Arthur the King

Arthur the King

It’s not what people call it. Adventure Team Racing is a world demanding game. It lasts longer than any other and makes Iron Man look like hopscotch. You run, bike, climb, kayak, or do anything else that moves you forward over difficult terrain for days straight without more than a few permitted stops and penalties for things like getting IV fluids. “Arthur the King” is based on one of these races where an American team raced through the Dominican Republic’s jungles, mountains, and rivers (the real story was about a Swedish team in Ecuador). Mark Wahlberg plays Michael Light, the team leader who befriends a stray dog he names Arthur.

It’s actually three movies in one all of them watchable but they don’t always fit together. The first part is Michael’s story. He’s a restless character who may be an adrenaline junkie or someone with something to prove after being called “the best adventure team racer never to win a championship” by “Man vs Wild” host Bear Grylls (played off camera by himself). He loves his wife and daughter but hates working for his dad who went from military special ops to real estate he won’t let himself become a viral image of his losing team literally stuck in mud.

No sponsor will touch him after his last failure but with only half the money he needs Michael puts together a team: Chick (Ali Suliman), the navigator, who got dropped from the championship team because of his bad knee; Olivia (Nathalie Emmanuel), expert free climber and daughter of a former champ whose mind isn’t quite right after too many concussions; Leo (Simu Liu), the social media star who posted that viral mud photo and is still mad at Michael for screwing up their chances to win the last race. This time around Michael promises Leo will have a voice in which direction they go and Lou warns him: “It will be a loud one.”

The second part of the movie is the race itself “5-10 days racing the toughest terrain on earth.” With their limited budget, the team has to cut back on-site prep time and arrives with not enough time to acclimate. “The first rule is anything can happen,” Michael tells them and they all respond with sports-y pep talk aphorisms like “Whatever it takes” or “We accept it. We embrace it.”

The first event is a 24-mile trek through the jungle where there’s no set path so part of the challenge is finding shortcuts through uncharted territory that could be fatal. The settings in this section are stunning (though the racers never seem to have time to look at them) and there are some genuinely thrilling sequences, including one where a zip line starts fraying while someone’s on it.

And then there’s Arthur, the abused street dog who somehow (after a meatball from Michael, who admits he’s “not a dog person”) follows the team for hundreds of miles and at one point saves them from running off a cliff.

Both Arthur and Michael start the movie as outcasts, but through the course of racing together they become teammates and then a family. The whole team’s “whatever it takes” attitude stays intact but there is a change in what “it,” should be the thing that human members are willing to risk everything for.

At points, when Wahlberg spoke to Arthur, I did feel like he was imitating Andy Samberg imitating him and half expected him to tell the dog to say hi to his mother. But Michael’s connection with Arthur, and how he transfers the determination he brings to racing into fighting for Arthur’s freedom is so moving. Can’t wait for real Mikael + Arthur shots over closing credits.

Michael’s wife calls his dream “a magical finish line,” and the movie reminds us that we should pay close attention to our goals, decide if achieving them will really give us what we want and what it means to win.

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