Border Run, or The Mule, is a 2012 American movie, filled with suspense and mystery. It is based on true and actual events. Directed by Gabriela Tagliavini, written by Don Fiebiger and Amy Kolquist, and produced by Lucas Jarach, it stars Sharon Stone, Billy Zane, Miguel Rodarte, Olga Segura, Rosemberg Salgado, Manolo Cardona, and Giovanna Zacarias.
Border Run is about the controversy at the USA/Mexico border, where many Mexicans illegally cross the border to seek a better life in America. There are also Mexican men with guns protecting the border, which makes it very dangerous, as they run for their life toward an underground tunnel. Many sneak out via a tank truck, which transports them to a ghost town village, where they are drugged before made to swallow a small plastic bag with white powder.
I have seen another movie about smuggling drugs via female drug mules, where they carry drugs inside their body and they later have to shit it out for retrieval. There are some pregnant women, hoping their baby will be born on the American side. There are also some people with health issues, and some of these people don’t make it alive because of harsh conditions.
But the movie is about an American TV Reporter in Arizona, working on a story about illegal aliens from Mexico. Her brother, Aaron, works in Mexico, on Border Relief, helping Mexicans illegally escape. But she is unaware of his actual work duties. She calls her brother, a couple of times, but she cannot find him; his iPhone was on and she hears a gunshot. She drives to Mexico to find her brother. She meets different people, and some try to help her.
It is an adventurous journey through the Mexican desert, as she fights others to survive. Javier, a friend of her brother, helps her escape, as they make it to the American side, but the American border control shoot and kill him, while arresting her; but they let her go because she is American. She runs into another man at the ghost town, whom she thinks is her friend. But she notices he smokes the same cigar that she found at the place where her brother was last seen. It is obvious from this clue that he was there when her brother went missing as well as when she heard the gunshot on her iPhone.
He takes her inside, where she sees her brother chained. He asks Juanita to watch them carefully before he leaves. Juanita has two handguns with her, pointing at both of them. They let her go to the bathroom, before he leaves. Sophie runs out of the bathroom and aggressively fights with Juanita, knocking her down to the floor, causing her to bleed. She quickly releases her brother Aaron from chains, and they run out together towards the American side of the desert.
She is wounded badly and she no longer can walk. The American border patrol finds them and take them to the hospital, where she heals from her wound. She asks her brother to take her to Javier’s young daughter, who lives with other family members. Her mother had died trying to escape by crossing the Mexican border, and their young daughter is now an orphan. The movie ends with Sophie, Aaron, and Javier’s young daughter laughing together inside a pickup truck as they drive through the desert to America. Since Sophie doesn’t have any kids, it is assumed that she wants to give Javier’s daughter a better life and an education for her parents--her mother had died trying to cross the Mexico Border and her father was shot trying to help Sophie escape and find Aaron.
Border Run keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, combining emotional depth with thrilling action. This intense desert journey not only sheds light on the harrowing experiences at the U.S.-Mexico border but also speaks to the lengths one woman will go to save her brother. It’s a gripping tale of survival, sacrifice, and hope.
