NATO’s last chance Director Ilya Naishuller sends U.S. and U.K. leaders on a wild road trip through Belarus and Poland in ‘Heads of State’

You’d be forgiven for having missed it, but Russian director Ilya Naishuller’s latest film, Heads of State, is out now on Amazon Prime. Starring John Cena, Idris Elba, and Priyanka Chopra, this road-trip action comedy tells the story of a fictional U.S. president and British prime minister who survive a plane crash before teaming up to save the world (from Russians, of course). Meduza film critic Anton Dolin examines how the movie revives the old-fashioned concept of guilty pleasure viewing, all while both parodying NATO and calling for the alliance to get its act together.

After Air Force One is shot down in a terrorist attack, the U.S. president and British prime minister race to a NATO summit in Italy, trekking on foot through Belarus and Poland in a last-ditch bid to prevent the alliance from collapsing. Along the way, they take down hordes of heavily armed villains — Russians, of course. Who else?

Some viewers may not be surprised that Heads of State skipped theaters and went straight to streaming. Where else would you put a corny, B-list action movie like this? Back in the day, these kinds of films went straight-to-video or cable. Others, however, might reasonably find it to be one of the year’s most entertaining films, with its fast pace, nostalgic fun, and genuine humor. Straddling the line between the armored seriousness of Air Force One and the parody burlesque of Leslie Nielsen comedies, Heads of State lets you rediscover the long-forgotten joy of a good guilty pleasure.

The U.S. president, Will Derringer, is new to politics but already a star, famous as the lead of the fictional Water Cobra action franchise. Brash, clueless, and proud of it, he’s played by John Cena, the wrestler-turned-actor known for his larger-than-life presence and self-deprecating humor.

His counterpart, British Prime Minister Sam Clark, couldn’t be more different. A disillusioned six-year veteran of high office, Clark is full of biting sarcasm and quiet bitterness. He’s played by the ever-charismatic Idris Elba — perhaps a small consolation for anyone who once hoped to see him as James Bond. Throughout this road trip movie, the dour Clark fends off mercenaries and random attackers with grim determination. And unlike the hopelessly enthusiastic Derringer, who keeps trying to reenact stunts from his own movies, Clark actually has military experience.

With the pace of a video game and the kinetic energy of a music video (the soundtrack runs the gamut from Beastie Boys to Mötley Crüe), Heads of State is far wittier and much less monotonous than you might expect. It’s a deliberately shallow spectacle, but one built around a surprisingly smart concept.

Before you dismiss the idea of the villains being Russian arms dealers — namely Viktor Gradov (played by Britain’s Paddy Considine, who was Andrey Andreyev in The Death of Stalin) — remember this is a wink to the classic 1980s Hollywood trope of “bad Russians,” a staple of the genre.

Meanwhile, the over-the-top clichés mask a real political intrigue: a conspiracy to discredit and ultimately dismantle NATO, which is portrayed as utterly incapable of defending itself, let alone taking the fight to its enemies, much like the clueless politicians who lead it. And for once, the mastermind behind the sinister plot isn’t the Kremlin.

Despite their ridiculous personas, Clark and Derringer embody a kind of fairy-tale fantasy: real leaders who can fight back and protect their people.

The director of Heads of State is the Russian Ilya Naishuller, who has built an impressive international career (Hardcore Henry, Nobody). The film’s script was written by three Americans — Harrison Query, Andre Nemec, and Josh Appelbaum — but you don’t need to study the credits to realize that the Russian curse words heard on screen are the director’s own contribution. Without him, the film probably wouldn’t feature such a striking antagonist as the almost-silent “Sasha the Killer” (played by Alexander Kuznetsov), or the charming cameo by Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite as a shotgun-toting independent farmer.

Naishuller’s creative peak in the film comes in a surreal fight scene where the president and prime minister go toe-to-toe with a gang of Belarusian punks, who are armed with whatever junk they could find — after the two leaders unwisely try to steal their car.

There’s probably no point in launching into an academic debate about whose agenda a film like this ultimately serves, ideologically speaking. On the one hand, it’s a clear caricature of modern Western politicians — their cynicism, incompetence, and inability to unite around shared interests. On the other, it’s a sweetly naive, Hollywood-style tribute to the kind of idealism we wish we could see in today’s leaders of the free world but rarely do.

Is it a biting satire of NATO or a cinematic call for the alliance to finally pull itself together? Hard to say. Simply by existing, Naishuller’s film undercuts the whole narrative of a “canceled Russian culture,” while playfully mocking how that culture is portrayed in the U.S. — where, naturally, every Russian is either a killer or an arms dealer. At times, this sarcastic double message reaches the provocative heights of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police, which might be simultaneously the most patriotic and subversive American film of the past 25 years.

Then, just as suddenly, the movie slips back into the cozy territory of guilty pleasure: glamorous secret agents (Priyanka Chopra is unforgettable), wildly implausible action scenes, shamelessly over-the-top stunts, and hysterically dumb one-liners — plus a soaring Elvis Presley ballad playing over the climactic showdown. It’s enough to make you hope that, even if the world is doomed, Hollywood will keep flailing around for our entertainment.