Sicario: Day of the Soldado Gets Explosive New Trailer

2015’s white-knuckle thriller Sicario is getting a sequel, for some reason—money is our guess. Sicario: Day of the Soldado sees the return of Josh Brolin as board shorts-wearing federal agent Matt Graver alongside Benicio Del Toro’s mysterious, tortured assassin Alejandro. They team up to bring the war to the cartel and there are “no rules this time,” according to the giant letters in the trailer. When Del Toro’s Alejandro asks Brolin’s Graver who they are going after, Graver simply says “everyone.” Explosions, gunfire, standoffs and betrayals seemingly ensue.

Where the first Sicario questioned the U.S.’s involvement in border affairs and the futility of the drug war, Sicario: Day of the Soldado appears to revel in the loud American interventionism that has made war zones of such cities as Juarez, Mexico. While Sicario put a critical lens to the cyclical nature of violence, and where the act of revenge begins and ends, Sicario: Day of the Soldado looks poised to blow those themes away at point-blank range with an assault rifle, trading the morally gray and damning nature of the first film for something where every question can be answered with a bullet.

Maybe it is just the marketing—Day of the Soldado may prove us all wrong and be a quieter rumination on what happens on either side of the U.S./Mexico border. Here’s hoping.