Kerry Washington is best known for her Emmy-nominated work in Scandal (2012) and Confirmation (2016). She's moved into producing theater for Broadway, which has gotten her Tony Award nominations. She also has a long career in films but mainly supporting roles in Oscar-winning productions like Ray (2004), The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Django Unchained (2012). She's had leading roles in arthouse films, but it seems like she's trying to land roles in bigger and more genre fare. She was the protagonist in Tyler Perry's The Six Triple Eight (2024), a World War II film that did get an Oscar nomination.
However, it's difficult to get an African American actress to be the lead in a genre flick, or even a mid-budget action film, such as this. It's difficult to get an African American as the lead of an action film, blockbuster or otherwise. Since the heyday of Denzel Washington is over and Will Smith's heyday is waning, we don't get Black protagonists in mid to big-budget action. Putting aside the MCU films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and Captain America: Brave New World (2025), there's not many of note. The only one that comes to mind is The Woman King (2022), which was a historical piece that at least had something interesting to say about sexism and female empowerment, as well as slavery. This film doesn't, but a Black-led film shouldn't necessarily need a historical aspect or biopic aspect to get made.
Omay Sy is a Black actor from France who was in a standout French film called The Intouchables (2012) where he won the César Award for Best Actor, the equivalent to the Oscar. He's seemingly very famous in France. He's appeared in several Hollywood productions, but yet he's virtually unknown in the USA and most only know him through Netflix's Lupin (2021). When I saw Sy in The Book of Clarence (2023), he had a standout action scene but was in a supporting role. I argued that he should get a lead in an action film. He essentially did in The Killer (2024), a remake of a John Woo film. Woo is known for his action, yet his remake didn't get a theatrical release.
Sy co-stars here as Isaac Sarr, a soldier who was special forces for the CIA, doing covert missions in countries all over the world. He was part of an elite unit that consisted of only ten people or so. Isaac fell in love with one of the other soldiers, Kyrah Owens, played by Kerry Washington. He gets her pregnant and they decide to leave the CIA unit. How they plan to do so is by Isaac going into hiding and secretly raising their son, while Kyrah eliminates all the other members of that unit.
What we gather is that a lot of the reason Kyrah wanted to leave the unit is because the leader of the group, Jack Cinder, played by Mark Strong (Kingsman: The Secret Service and Zero Dark Thirty), became toxic toward her, essentially falling in love and wanting to be with her and not allowing her to be with anyone else. Presumably, her leaving the unit triggers Jack to send the other soldiers to kill her. Yet, we never see proof of that. It's an assumption that wasn't born. The narrative of the film starts with Kyrah killing a member of the unit, arguing they were going to kill Isaac. Yet, that is only an assumption. Obviously, when Kyrah kills one of her own unit members, they go after her. This could be justified as her being a rogue agent who has basically become a terrorist, or at least a murderer herself, a sniper.
As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly clear though that Jack is the true bad guy who cares very little for legality or justice. Prior to that, the film doesn't lay out Jack's villainy or if it does, it could be misinterpreted as righteous anger. Basically, the backstory is very weak and is built on a house of cards that really doesn't support the narrative. The premise inherent in the backstory is compelling. Watching Kyrah go around killing members of the unit might have been interesting in John Wick (2014) fashion. Seeing her simply be a bad-ass could have been great.
The film instead pivots to Kyrah reckoning with parenthood but not really. The film is mostly about Isaac's relationship with their 5-year-old son, which is a sweet and beautiful thing. Kyrah had been separated from her son for four years, so her introduction to her son after all that absence should have been the source of drama. It isn't. This plot-point therefore basically becomes meaningless. Having action scenes where a mother has to drag along her son to protect him could have been a great source of drama too. Unfortunately, this film renders any potential drama from that practically non-existent.
I wasn't expecting something like Arnold Schwarzenegger's films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) or Last Action Hero (1993) where we see an adult is protecting a child in danger because that child is thrust into the middle of car chases or shootouts. Yet, that's what this film sets up, so this film had the potential of being on the level of those Schwarzenegger films, yet I feel this feature squanders it. Therefore, I question why the screenwriter even included a child in this story at all. The first action scene centering on a child is shot in a way that centers the child but the editing of it obscures the action or any potential interaction of the child with that action.
Joe Carnahan directs here and this film like his previous films might simply be living up to the title of his debut feature, Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane (1998). Since then, Carnahan has done several action comedies in that vein but with increasing levels of ridiculousness. This film isn't the apex of ridiculousness, but there's still a light touch to it with someone like Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Method Man providing some obvious comic relief. Otherwise, there is a parental sweetness, particularly from Sy's character that's the most engaging. Strangely, Carnahan's more comedic films don't seem to resonate with me. I prefer his darker and more dramatic thrillers like The Grey (2012), which is my favorite, or even his recent Copshop (2021).
Rated R for violence and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 44 mins.
In theaters.