Guy Ritchie's The Covenant isn't one true story, but many

At the end of Guy Ritchie's The Covenant, the film gives us the meanings of the terms "bond," "pledge," and "commitment," as shared between the two lead actors of the film. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Master Sgt. John Kinley and Dar Salim plays an interpreter, Ahmed Abdullah. Antony Starr is in the film, too, and you'll like his character as he isn't flying around doing bad deeds as a Supe.

The film isn't based on a true story. However, it is inspired by several such stories where interpreters like Ahmed, employed by the United States Military, have suffered in Afghanistan. It begins with this message on the screen:

"50,000 Afghan interpreters were employed by the U.S. military under the agreement that they would be eligible to apply for Special Immigration Visas and relocation to America."

This story can be called partly true because it doesn't exactly follow a particular real-life character but is inspired by several real-life characters in a similar situation.

Dar Salim on the truth about The Covenant

Dar Salim plays Ahmed in The Covenant. (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)

Dar Salim's character is shown to be instinctive, and he acts as sort of an alarm for bad things. If there's something fishy going on, he ought to sniff it out and act according to his instinct. This, as we see in the movie, saves a lot of lives.

In an interview with Fox and Friends, he opened up on Guy Ritchie's The Covenant, saying:

"At the heart of it, it is based on a lot of true stories. The fact is that all American Soldiers did put their lives at stake every day, in Afghanistan, trying to do the right thing. And at the same time, all interpreters did put their lives on the line, every day. That is the truth of the film."

Gyllenhaal's Master Sgt. John Kinley was seen doing that exactly. When he is shot in the movie and is unable to carry himself, it is Ahmed who carries him across the rough terrain to save his life.

Later, Kinley decides to repay the debt and give his Afghan friend a visit. He too goes to the extreme to save Ahmed and his family. The hope is lost at the end, however. But then an "Angel" appears, raining death from above, and the extraction is done.

What does Guy Ritchie have to say about his film?

The Covenant director, in an interview with the Associated Press in 2023, said,

“I was moved by the rather complicated and paradoxical bonds that seemed to be fused by the trauma of war between the interpreters and their colleagues, so to speak, on the other side of the cultural divide and how all of that evaporated under duress. The irony of war is the depths to which the human spirit is allowed to express itself that in any other sort of day-to-day situation is never allowed. It’s very hard to articulate the significance and that profundity of those bonds. My job was to try and capture that spirit within a film and within a very simple narrative.”

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant was received positively by fans and the critics alike. While the Tomatometer shows 83% critics' approval, the Popcornmeter is at 98%. The film was released on Amazon Prime but is currently available on rent on Apple TV too.

Interestingly, The Covenant is Ritchie's highest-rated movie to date, followed by The Gentlemen (2019) with 76% critics' approval, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) with 75%, and Snatch (2000) with 74%, among other high-scoring directorials.