Star Wars Actor’s Brutal Netflix Thriller Perfectly Recreates Real-Life Sting Operation

By Robert Scucci
| Published 23 seconds ago

Studies suggest that in most cases, a child is abducted by someone they know, like a parent in the middle of a rancorous custody battle who just wants to see their kid. 2022’s The Stranger, on the other hand, tells a far more sinister story, resulting in a sting operation designed to take down a suspected child killer by forcing him to confess when he finally lets his guard down.

Inspired by the real-life murder of Australian child Daniel Morcombe, The Stranger is ultimately a work of fiction that uses real events to drive its narrative. It’s worth noting, however, that the real family who suffered the loss of their son wanted nothing to do with the movie, so names have obviously been changed, and the granular details tied to the true crime story were modified for the sake of respecting their wishes.

How Deep Does It Go?

The Stranger takes its time setting up the conflict, as we first see events from Henry Peter Teague’s (Sean Harris) perspective. A seemingly broke loner riding the bus, he encounters a man named Paul Emery (Steve Mouzakis), who offers him low-level work for a criminal organization. This encounter eventually leads Henry to Mark Frame (Joel Edgerton), an undercover officer who has been building a case against him for years with the help of Detective Senior Constable Kate Rylett (Jada Alberts).

Mark Frame is the true protagonist in The Stranger, and we see the toll the investigation takes on him. Authorities are certain Henry is responsible for the disappearance and likely death of a young boy years earlier, but he had a solid alibi when he was initially questioned. To make matters worse, there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Having a young boy (Cormac Wright) around the same age as the missing child, Mark has a personal stake in the investigation, which is essentially built around a Mr. Big procedure.

For those of you not up to speed on your true crime lingo, a Mr. Big procedure is a tactic used to coax a confession out of a suspected criminal by pretending to be part of a criminal organization yourself, and slowly gaining their trust over time.

With the stakes made crystal clear, The Stranger becomes a brooding exercise not in figuring out who made the child disappear, but in proving that one specific person was responsible. Henry is understandably guarded whenever anybody pries about his past, but he’s also eager to find gainful employment, something that has eluded him ever since he was convicted for an unrelated violent altercation years earlier. The supposed criminal organization recruiting him is simply biding its time until he fully lets his guard down, often reassuring him that if he ever gets into trouble, they will take care of it.

Not A Whodunit, But A “How Do We Get Him?”

As The Stranger moves into its second and third acts, you can see the mental toll the case is taking on every officer involved in the sting operation. They know they have the right guy, but they have no evidence. They have nothing to work with aside from old traffic cameras, appointment sign-in sheets, anecdotes from bystanders in the area, and witness testimonials. They know Henry committed the crime, but if he’s not absolutely dead to rights when they bring him in, he walks. Mark knows this, and so does Kate Rylett.

The tension comes from knowing what they know and watching them bide their time until they finally have enough evidence to lock Henry Peter Teague up for good. The problem is that everybody is at their wits’ end after spending years on the case trying to bring the right man to justice. Everybody has a trigger finger and wants to use it. Everybody wants to heroically slap cuffs on the man who they believe, without a sliver of doubt, is the guilty party, but they need to exercise restraint if they want the operation to succeed.

One of the finest examples of how a slow-burn crime thriller can push you to your breaking point, The Stranger is currently available to stream on Netflix.