Though the political action-thriller “G20” began production in January 2024, before Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for President, it’s difficult not to see this film as a commentary on the most recent contentious presidential race. In “G20,” Viola Davis is President Danielle Sutton, a former Iraq war hero turned politician seeking a win on the world stage at the G20 summit. Her hopes are dashed when mercenaries led by Corporal Rutledge (Antony Starr) hijack the event and attempt to take Sutton and her family hostage.
Director Patricia Riggen’s “G20” is the second such movie to be playing this week, and it feels like a modern Harrison Ford film. “The Amateur,” James Hawes’ CIA thriller starring Rami Malek, is akin to a melancholic take on Phillip Noyce’s Jack Ryan films. And while many will point to the “Has Fallen” franchise as the primary inspiration for “G20,” it feels far more aligned with “Air Force One.” “G20,” which lands far better than the snoozy theatrics of “The Amateur,” may make some question why a prestige actor like Davis would want to lead an action vehicle. But, much like Denzel Washington’s “The Equalizer,” her attempt appears to be in service of a genuine love for the genre rather than a tacky cash grab.
“G20” is an entertaining and gripping action vehicle with a deft sense of tension that is sometimes undone by its on-the-nose dialogue.
It begins with a forced bait-and-switch. In Budapest, Hungary, Rutledge pursues a woman carrying a crypto wallet. That action is crosscut with the secret service awakening Sutton to let her know they’re pursuing Serena. The implication is that Serena is the woman Rutledge is pursuing. But when Rutledge kills the woman in a crowded bar, taking her crypto wallet, we know that isn’t the case. Serena (Marsai Martin) is actually the tech-savvy teenage daughter of Sutton and her husband, Derek (Anthony Anderson). The Secret Service has apprehended her drinking at a bar, an incident that caused her mother headaches in the press as she tries to sell her idea for fixing global hunger by providing poor farmers in Africa with digital currency.
To aid the plan, Sutton and her family, which includes her skittish son Demetrius (Christopher Farrar), travel to the G20 summit in Cape Town, South Africa, to convince the world to buy in. There, Rutledge, who has infiltrated the security team meant to protect the event, takes the gathered politicians and their spouses hostage in a furious and bloody raid. It’s only through the quick thinking of Secret Service Agent Manny Ruiz (a scene-stealing Ramón Rodríguez) that Sutton, British Prime Minister Oliver Everett (Douglas Hodge), and a few others momentarily escape. With the help of Ruiz, Sutton works to stop Rutledge and save her family.
The major stakes of “G20” attempt to play off our contemporary fears: cryptocurrency, deep fake AI, and the shakiness of the global economy. Some of it, like the crypto angle—Rutledge’s harebrained scheme involves him trying to collapse multiple currencies by forcing people to panic buy digital currency, thereby enriching himself—is hackneyed. On the other hand, the possible destruction of the global economy is all too relevant in the face of the present trade war.
In between these worries, the film contends with misogynoir with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. White colleagues often question Sutton’s leadership. Everett, for instance, frequently chastises Sutton for being too aggressive and openly decries needing to follow her. It’s also telling that in a movie set in Cape Town, the former epicenter of Apartheid, all of the mercenaries are white, while everyone who helps Sutton is a person of color.
Part of the reason movies like “The Amateur” and “G20” struggle to deliver the popcorn thrills of 1990s action movies is that they’re based around characters that almost feel too specific and pointed. In “The Amateur,” we’re so involved with the protagonist’s grief, the actual enjoyment the movie attempts to provide is muted. In “G20,” the script is so issues-based — thereby providing Davis with plenty of moments to vocally express the politics of the film — that it strangles the film’s mood. Harrison Ford’s films succeeded because Ford portrayed himself as a symbol that could be bent or complicated by showing, not telling. This is why a film like “Air Force One,” admittedly a rah-rah post-Cold War film, has far more to say about America’s unconscious vulnerability as a world power than “G20” about the war in the Middle East or America as an imperialist force.
Still, the film’s thunderous intentions don’t wholly distract from its more exhilarating sequences. As Davis showed in “The Woman King,” she has the undaunted exterior necessary for action cinema (even if the camera often cuts around her fighting). The sequencing of the set pieces, supported by Joseph Trapanese’s brooding score, inspires sharp moments of tension, such as the initial raid on the summit or Sutton’s many close escapes. Each member of Sutton’s family also does their part, with everyone getting a crowd-pleasing scene. There’s also the frigid relationship between Sutton and Serena that warms as the film continues, providing glimmers of heart in a militaristic picture.
“G20” ends on an extremely obvious metaphor of world leaders needing to come together if the world hopes to prosper, which admittedly has plenty of contemporary resonance. Even so, much like “Captain America: Brave New World,” which features a raging white president soothed by an appeal to his inherent goodness to cease burning down the country, “G20” appears to be in conversation with an alternate universe. It denounces bully politics as untenable, shows us that all of us can find some commonality, and paints a future with a Black woman president earning the respect of her peers (if only the last few months showed us that any of that was possible).
And yet, by having loud social statements and muddied geopolitics in service of blockbuster entertainment made for streaming—the film will be released on Amazon Prime Video—“G20” feels separate from its time yet painfully indicative of it.
