Joey hasn’t had a very good day. The terrorists in the building certainly don’t help, either.
The ex-British Army window cleaner woke up late for work, earning the anger of her superior. And she was forced to come in even later when she learned that her autistic brother, Michael, had just gotten kicked out of his 9th care home. (This time, he’d hacked their system and exposed some of their unsavory records.)
Because Joey was running late, she didn’t have time to take Michael back to her house, so he had to wait in the lobby of the Agnian Energy skyscraper while she worked. And because she got to work late, her supervisor is forcing her to work an extra hour later than scheduled.
And that’s why she was still working dozens of floors above the streets below while the company hosted a celebratory gala for investors. It’s also how she witnessed the event—and the building—being taken over by a group of anti-humanist terrorists. They claim that Agnian Energy is killing the planet, and they want to expose its corruption.
As the police catch wind of the situation, they’re informed by the terrorists that they’ve strapped their hostages in bomb vests; should any of their officers attempt to enter the building, they’ll blow the people and the building sky high.
But with her brother still inside, Joey can’t just wait for the cops to resolve the situation.
And despite her occupation, this window cleaner isn’t afraid to make a mess.
Joey and the police do their best to save and protect this company’s employees and leaders from the terrorists. Likewise, Joey and Michael strive to protect each other, too.
When evidence points to Joey’s potential involvement with the terrorists, a savvy leader within the police force defuses the situation after realizing that she’s a victim in the attack, too.
Someone quotes what sounds like Isaiah 40:8: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Someone mentions how Ichneumon (or Darwin) wasps, which lay their eggs inside a host, were evidence against the existence of God. However, the terrorist rants that the existence of man is already evidence against God’s existence.
Someone says, “Life is a fleeting thing; all life is grass,” prompting someone else to joke, “OK, Buddha.”
We see a man leave the celebration to go into a bedroom with a woman. They kiss, and it’s obvious they plan to do more, but they’re knocked out by gas as the man strips to his boxers. There’s a reference to “dry humping,” and someone describes a man as “grope-y.” We briefly see a woman get out of bed in boxer shorts.
When the terrorists take over, they gas the building, causing everyone inside to fall unconscious—save for a few people whom the villains quickly revive with oxygen in order to expose the company.
Still, despite terrorist leader Marcus’ protests, some in the group, most notably Noah, aren’t afraid to use violence to make a point. To that end, a few security guards get shot and killed. Likewise, five police officers die when a vehicle explodes. Noah shoves a glass bottle down a man’s throat to choke him to death, and he threatens to execute an unconscious pregnant woman. And plenty of the terrorists die, too.
Someone gets blown up by a grenade, the blast of which sends her plummeting out a high window. A couple of others fall to their deaths. A man gets choked to death, and another man gets killed with a fire axe offscreen (though blood still sprays onto the camera lens). A female terrorist gets heavily burned when steam shoots out of a pipe, leaving her face and body red and blistered. And we hear that the company engages in contract killings. A bomb explodes.
And if people don’t die, they still get injured. Someone gets shot in the leg. A terrorist breaks a hostage’s finger. People fistfight. Joey gets cut up throughout the movie. A man bites someone’s arm. Someone gets knocked down when a sponge falls on him from a great height. The hostages get strapped into bomb jackets.
A father physically and verbally abuses his son, though we only see and hear the altercation through frosted glass.
Noah threatens the police, stating that if they try to enter the building, they’ll blow the building up with everyone—including two unconscious children—inside.
The f-word is used roughly 50 times, and the s-word is used just shy of 20 times. We also hear multiple uses each of “a–,” “d-ck,” “h—” and “b–tard.” We hear the British crudities “bloody” and “w-nker,” too. God’s name gets misused twice. Jesus’ name is likewise used in vain five times. Someone uses the phrase “got us by the b-lls.”
A man snorts a line of white powder. Someone drinks champagne. One person asks, incredulously, if another is high. We learn that Joey used to “self-medicate.” The terrorists use gas to knock people out for a few hours.
The terrorist group is called Earth Revolution. It’s an anti-humanist group which believes humanity is a cancer on the planet.
For all the faults regarding the methods Earth Revolution uses, they are right in wanting to expose Agnian Energy’s corrupt dealings. We find out early on that Agnian, despite claiming to be a leader in renewable, clean energy, simply pushed its pollution to another part of the planet. And when someone attempted to expose the truth, Agnian hired someone to assassinate her. Likewise, company officials bribed a government official to turn a blind eye to their dealings.
There’s no doubt about Cleaner: it’s not a Christmas movie.
And that’s at least one distinct difference between it and Die Hard, a movie with which many have noted Cleaner shares its basic plot: when terrorists take over a skyscraper, it’s up to John McClane (Joey Locke) to save his (her) coworkers and wife (brother).
Unfortunately for those who like action flicks, Daisy Ridley’s character spends far too much runtime in an already rather short movie doing little more than being stuck outside on a window-cleaning cradle. That aspect can be frustrating since the movie isn’t exactly subtle in pointing us towards her eventual clash with the terrorists.
But when the clashing does eventually occur, it leaves roughly a dozen people dead by the end of Joey’s shift. Making more comparisons to Die Hard, the violence here isn’t nearly bloody or frequent, but some scenes can still feel intense, such as when a terrorist chokes a hostage to death by shoving a glass bottle down his throat. Language, however, is roughly on par with its spiritual predecessor.
Sure, the whole building isn’t ripped apart by gunfire and explosions, but you’ll probably still find that Cleaner’s own cleaner missed a few spots.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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