No Mutants Allowed

Upham makes it clear in the early film, he has NO combat experience, not even training beyond basic target shooting; he translates texts and draws maps, he's basically the same as his char. in Ravenous - he's a poet

Then comes the scene where he finally bonds with his mates, but immediately after allows one to die, succumbing to his own innate and well established cowardice; or rather - his nature as a misused asset

Toward the end though, he shoots the German he strove to save - in and of itself making a questionable remark upon the nature of POWs; but more important - it is *either* Uphams redemption or downfall

If viewed as a redeption, it is a rather weak one - Upham lets his cowardice cause a friend to die - and makes up for it by murdering a random German dude? Weakest of sauce.

Downfall - Upham was always an asset mis-used; he was meant to translate the fuck out of documents, draw the living shit out of maps - but now he's getting traumatized with impossible hostage rescue operations - he then decides to murder a German, cus fuck that guy