John Cena and Idris Elba are having a blast, but “heroic world leaders” is a big ask.
Bickering heads of state (ya says the title, ya wins a prize) Us President Will Derringer (John Cena) and UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) do not get along – the Special Relationship is on the rocks. Following a very public blow-up, the pair catch a ride on Air Force One to a NATO summit in Trieste, hoping a few happy photo ops will smooth troubled waters. Unfortunately, they’re shot down by agents of fugitive Russian arms dealer Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine, and it’s always great to see Paddy Considine).
Obviously they, survive and find themselves on the run from a nefarious conspiracy. Can these two – one a smooth and serious Army veteran, the other a meathead former action star, and I’m sure you can guess which is which – mend their differences long enough to survive? Will there be a lot of OTT action and endless quips? Is it all very enjoyable and utterly stupid? Green lights across the board.
Heads Of State works largely because of the chemistry and charisma of its two stars, both guys who have never been afraid to commit to the bit to get a laugh. This isn’t there first time out together – they spent the entire running times of James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad ripping strips of each other, so we’re in comfortably familiar territory here. Elba and Cena aren’t exactly stretching themselves here, but they’re right in the pocket.
So too is director Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry, Nobody) – the action is a huge step up from the usual direct-to-streaming fare. While the script by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec is serviceable enough and deploys the clichés of the genre effectively, Naishuller and his stunt team keep the combat at a steady boil, starting with a colourful clash at Spain’s La Tomatina festival and delivering a steady stream of imaginative action beats.
Indeed, the only stumbling block is suspension of disbelief, which was a big ask even when Harrison Ford was doing this sort of thing in Air Force One back in 1997. Best to just pretend this is all happening in an alternative universe – it’s hard to imagine Trump or Starmer diving through the air with guns blazing, no matter what a million weirdly erotic MAGA memes might say.
Heads Of State struggles with its politics, which is something we may have to get used to for the next little while. A lot of political thrillers and action movies in the near are going to carefully step around such salient questions as “But what if the guy in the top slot was a drooling psychopath?” Even putting that aside, simply aiming for the coveted four quarter market spread is going to be tough work. We just had people complain about Superman stopping a war, for Christ’s sake – anything more complex or nuanced is probably beyond the studios at this point.
Heads Of State takes a stab at it, to be fair. While Cena’s Prez is undeniably Republican-coded, the real villain gets a moment to spout anti-immigrant shibboleths to assure us that our hero is one of the Good Ones. But given thorny topics like birthright citizenship and trans rights don’t get a mention, you have to wonder how good. And nobody ever raises the tariff issue.
I’m being a little facetious, but only a little – it’s going to be interesting to see how movies and television navigate our current political moment, and Heads Of State does so by driving right over it like a drunk going through a roundabout.
Still, there’s so much to enjoy here, and maybe a dumb fun action movie shouldn’t be expected to take All This into account. Jack Quaid shows up for a one scene cameo that’s worth the price of admission alone. Elba and Idris are eminently watchable. The action is fast, frenetic, and occasionally brutal. Apart from a better world, what more could you want?
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