Netflix’s The Old Guard is an action-packed film full of immortal warriors, tactically trained armed guards, and selfish humans with their own agendas. There were a few characters that were truly frustrating to watch as they made bad decision after bad decision.
Amongst these few are two characters that maintained this quality throughout most of the film. Merrick, the self-centered business executive, and Copley, the misguidedly grieving ex-CIA operative both take the lead in this small but frustrating category. Here are five times that these two characters each displayed their most annoying behaviors throughout the story.
Merrick: When He Took The Axe
One of the most annoying things about Merrick’s character is that he always seemed to have something up his sleeve, but it never turned out to be anything impactful.
When he grabbed Andy’s ax, he did so with such a contemplative expression that suggested that he had a clever plan to use the weapon to his advantage. As it turned out, his strategy was to attempt to wield it in anticipation of a fight, and then get stabbed with it before getting pushed out of a window.
Copley: When He Tried To Confront Merrick
After Merrick attacked Joe at his facility, Copley was suddenly alarmed at his behavior. This was incredibly irritating to watch because Copley had already done many terrible things to the team at this point. Perhaps Copley felt as if he had a purpose for his actions and couldn't understand Merrick's intentions. However, both of their intentions had the same outcome because he was working for Merrick the whole time.
Despite his possible good intent, he had set them up, caused them severe physical pain, sent people after them, and treated them as if their feelings didn’t matter because they were immortal. So Copley’s attempt to reel Merrick in was useless and ineffective. His character seemed to be clueless most of the time.
Merrick: When He Sent Copley After The Team
It was no surprise that Merrick wanted to capture the team so that he could have his medical staff perform examinations and testing, but it didn’t make it any less annoying. His character managed to remain one-dimensional throughout the whole film, right up until his flying death.
He never ventured outside of his desire to achieve something for himself under the guise of doing something great for the world. It would have been more interesting if he was immortal, and he wanted to be the only one in existence.
Copley: When He Didn't Pay Attention
After all of the measures that Merrick went through to capture the team (sending him after them and setting up fake rescue missions), the fact that Copley was surprised that Merrick’s interests turned out to be extremely selfish was quite frustrating to watch, especially after he worked with Booker to capture Andy.
His emotional ties to reproducing the immortal team’s DNA overshadowed his ability to see reason. Where else could this achievement live if not on Merrick’s resume of power and glory? Both Copley and Merrick were annoying, but it seemed that only Copley was foolish.
Merrick: When He Stabbed Joe
This was the first concrete piece of evidence that Merrick didn’t really care about anything or anyone, as long as he got what he wanted. Before this moment, a lot of his selfishness was shrouded by Copley, mainly because he wasn’t at the forefront during the beginning of the film.
This scene had the potential to bring more depth to his character, had there not been a gaggle of highly trained operatives protecting him. Unfortunately, his attack just made him look like the typical coward with a bit of power.
Copley: When He Tried To Sacrifice Himself
Copley’s character seemed to be an emotional paradox, but grief can have that effect. He knew so much about Merrick and the ex-special forces team that surrounded him, but he thought that going in a with a gun against the highly trained team, plus a group of immortal warriors with a possible grudge, just so that he could make things right, would be the best idea.
Not that he wasn’t also trained while he was in the CIA, but he was outnumbered, at an extreme location disadvantage, and he most likely wouldn’t have gotten far. Copley’s level of reasoning was often vexingly low.
Merrick: When He Encouraged Cruelty
This was another unsurprising moment - the fact that Merrick didn’t really care about the method he used to get what he wanted, but it followed the limited scope of his character.
It would have added complexity to his character for him to be particularly worried about the others' health and well-being, but perhaps he wasn’t meant to be a complex character. It’s not like this kind of inhumane testing hasn’t been done before on non-immortal humans, so maybe it is a bit much to make a fuss about anesthesia in this case.
Copley: When He Sent People After The Team
Perhaps Copley didn’t see it as him doing Merrick’s dirty work, or maybe it was because he was too emotionally close to everything. Whatever the truth was, it was annoying to watch him believe that he was doing the right thing whilst endangering the lives of several people.
Did he think that the team was going to use fake weapons during that "rescue job" that he personally set up? His mind was so twisted in his grief and guilt that he made poor choices that affected more people than just himself.
Merrick: When He Called Andy Selfish
Merrick only knew what selfishness looked like because he was also selfish. For him to say anything like this was hugely ignorant, and he stated it so boldly, as if Andy hadn’t done countless things to positively change the course of history.
He was blinded by his own egocentric ambition and failed to assess the research that Copley found regarding Andy. Not only was it a lie, but it was hypocritical, which is perhaps an improvement for Merrick’s dull character.
Copley: When He Gave The Team The Trap Job
It was apparent from the beginning that the job that Copley presented to the team was a dangerous trap. The whole encounter added even more fuel to the idea fire that Booker and Copley were working together in one way or another. From the first mention of his deceased wife, Copley’s possible personal gains from the team’s involvement with this particular job became the tiniest bit less blurry as he became less trustworthy.
Copley’s character and progression were a basic means to an end for a consistently power-starved man like Merrick, and an insistent gnat in the face of the team.
