist both men to kidnap young Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner) and frame the Matamoros family, pushing both cartels to war.
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After that occurs, Graver's team takes the girl back to Mexico, because they've done their job. But at that point, the audience still can't tell whether Soldado is a sequel, because 1) the characters look the same as they did in the first film; and 2) there's no reference to anything or anyone from Sicario.
But Sollima's hand is revealed as Alejandro tries to bring Isabela back to America. The corrupt Mexican cops try to kill Alejandro's entourage, and to avoid political fallout, the U.S. government deems everyone involved expendable, basically abandoning them. As they make their way back to America, Isabela admits she recognizes Alejandro as "the attorney whose family they killed" years ago, which ultimately turned him into an assassin.
"Not they..." he corrects her. "My father..." she regretfully replies. Alejandro acknowledges this truth, but reveals the execution was carried out by "the man who worked for your father."
It's a telling statement, because Alejandro insinuates that while he did kill this man -- Fausto Alarcón in the Sicario finale -- he still harbors a grudge against Isabela's father. That's why Matt easily recruits him at the start of Soldado, to complete his quest for revenge. Further confirmation Soldado is indeed a sequel then comes when Alejandro and Isabela are taken prisoner by Mexican smugglers. A young gangbanger and aspiring hitman, Miguel (Elijah Rodriguez), shoots Alejandro in the cheek and leaves him for dead, just as Matt's squad returns to Mexico to try to extract the duo. Sadly, only Isabela is left for them to take into witness protection.
Shockingly, Alejandro survives, and a year later, the film's final scene has him cornering Miguel, the lone survivor from the smuggling gang killed by Matt's strike force. Instead of killing him, Alejandro takes the gangbanger under his wing as a hitman, most likely to finish the job against the Reyes family. However, when we see Alejandro's face, it has the bullet hole in it, a permanent and highly distinguishable scar that wasn't in the first movie.
So unless Alejandro found a great cosmetic surgeon, the events of Sicario occurred before Soldado. That was part one of Alejandro's lifelong mission and now, Soldado is the follow-up which provides him with a protege to complete the task.
In theaters now, director Stefano Sollima's Sicario: Day of the Soldado stars Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, and Jeffrey Donovan reprising their roles, with Isabela Moner, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Catherine Keener.