Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 113 mins

UK Distributor: Prime Video

UK Release Date: 2 July 2025

WHO’S IN HEADS OF STATE?

John Cena, Idris Elba, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jack Quaid, Paddy Considine, Stephen Root, Carla Gugino, Sarah Niles, Richard Coyle, Clare Foster, Katrina Durden, Aleksandr Kuznetsov

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Ilya Naishuller (director), Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query (writers), John Rickard and Peter Safran (producers), Steven Price (composer), Ben Davis (cinematographer), Tom Harrison-Read (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

The US President (Cena) and the British Prime Minister (Elba) are forced on a perilous journey together…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON HEADS OF STATE?

If I had a penny for every movie released on Prime Video in 2025 that was an action movie wherein the gun-toting badass hero (or at least one of them) happens to be the President of the United States, I’d have two pennies – which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

Luckily, Heads of State is a much more enjoyable outing than G20, which ended up being nothing more than just another self-serious Die Hard clone we’ve seen many times over, but with a POTUS in the John McClane role. While there isn’t a whole lot about director Ilya Naishuller’s film that is also particularly fresh, at least in its basic structure, it still works because it more or less knows that it’s the kind of preposterous action romp that audiences can easily switch their brains off for, with a winning combination of leads that exude charm, likeability, and genuine tough-guy charisma.

The film kicks off with Sam Clarke (Idris Elba), the Prime Minister of Britain, having a very public butting of heads with the recently-elected US President Will Derringer (John Cena), a former action movie star turned hugely popular politician, after news emerges that a covert MI6 and CIA joint operation to assassinate Russian arms dealer Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine) has gone tragically south. To score a PR win, both heads of state agree to fly together on Air Force One toward a NATO meeting in Trieste, Italy, only for Gradov’s goons to shoot down the plane, forcing Clarke and Derringer to land in Eastern European territory and make their way to safety. Of course, the sparring PM and POTUS begin to find common ground with one another, and with the help of agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) they fight their way through Gradov’s assailants and back to their positions as leaders of the free world.

It’s all very silly, and often it barely makes a lick of sense, especially when it starts getting into who else may be involved in the villain’s ultimate scheme, but Heads of State seems fully aware of that and wisely doesn’t attempt to hide it. Naishuller, coming off of Nobody and, to a much lesser extent, Hardcore Henry, has a knack for delivering heightened and sometimes even cartoonish moments of comedy without detracting from the high-octane action, blending both elements together well in sequences that utilise the physical and naturally funny talents of his performers, from his A-list stars to the numerous stunt performers, while indulging in the good kind of mindless entertainment. Because of that, as well as keeping the general plot and character motivations relatively simple, the director makes things easy enough to follow so that more time can be spent delivering the enjoyable mix of action and comedy that the viewer wants to see out of a film like this, and more often than not it delivers what it promises.

It helps, enormously in fact, that Idris Elba and John Cena not only work great together, as those who previously saw them work off one another in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad will know, but are such fun action leads who bring so much movie star magic to roles that could have felt so bland if lesser performers were cast instead. Elba and Cena’s dynamic is certainly riding off previous successful buddy action-comedy pairings in the likes of Bad Boys and The Nice Guys, with one (Elba’s Clarke) being the pragmatic and more world-weary type, while the other (Cena’s Derringer) is more naively gung-ho and less likely to know the diplomacy of it all, but they’re both still very likeable and are able to make you root for their characters as they form a believable chemistry that’s noble but also respectful of one another’s individual skills. Their flow isn’t interrupted when the equally capable Priyanka Chopra Jonas enters the picture, for while she does her thing quite well it doesn’t detract from the main attraction of these two formidable action stars playing off each other and being just all around cool.

There’s still plenty to criticise, whether it’s the thin plot that comes with one predictable twist after another, or the weak villain that Paddy Considine tries (bless his soul) to inject some life into, or even some of the shoddy effects that make it look like a PS2 game in certain instances. But none of that really matters, so long as you’re having enough fun with it all to notice, and for the most part you are. Naishuller’s energetic and sometimes stylish direction creates an enjoyable tone that is maintained through action that’s palpable and easy to watch, and comedic moments which despite not always being laugh-out-loud funny land a good chuckle every now and then. Again, though, that’s mainly down to the two leads being such gifted performers, especially Cena who is becoming increasingly chameleonic throughout multiple genres from comedy to action to drama and ends up being magnetic in every single one of them, that they can get a laugh from their mere physicality alone, while still remaining credible as pure action heroes.

Though there is one thing that I’m struggling to comprehend, even amidst all the arguably much more unbelievable stuff that happens in Heads of State: how is it, especially nowadays, that a seemingly populist US President with a prolific background in the entertainment industry and little to no experience in public office can not only win the election quite unanimously but also become universally adored? Like, not even any apparent pushback on any of his policies? It seems like such an alien concept in this day and age, though I guess that’s why movies like this exist, to keep that kind of barmy imagination alive.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Heads of State is an enjoyable action-comedy blend that’s easy to both follow and like thanks to fun filmmaking and a pair of hugely watchable leads who lean into exactly the kind of silly buddy film that it is.

Click here or check below to find where you can stream Heads of State now, thanks to JustWatch!