Heads of State review (2025)

Heads of State can’t shake that deja vu feeling from arriving on streaming platforms after Viola Davis’ very similarly themed presidential action film, G20. Nor does it shake that notion of being a mirror image of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw albeit with a slightly better script.

What does work in its favor is the inspired casting of Idris Elba and John Cena as the respective Heads of State. Yes, we’ve reached a point now where there’s degrees of separation in not just comic book movies (they previously starred in The Suicide Squad) but also the Fast & Furious franchise. Cena carried on the wrestler tradition established by The Rock in F9: The Fast Saga and Fast X and Elba in Hobbs & Shaw.

In Heads of State, Elba plays the veteran Prime Minister Sam Clarke, who’s been in the seat long enough to find his hope and optimism upon arriving in office many years ago now just a distant memory. Sam’s annoyed at having to make nice with U.S. President Will Derringer (Cena), an action movie star who rode his popularity all the way to the Oval Office. The two are having their first meeting in London to solidify what their aids (Sarah Niles and Richard Coyle) hope will be a lasting and enduring partnership.

Assuming they can overcome their initial impressions of each other. Sam thinks Will is playing at being president while Will is upset that the uptight Sam made a not-so subtle non-endorsement/endorsement of his political rival during the presidential campaign.

Turns out that won’t matter much now that Russian arms dealer, Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine, barely recognizable from his House of the Dragon role), is back on the loose. And he’s got a genius level computer whiz (Stephen Root) ready to dig into some world secrets most leaders would prefer stay hidden.

Gradov already orchestrated a plan to take out a join US/UK task force. Now he’s set his sights on kill both heads of state aboard Air Force One. This assassination attempt requires some serious suspension of disbelief namely that one assassin can take down an entire squad of Secret Service men. True there wouldn’t be much of a movie if the would-be killer was stopped, but this plan probably needed multiple assassins to make it more credible.

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Sam and Will manage to escape while the rest of the world thinks them dead. That means VP Kirk (Carla Gugino) now steps into the main seat while trying to keep the fragile NATO partnership intact while the heads of state identify a safe route back. Not everyone in their inner circle is on the up and up as a traitor is plotting against them and aiding Gradov in tracking them down.

Good thing the heads of state get some help from an overeager CIA agent Marty Comer (Jack Quaid, who has a fun spotlight scene) and a very helpful traveling companion in MI6 agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who was presumed dead in Gradov’s initial attack. Noel and Sam have a romantic history and Will appreciates Noel’s snappy pun game.

Screenwriters Josh Appelbaum (Citadel), André Nemec (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Harrison Query take a shotgun approach with the comedy in this action comedy — just fire in the general direction and hope something lands. It’s not completely scattershot as some of the jokes are genuinely funny. Will keeps assuming he knows how to deal with a real action crisis situation because of his “experience” playing an action hero. Sam cracks on him being gym strong and the overall back and forth with Will and Sam is entertaining.

Less so are the goofy slapstick action-comedy bits where Cena tends to act sillier to overcompensate for his hulking wrestler physique. Elba attempts to play along with Director Ilya Naishuller’s (Hardcore Henry) less traditional approach to a straightforward fight sequence.

Chopra Jonas reunites with one of her Citadel writers and Appelbaum basically just transfers her unstoppable character to Heads of State. She’s fine in the role, but it feels like given her prominent involvement that the heads of state could have just included Noel as the emissary for another country. Aleksandr Kuznetsov and Katrina Durden are also engaging as Gradov’s deadly assassins who barely speak throughout the film.

Naishuller does stage some impressive action sequences. The escape from Air Force One is very creatively staged and Noel’s adventures in finding Sam and Will is also pretty clever. Other fight scenes play out like Naishuller is trying too hard to make them funny.

Elba and Cena elevate the script, and their star power is enough to keep Heads of State from getting boring. With a tighter script and less grasping attempts at ill-advised comedy, this could have been a legit candidate for best action comedy of the year.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Amazon Studios

You can watch Heads of State now on Amazon Prime.

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