13 years ago, Universal Pictures released a film of the same name by Daniel Espinosa that's about a CIA facility in South Africa where the focus is on the CIA agent running the facility that's supposed to be a protective shelter but that shelter gets infiltrated, invaded and basically destroyed. The CIA agent goes on the run with a terrorist whom he ironically has to defend. This film, directed by Jamie Marshall in his sophomore feature, is a lower budget version of that Espinosa action flick. Marshall's film still somewhat focuses on the federal agent who is the housekeeper of a federal facility that gets put under siege. Instead of going on the run, it's about taking that agent and trapping him in that location with a bunch of others whom he perhaps can't trust. One of them is suspected of being a terrorist, as the film becomes a spy thriller interpretation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (1939), or the book that would eventually be adapted into John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).
Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris and Katy Keene) stars as Anderson, the housekeeper of the federal safe house in downtown Los Angeles. He's a former Marine and not much more is known about him, except his sister died. He's there the morning of a terrorist attack only blocks away. He's literally able to see the smoke from a bombing in front of L.A.'s City Hall. He has to let in and support the agents who need shelter after surviving that attack.
Hannah John-Kamen (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and Ant-Man and the Wasp) co-stars as Mia Owens, a former Army Ranger. She served in Iraq and survived an attack there, but perhaps suffers from PTSD. She's part of Special Projects at the Department of Defense, or D.O.D. She's specifically working on a device that could be a game-changer to national security.
She was standing in front of City Hall when the bomb went off and the terrorists started attacking her and other government agents in the street or on the sidewalk. Later, it's revealed that Mia was supposed to hand off her important device, but she's standing out in the open just waiting. This makes no sense. She would not be waiting out in the open with that device, given its national security importance. It's implied she was going to hand off the device to the Vice President of the United States, but even still, the idea that the hand-off would happen on a wide-open, L.A. street feels ridiculous.
Lewis Tan (Cobra Kai and Mortal Kombat) also co-stars as Agent Choi, a Secret Service agent who is a part of the security detail that is meant to guard the Vice President. That detail and the motorcade are attacked with both a bombing and shooting. Choi is able to recover the nuclear football that's being held inside the motorcade and take it to the L.A. federal facility for protection. Recently, there was a film by Kathryn Bigelow called A House of Dynamite (2025), which was about the President, Vice President and others having to decide to launch nuclear weapons and because the President wasn't in the White House, he had to use the nuclear football.
Bigelow's film is a more realistic depiction of the nuclear football. For starters, it's not the size of a football. It's bigger. It's so big that it requires a medium sized, black bag to be carried. That bag contains a metallic briefcase with the launch device in it, and it can't fit in one's pocket. Its bag is exclusively carried by a military officer in dress uniform who accompanies the President or Vice President at all times. It isn't carried by some random Secret Service agent. Launching nukes require human authentication, not only by the Executive but also by the men posted at the launch sites. Marshall's film here gets all those details wrong and suggests all those things can be circumvented, so it's not an authentic depiction of the nuclear football, which is fine, but even by the protocol that this film establishes, it drops the ball, or football as it were.
When Anderson, Mia, Choi and a few other agents become trapped in the L.A. facility, they eventually learn that the terrorists are after the nuclear football. Once Mia and Choi in particular learn this, the obvious answer is that they destroy the nuclear football itself or Mia's invention, which is revealed to be able to hack the nuclear football. If the terrorists want the nuclear football or Mia's invention, the obvious answer is destroy one or both. It's odd because both Mia and Choi have plenty of time to do so. Why they don't is completely dumb to me and more importantly makes Mia and Choi seem dumb. The fact that it's not even a point of conversation is even dumber.
That being said, this film feels like an excuse for martial arts. Laviscount gets top billing in this film, but he is clearly not the martial artist who stands out here. He's not the action star that gets the spotlight. That honor goes to Lewis Tan who has made a name for himself for his martial arts skills, so it makes sense that he would be utilized as the martial artist in the center. The film is described as shooting fish in a barrel, but, if one of the fish was a great martial artist, which isn't a bad concept for an action flick.
I will never complain about seeing Tan in action and perform fight choreography because he will always impress. It's just unfortunate that everyone else gets short-changed on that action, particularly Laviscount. By the end, it's revealed to be a purposeful thing. That being the case, it's odd that the film didn't play up Laviscount's obvious sex appeal to perhaps build something between Anderson and Mia. Otherwise, this film isn't all that impactful.
Not Rated but for Ages 15+.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 30 mins.
Available on VOD.