The U.S. President and the UK Prime Minister fight their way through Europe to reunite NATO after surviving an assassination attempt in Heads of State, now streaming on Prime Video. This is the ultimate in mindless entertainment—and one might wish it took itself as seriously as White House Down, let alone Air Force One—but John Cena and Idris Elba are irresistible in the central roles, there’s some terrific location work across various European destinations, and director Ilya Naishuller (Nobody, Hardcore Henry) lends the film a little more style than it deserves. Call it a guilty pleasure.
Heads of State stars Cena as sitting U.S. President Will Derringer, an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like action movie icon who has assumed the presidency and united the nation in appreciation of their leader (how’s that for Hollywood fantasy?). Elba, meanwhile, is serious-minded UK PM Sam Clarke, currently embattled in political controversy—and who snubbed Derringer during the previous election cycle, instead sharing fish and chips with his competitor.
But forget about them for a moment—there’s a deluge of rote exposition to get through across the first act of Heads of State that, essentially, these world leaders have nothing to do with. Instead, the film opens Mission: Impossible style with a team of MI6 and CIA operatives led by Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) attempting to take out international arms dealer Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine), who is supported by a team of baddies including hacker Arthur Hammond (Stephen Root) and assassins Sasha (Two Prosecutors‘ Alexander Kuznetsov) and Olga (Katrina Durden).
The CIA mission expectedly goes south in a wild scene ingeniously staged at the La Tomatina festival in Buñol, Spain—as revelers chuck thousands of tomatoes at each other, the gore spilled by our heroes (including a cameo from Hardcore Henry star Sharlto Copley) becomes indistinguishable from the flesh of fruit. It’s a striking visual motif that recalls the tomato soup can scene from Gregg Araki’s Nowhere.
But aside from setting the plot into motion, we can forget about all these characters for the next hour or so. Instead, politics take central stage as Derringer and Clarke attempt to smooth over diplomatic relations by sharing a ride to the NATO summit in Italy. Unfortunately for them, Gradov’s plot includes shooting down Air Force One over Belarus, leaving the world leaders presumed dead and a major NATO shakeup on the horizon.
Of course, Derringer and Clarke manage to survive the crash, as they’re given the last two parachutes by Secret Service Agent Crasson (Steven Cree), who kicks them off the plane before it goes down. “What about all these people on the plane?” Derringer asks before Crasson sends him off with a salute. There used to be a time when movies like this paused for just a brief moment of reflection after witnessing a plane full of innocent passengers be sent to their fiery deaths, but Heads of State has no time to waste, and immediately digs into bickering buddy comedy before Derringer even hits the ground.
Heads of State has the same unwarranted lightweight tone that seems to infect all these straight-to-streaming action-thrillers (see also: G20, Back in Action, Fountain of Youth). Director Naishuller’s previous films were similarly self-aware, but did a much better job of balancing humor and action—ironically, perhaps, as they featured a lot more bloodshed.
But Cena and Elba are a lot of fun to watch in these roles, and we get invested in their developing relationship despite our better judgment as they trek from Belarus to Italy to save NATO—and the world—while taking out Gradov’s henchmen and unraveling a terror plot. There’s some terrific support along the way in the form of Ingeborga Dapkunaite as a Belarusian farmer who lends an unexpected hand, and Jack Quaid as a well-armed CIA safe house operative in Warsaw.
Heads of State doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a boisterous blend of bullets and banter, and for the most part, it gets away with it thanks to engaging performances that know exactly what kind movie this is. There’s also som terrific location work across a variety of European destinations (including London, Liverpool, Belgrade, and Trieste) and efficient direction from Naishuller, who adds just enough creativity to elevate this from the rest of the straight-to-streaming pack. This unabashed geopolitical nonsense of the highest order, but next to something like G20, it might as well be Dr. Strangelove.
