Heads of State is a ridiculous-and-it-knows-it buddy action movie that nevertheless comes with a few nice messages. Still, it also explodes onto the scene with plenty of jokes, crudities and deaths, some of which may be too intense for younger audiences.
If you were to compare U.S. President Will Derringer and U.K. Prime Minister Sam Clarke, you’d find an inverse relationship between approval and performance.
Will is a former movie star-turned-president whose action hero franchise, Water Cobra, has earned him the love of the world despite few actual presidential actions to his name. Meanwhile, Sam Clarke struggles in the polls during his sixth year of service, though he’d rather use his position to enact change than win hearts.
That difference leaves Sam none too fond of Will, since he sees the President as an action star way in over his airhead. Will, for his part, is pretty annoyed Sam all but publicly supported his political opponent for the presidency.
It’s not long before the two meet for a joint press conference that ends in them sparring onstage, becoming a laughingstock on social media. And to fix that image, their respective chiefs of staff recommend flying together on Air Force One to the upcoming NATO Summit in Italy.
It’s the perfect opportunity for terrorist and arms dealer Viktor Gradov to kill two birds with one stone.
Viktor has recently acquired access to a top-secret program that gives him the ability to monitor all emails, video conferences, phone calls and cameras … and he immediately puts that knowledge to use, targeting the diplomatic flight.
All around the world, reports begin emerging that Air Force One was shot down by terrorists, and both Will and Sam are presumed dead.
They may as well be: Will and Sam have barely escaped the crash, parachuting down into hostile Belarus, miles away from any safehouse. Not to mention any terrorist bold enough to shoot down two of the world’s most powerful leaders won’t be afraid to finish the job.
Oh, and also, Will and Sam still hate each other. They may just end up finishing the job themselves before Viktor gets the chance.
You probably know how this kind of movie goes: The disagreeable Will and Sam, over the course of the film, eventually learn to depend upon and even respect each other through their circumstances. They put aside their differences and instead work to boost each other’s strengths.
Each man has good reasons for why he thinks the way he does: Will, though currently a fledgling politician, understands that the entire world views him favorably because of his celebrity status. He wants to use that status to inspire hope in everyone (not just the people of the United States) and make an increasingly fractured world feel a little more connected. In his view, that hope will help others work toward a common good.
Sam, meanwhile, is focused on the practical side of things. He’d rather pass laws that he believes will benefit the people over the course of their lives—regardless of whether they ever see it.
A woman takes on personal risk to protect Sam and Will. In fact, many people risk their lives to protect the two, some even perishing in the act.
Viewing the aftermath of the plane crash, Will exclaims, “Dear God!” Sam responds, “Think He’s had the day off.” Later, Sam quips, “I died in that plane crash, and this is hell.”
We meet a woman who is a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Catholic nuns react to a car chase by crossing themselves.
Viktor says that his mother was a fortune teller and told him his future. Someone is called the “son of the devil.” Someone else claims that Viktor has the “eyes of God” at his disposal. A woman says that the universe orchestrated something for her. Will tosses a statue of a naked baby angel into the air.
Will thinks it’s weird for Sam to be single in his role as prime minister. “Get him his own season of The Bachelor,” he quips. He tells Sam the public might imagine the Prime Minister hosting sex parties. Sam likewise quips back that Will went from “modeling your underwear” to the presidency.
Will jokes with the press that one of the only times he’ll dress up as his old action movie self is in the boudoir for his wife.
Sam states that whoever attacked them must have “big b-lls.” A woman wears a shirt that exposes cleavage. Sam tells Will that “we don’t all fetishize taglines to the same degree.”
Dozens of people die onscreen by the end of the film. For the most part, these deaths contain minimal blood (the movie’s opening uses a tomato-based food fight as a substitute for a gory backdrop), though characters still endure scrapes and bleed somewhat. Plenty of people get shot, stabbed, blown up or fall to their deaths. Some even get run over. A plane goes down, and many die within it.
Still, some moments are far more brutal than others: One bad guy gets pinned to the wall by a metal door flying through the air. Another man is force-fed boiling water then beaten to death with the kettle. A third attacker breaks his neck after getting slammed onto some stairs. A fourth dies when a lit stick of thermite melts through his helmet.
Others survive but receive cringe-worthy injuries: folks fistfight, loose teeth, get stuck in barbed wire, have their hands crushed in car doors and receive kicks to the crotch. A man takes a harpoon to the shoulder. Someone briefly catches fire. Cars crash. Will throws bags of blood to impede his attackers’ vision.
We hear the s-word about 30 times. We also hear “a–,” “d–n,” “b–ch,” “p-ss” and “b–tard.” There are the occasional uses of British vulgarities, such as “bloody” and “b-llocks.” God’s name is used in vain 14 times, including seven instances paired with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is used in vain once.
People sip liquor and beer. A man smokes a cigarette.
Will and Sam hide under a flock of sheep, and one of the creatures unintentionally rubs its udders across Will’s face. Sam references the incident a few times later in the film, much to Will’s annoyance.
I think the first instinct of some who watch Heads of State will be to look for current political parallels.
And to be fair, we could comment on what this movie may or may not be saying about the modern political landscape, specifically about isolationism, preemptive strikes, the cost of war and celebrity politicians. But I think it would be a bit silly to focus on those details, since the movie itself merely uses them as backstory for its larger-than-life action heroes.
In terms of political satire, Heads of State goes about as deep as a puddle on a drying sidewalk. It’s apparent that the filmmakers were far more interested in another genre: the cool-but-kind-of-ridiculous-and-it-knows-it buddy action flick. Jack Quaid’s surprise cameo, mowing down a host of generic baddies to the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” should make that pretty clear. But if not, Will Derringer’s nuclear initials make it glaringly obvious: W.M.D.
Heads of State isn’t the kind of film that you watch for a meaningful message or any thought-provoking commentary. Rather, you watch because the action sequences are the kinds of things you pictured yourself doing when playing pretend as a kid. Of course, plenty of violence, a couple of crude jokes and some foul-mouthed combatants turn that “pretend” into a bit more of a gruesome affair.
This Prime Video release is rated PG-13, so while there’s not as much blood as one might expect, some moments may be too intense for families regardless.
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’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
