Imagine making such a film in India! Two heads of state—the US President and the British Prime Minister—are ruthlessly ‘humanized’! They become, security and protocol apart, almost ‘common’ human beings who are eccentric, have quirks, hate each other’s guts and so can’t stand each other, are not all that respected in their own nations, and are so targeted by their (internal and) external enemies, so that they grudgingly become friends.
No, no, no…in India we could not have made any movie even on two ministers, forget Heads of the many Indian ‘states’!!
The humor is seamlessly blended with the action, the way pathos and humor have been mixed fluidly in a Munna Bhai MBBS or a Sitaare Zameen Par.
And what am I doing reviewing a homespun (in the US, not India!) Hollywood actioner? Well, apart from the media screening five days ago (with an embargo on the review!), there was Priyanka Chopra Jonas in a leading role!
Just one (significant as always) nitpick here. Had the same kind of larger-than-life action, thrills and VFX-aided stuff been shown in a Hindi or Indian film, our worthy critics who thrive on such foreign extravaganzas like the Marvel Universe et al would have ripped that film to pieces, as they have done so often! I preferred to look at the intent and target audience and sit back and enjoy the downright crazy and often hilarious goings-on, laced with action that Rohit Shetty can well contemplate in terms of grandeur and spectacle!
The wafer (chips?)-thin storyline runs thus: In Spain, at the Tomato Festival we saw in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, a joint operation by America’s FBI and Britain’s MI6, headed by Noel (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) leads to disaster as almost all the agents are killed and Noel is presumed dead.
A few days later, US President Will Derringer (John Cena) and UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) meet up (in London) for a social cause: clean energy. Actually, they can’t tolerate each other but still share the stage along with their aides in support.
Will and Sam end up making a mess while reacting to media queries on the Spain catastrophe. As a damage-control measure, Sam’s advisor suggests that Will and Sam should travel together in Air Force One (the official American plane for the Head of State) to the G20 conference to be held in Trieste, Italy. They must thus show their camaraderie and that everything’s gung-ho between them.
But mid-air, another plane attacks with the intention to destroy Air Force One and its exalted ‘content’. Will and Sam jump off the plane before it crashes. News spread that both the leaders have perished. The two know that the fact that they are alive should be kept a secret if they are to survive (they have landed in their chutes in the forest of Belarus). The two destroy their phones and after a night-long traipse garnished with the flavor of mutual dislike, they attempt to hitchhike a ride to a safehouse in Warsaw in Poland.
The fact that Will was a film star (Ronald Reagan, anyone?) and Sam sneers at his artifice despite being in a sticky political situation back home, and their misadventures and adventures along with Noel being alive (no spoiler there, as a Priyanka Chopra who is a leading lady, cannot perish in the first 15 minutes!) form the rest of the zany film.
Apart from being a full-barreled must-watch entertainer, brimming with fantastic action and terrific situations, the film also points out to the increasingly curious aspect of a growing similarity between American and Hindi and South Indian films in formats and pacing. For all its general brevity, the climax and the emotions are so very Indian (and stretched to an extent) that the differences between their cinema and ours are surely fading!
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is outstanding in her role. She carries the emotional part well too. Idris Elba as Sam Clarke, the Black PM of Britain, is first-rate, especially when berates his American colleague with gestures, expression and some superb lines. John Cena also shines as Will, the American actor-turned-President who has to resort to real-life action and prove, mainly to Sam, that he is not all ‘fake’ at the stunts.
The supporting artistes are fine, with Paddy Considine (Viktor Gradov) as a suave, underplaying villain. Adrian Lukis, Simone Bradshaw, Richard Coyle and Carla Gugino are all good, but standing out is Jack Quaid as smarty-pants Marty Comer, who shares the post-climax with Priyanka.
Full marks also to story writer Harrison Query, who has also co-written the script with Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec. To say that the technical values are fabulous is an understatement, especially given Ben Davis’ cinematography, Niall Moroney’s production design and the crackerjack pace (in all but some rare parts in the climax) at which film editor Tom Harrison-Read has kept things moving. The music by Steven Price and the action by Lee Morrison add to the caliber of the movie.
And supervising all this and putting it all together is the magician who has cast this spell of a bewitching phantasmagoria of entertainment—director Ilya Naishuller. If you miss this one, you are escaping one of the great celluloid highs of 2025.
Rating: ****
Amazon Prime Video presents AMAZON MGM Studios’ Heads of State Produced by: Peter Safran & John Rickard Directed by: Ilya Naishuller Written by: Harrison Query, Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec Music: Steven Price Starring: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Idris Elba, John Cena, Paddy Considine, Adrian Lukis, Simone Bradshaw, Richard Coyle, Carla Gugino, Jack Quaid & others
