The Ghost Recon series prides itself on authenticity, and with the latest game, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, marking the return to modern-day geopolitics, Ubisoft is tackling the South American drug trade and the cartels that fuel it. Alongside the game’s launch in March, a full-length documentary exploring the war on drugs and cocaine trafficking in South America will also be released.
The documentary, simply titled Wildlands, follows Marching Powder author Rusty Young in South America and the United States as he meets with “both sides of the law,” including coca farmers and the law enforcement and military officials responsible for taking down the drug trade. George Jung, the infamous drug smuggler who was responsible for a large portion of the cocaine trade in the ’70s and ’80s — whose life was dramatized in the film Blow — is among those featured in the film, as is former Navy SEAL Adam Newbold.
“What can we learn from the launderers, smugglers, and cold-blooded killers who have lived to tell their tale?” asks Young in the film’s trailer. “And do any of them hold the key to stop Bolivia from becoming a narco-state?”
A stand-alone, fictional film was released prior to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier‘s launch, and a similar film is planned for Ghost Recon: Wildlands. This is on top of the Hollywood Ghost Recon film Ubisoft announced a few years back, which is being developed at Warner Bros. with the assistance of Michael Bay. But the Wildlands documentary deals with real people and conflict that results in the loss of human life. It remains to be seen if the film, or the video game, will be able to navigate these issues with enough finesse to avoid coming across as exploitative.
Wildlands will be released March 6, with the game Ghost Recon: Wildlands launching the following day for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
