‘Heads of State’ Is A Knowingly Stupid Throwback And Is All the Better For It
As a self-important critic, I’m very much a champion of films being Very Serious works of illuminating art intended to expand our horizons and fundamentally shape the way we see and navigate the world. But I’m also acutely aware that we’re all going to die at some point, and there won’t be a sequel, so we might as well have fun while we’re here. Enter Heads of State, a deliberately dopey throwback to uncomplicated mismatched buddy-action movies like 48 Hours and Tango & Cash, which exists for literally no reason other than to be entertaining.
Initially, I thought this was a Dad Movie™, another kind of throwback exceedingly popular in the ‘90s about very competent people – almost always men – solving problems usually adjacent to the law, politics, or the military. When Heads of State ventured aboard Air Force One, the setting for one of the real classics in the Dad Movie core canon, predictably titled Air Force One and starring Harrison Ford as the U.S. president facing down Russian neo-nationalist hijackers, it felt too obvious an homage. But this isn’t a dad movie. The sequence aboard the most secure and famous plane in the world is just the point where it starts to get increasingly silly, and becomes all the better for it.
But let’s rewind a little. Like any good buddy-comedy, Heads of State relies on the chemistry between its leads. John Cena plays newly elected U.S. President Will Derringer, a Ronald Reagan-style former Hollywood star who has a celebrity’s need to be liked and the geopolitical idealism of someone whose connection to reality is tenuous at best. Idris Elba’s U.K. Prime Minister Sam Clarke is the exact opposite, a seasoned politician with a legitimate military background who has been rendered permanently fed up by the realities of politics. When they’re forced to meet for a NATO-related press conference, they immediately hate each other.
Since Derringer is new to public office and needs to build relationships, and Clarke is suffering from dangerously low approval ratings among the British electorate, their respective advisors push them to undertake a PR stunt by travelling together aboard Air Force One to their next appointment. The bonding exercise quickly puts them in the sights of terrorist Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine, who between this, MobLand, and Deep Cover is having quite the year), a vengeful arms dealer who has a score to settle with the North Atlantic. Stranded in the Belarusian wilderness, Derringer and Clarke are forced to work together to uncover the conspiracy at play and, more importantly, survive.
As mentioned earlier, this is where things start to get interesting, because it’s also where they start to get truly bonkers. Clarke is moderately less useless than Derringer thanks to his Army training and experience in the real world, but neither are competent action heroes. This makes every action scene hilarious, but also gives supporting players the chance to shoulder the burden. Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Citadel) is on-hand as all-action black ops agent Noel Bisset, who predictably has a romantic history with Clarke, and Jack Quaid (who, between this and Novocaine, is becoming a credible action star behind our backs) shows up for a cameo as a lethal CIA safehouse babysitter with a man crush on Derringer.
There isn’t a single second of this movie that isn’t played for maximal entertainment. The back-and-forth banter between the leads is stellar, with great recurring callbacks to Clarke having taken Derringer’s political rival out for fish and chips, and Derringer’s ridiculous body of film work, including the action classic “Water Cobra” series. But it also knows that it needs to support the escalating ridiculousness with actual craft, and director Ilya Naishuller (responsible for the equally superb actioners Hardcore Henry and Nobody) rises capably to the task, delivering exciting, clear, and sometimes quite novel set-pieces.
By the time credibility has been strained to breaking point – the entire final act is particularly ridiculous – you’ll be long past the point of caring. Heads of State is about having fun, not picking holes in logic and plausibility, and fun will indeed be had if you surrender yourself to it. In terms of pound-for-pound entertainment value, this is one of the simplest recommendations of the year.