Summary
Absurd, over-the-top, and mostly proud of it, this may not reinvent the presidential action caper, but with Cena and Elba having a blast, it delivers plenty of goofy, high-octane fun.
Air Force One. Olympus Has Fallen. White House Down. G20. Captain America: Brave New World, if you’re feeling nasty. If there’s one thing we know about US Presidents in the movies, it’s that they are constantly forced to prove their worth through feats of physical strength. Ilya Naishuller’s HEADS OF STATE doesn’t aim to change that, but with John Cena and Idris Elba in the lead roles, everyone seems fully aware of the absurdity.
Freshly minted US President Will Derringer (Cena), a former action movie star, meets with embattled UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Elba) for a historic announcement. The two clash immediately: Derringer still resents a past snub, while the cynical Clarke doesn’t take his counterpart seriously. But when the villainous Gradov (Paddy Considine) engineers an attack on Air Force One, both leaders are stranded, presumed dead, and forced to work together to survive and reclaim their power.
On paper, the plot hits every expected beat. But it’s hard not to stay entertained when Cena and Elba quip their way through a string of precisely choreographed set-pieces. Cena taps into his Peacemaker energy with a slightly inept action-hero vibe including, at one point, taking a sheep’s udder to the face for a laugh.
Most sequences exist purely to bounce these two off each other — and they aren’t bad hats to hang a picture on, after all. Naishuller’s signature style (from Hardcore Henry and Nobody) occasionally breaks through, as much as a film featuring a fight shot from the POV of a tooth gap can be called restrained.
Jack Quaid steals a chunk of the movie as a safehouse agent, the centre of a chaotic hallway shoot-up that has Derringer christening him “America’s nutter.” Priyanka Chopra Jonas also kicks ass as an MI6 agent and Clarke’s love interest, delivering a performance fierce enough to justify her own spin-off alongside Quaid if the streaming gods are willing.
The action builds satisfyingly in the final act. Sure, there are some “surprise” villains thrown in to keep the engine humming, but by the time Elba is driving a fire truck while Cena fires rounds out the side of The Beast, the President’s official car, I was more than happy to let logic take a back seat.
2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Ilya Naishuller | WRITERS: Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Harrison Query | CAST: John Cena, Idris Elba, Priyanka Chopra, Jack Quaid, Paddy Considine, Stephen Root, Carla Gugino | DISTRIBUTOR: Amazon MGM Studios (via Prime Video) | RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 2 July 2025