Chris McQ ‘Battlefield' Movie Should Adapt The Series' Forgotten Best Game
Since the original game back in 2002, the “Battlefield” series has delighted and enthralled audiences with high-octane action, team-based multiplayer tactics, and single-player campaigns that put players in the role of a “boots on the ground” soldier fighting for their country.
Earlier this year, it was announced that filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie (“Jack Reacher,” “Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation”) was attached to direct an adaptation of the popular video game series. Coincidentally, McQuarrie’s “Battlefield” movie is expected to compete with a movie based on the game’s biggest rival, “Call of Duty,” the adaptation of which is being helmed by “Lone Survivor” director Peter Berg.
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There are many directions a “Battlefield” movie could take. The games generally take a ‘multiplayer first’ approach, with the single-player stories generally being little more than window dressing for action spectacle. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. “Battlefield: Hardline” shifted the focus from international conflict to a “Miami Vice”-inspired pastiche on The War on Drugs, while other games have adapted a sci-fi approach set in the near future. However, those titles are outside of the norm for the series, which is most immediately associated with the ‘modern warfare’ aesthetic of its most popular titles, “Battlefield 3” and “Battlefield 4.”
However, there is another “Battlefield” game that is ostensibly set during the same war as those titles, and it’s from these two games that McQuarrie’s “Battlefield” movie should draw inspiration. If you were a console gamer during the mid-PS3/Xbox 360 era, you already know which games I’m talking about: “Battlefield: Bad Company.”
Developed as a console-focused alternative to the mainline entries in the series, “Battlefield: Bad Company” released for PS3 and 360 back in 2008, with the sequel, “Battlefield: Bad Company 2,” following in 2010. While not the first-ever “Battlefield” games to feature a solo story mode, the “Bad Company” games feature arguably the best storytelling in the entire franchise, thanks in large part to their colorful cast of characters and humorous tone.
What Is ‘Battlefield: Bad Company?’
“Bad Company” is named for its eponymous unit, the 222nd Army Battallion, the “B-Company” of which is comprised of renegades, screw-ups, and other ne’er-do-wells who are treated more like expendable cannon fodder than America’s best and bravest. They are underestimated, sent on all the worst assignments, and their life expectancy is short. At a glance, you might think that “Battlefield: Bad Company” is about the hellishness of an endless war where young men are put through the meat grinder of enemy forces. However, “Bad Company” takes a different approach, instead treating the absurdity of war with a comedic bent. Think less “Saving Private Ryan” and maybe a little tiny bit more “Dr. Strangelove.”
The squad consists of Preston Marlowe (the player character, a dull and generic blank slate who is treated as such by his peers), George “Higgs” Haggard (Southern trailer trash type whose personality is defined by his handlebar mustache), Terrence Sweetwater (the know-it-all nerd who is constantly butting heads with Higgs), and Sergeant Redford (the no-nonsense boss just trying to keep his squad alive). This ragtag group of goofball soldiers doesn’t much care for the war, but they follow their orders just enough to avoid getting dishonorably discharged… At least until they discover the trail of a hidden stash of gold, which puts them on a “Three Kings”-inspired quest to get rich beyond their wildest dreams, even if it means escalating the war and dragging whole nations into the conflict due to their bumbling antics.
Why Bad Company Would Be The Perfect ‘Battlefield’ Movie
The sequel is a bit more self-serious, to its detriment, but is still anchored by the lovely banter and relationships between its unlikely heroes. These two games mark pretty much the only notable stories in the “Battlefield” franchise. That’s not to say that other “Battlefield” stories aren’t great, but they’re all derivative of “Call of Duty” and have a self-serious tone that can best be described as “generic.” A generic aesthetic can work in a multiplayer video game where the player can pull off such ridiculous feats as jumping out of a fighter jet, shooting another jet in mid-air with a rocket launcher, re-entering the aircraft, and flying off before it can crash to the ground, but that level of insanity wouldn’t be possible in a movie that attempts to take itself seriously as a war film. But the kind of absurd antics a player can achieve in a typical “Battlefield” multiplayer match would feel perfectly at home in the world of “Bad Company,” and be a show-stopping cinematic moment, to boot!
It’s important to remember that the upcoming “Battlefield” movie will not exist in a vacuum. One way or another, it will compete with Peter Berg’s “Call of Duty” movie. While details on that film are scarce, Peter Berg’s previous war films have been deadly serious and melodramatic (with the obvious exception of the ill-advised adaptation of the board game “Battleship”), and the “Call of Duty” games have a lot more lore and storytelling from which to draw. In contrast, “Battlefield” reboots itself every couple of games, with little more than Easter Eggs connecting the disparate chapters. Over the decades, “Call of Duty” has developed memorable characters like Captain Price, Victor Reznov, Alex Mason, Simon Riley, etc. Meanwhile, “Battlefield” isn’t without recurring characters, but none of them left an impact like the lovable dorks of “Bad Company.” Anchoring a film around their distinct personalities would be the perfect way for the “Battlefield” movie to announce, “We’re not like ‘Call of Duty.'” It would also allow the film to reach beyond the typical confines of the average war movie and have a little video game-style fun with it.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 8:07 AM.