The new action-comedy Heads of State presents a high-concept premise centered on an international crisis of the most personal kind. The film imagines a scenario where two of the world’s most powerful leaders, the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, are forced into an uneasy alliance after a conspiracy leaves them stranded and hunted. The project brings together John Cena and Idris Elba, reuniting the pair after their notable on-screen dynamic in The Suicide Squad, and adds Priyanka Chopra Jonas to round out the central trio. The film’s very existence is a direct result of this chemistry; producer Peter Safran, who worked on both films, saw an opportunity to build a new project around that proven dynamic. Amazon Studios acquired the pitch in a calculated move to construct a high-concept vehicle around a pre-existing and successful star pairing, aiming to recapture the specific energy that audiences previously responded to. Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, the film is now available on Prime Video.
A High-Stakes Alliance Forged in Chaos
The narrative engine of Heads of State is fueled by the stark contrast between its two protagonists. John Cena portrays U.S. President Will Derringer, a recently inaugurated leader who transitioned from a successful career as an action movie star to the Oval Office. His political style is defined by immense charisma, record-high approval ratings, and a sincere belief that his charm can solve any problem, though he has little experience in public service. In direct opposition is Idris Elba’s Sam Clarke, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Clarke is a Cambridge-educated, former SAS-trained commando who has dedicated his life to governance. He is a pragmatic, no-nonsense leader whose six years in office have left him grappling with declining voter satisfaction and a deep-seated cynicism toward Derringer’s celebrity-driven approach. Their very public rivalry has put the storied “special relationship” between their nations in jeopardy.
The story’s inciting incident occurs when the two leaders, against their better judgment, agree to fly together on Air Force One to a critical NATO summit in Italy. Mid-flight, the aircraft is attacked by mercenaries and shot down over hostile territory, crashing in Belarus. Presumed dead, Derringer and Clarke are forced into a desperate, off-the-grid fight for survival. Hunted by assassins working for a ruthless Russian arms dealer named Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine), the two must set aside their animosity and depend solely on each other, escaping their crash site in a sheep truck and navigating their way toward Warsaw, Poland. Their journey is soon aided by the unexpected appearance of Noel Bisset, a highly skilled MI6 agent portrayed by Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Bisset, also presumed dead after a mission gone wrong, shares a romantic history with Prime Minister Clarke from their time serving in the forces together. As a trio, they work to unravel the conspiracy, discovering that the attack is part of a larger plot to destabilize the Western world by dissolving the NATO treaty. The script, from writers Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), uses this political framework as a narrative accelerant, creating a high-concept scenario that efficiently establishes global stakes and propels the story into the familiar territory of the buddy-action genre.
A Summit of Contrasting Talents
The core of Heads of State is the dynamic between its two leads, which deliberately builds upon their established on-screen rapport. John Cena’s President Will Derringer is portrayed as an endlessly optimistic and earnest leader, a man who carries the larger-than-life persona of his former film career into the Oval Office. In contrast, Idris Elba’s Prime Minister Sam Clarke is the grounded, gruff, and cynical “straight man” of the pair. The constant bickering and eventual, grudging respect that develops between them provides the film’s primary comedic and emotional arc.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, as MI6 agent Noel Bisset, is positioned as a formidable third lead. Continuing her trajectory as an action star in projects like Quantico and Citadel, she is a brilliant and tough operative who handles extensive fight choreography with impressive physicality. Her character also contributes to the film’s lighter tone with a notable penchant for delivering bad puns. A significant portion of the film’s comedic energy comes from Jack Quaid as Marty Comer, a jittery but deeply earnest CIA agent in Warsaw who is also an unabashed fan of President Derringer’s movie career. Though unassuming, he proves to be a surprisingly brave warrior in a memorable action sequence, providing one of the film’s comedic highlights. The film is rounded out by a strong supporting cast, including Paddy Considine, Carla Gugino, and Stephen Root, though many are in one-note roles with limited screen time. This appears to be a strategic allocation of resources, prioritizing the chemistry of the lead trio and a relentless pace over supporting character depth, a common trade-off in action-comedies designed for streaming.
The Architects of Action-Comedy
The direction of Heads of State is handled by Ilya Naishuller, a filmmaker known for his distinct and kinetic visual style in films like Hardcore Henry and Nobody. Naishuller injects the film’s action sequences with personality and flair, balancing brutality with comedy to elevate the material above standard streaming fare. His background in music videos informs the steady rhythm of the action. The screenplay was penned by the writing duo of Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, with the original story by Harrison Query. Appelbaum and Nemec are known for crafting large-scale, high-concept blockbusters like Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
The film’s visual polish is enhanced by cinematographer Ben Davis, a veteran with a versatile filmography that includes Marvel blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Eternals as well as acclaimed dramas like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The global scale of the story is realized through the work of production designer Niall Moroney, whose credits include supervising art direction on major productions like Sherlock Holmes and Mary Poppins Returns. The production was a multinational affair, with filming in London, Liverpool, Trieste, Belgrade, and the French Riviera, reflecting its significant logistical scale. This combination of talent points to a specific strategy: pairing a director with a distinct style with a conventional script to create a product that is both safe for a mass audience and visually memorable enough to stand out.
A Modern Throwback with a Calculated Message
Heads of State firmly plants its flag in the territory of the “unlikely duo” buddy-action genre, a staple of 1980s and ’90s cinema. It follows the formula of two conflicting personalities forced to work together, leading to comedic friction and an eventual friendship. The film’s tone is self-aware and unapologetically comedic, embracing its own “goofiness and stupidity” as an endearing quality. It is a “popcorn movie” designed for pure entertainment, with a distinct throwback quality to the action-comedies of the 1990s.
This deployment of the buddy-action formula is also an ideologically “safe” one for the global market. Director Ilya Naishuller has stated his goal was to create entertainment with politics as a background, aiming to unite audiences rather than divide them. The film achieves this by framing its central conflict around leadership styles—Derringer’s populist spectacle versus Clarke’s traditional substance—rather than specific political ideologies. The antagonists are a generic Russian arms dealer and internal conspirators, classic villains that avoid alienating any particular demographic. By reducing politics to a personality clash, the film becomes a more universally palatable product, easily digestible for a global Prime Video audience without requiring engagement with complex or divisive real-world issues.
Release Information
Heads of State premiered globally on Prime Video on July 2, 2025.
