“You want to make an omelet, you gotta kill some people.” I’m not a professional chef, nor a professional assassin, so I can’t verify the veracity of that statement. But that mixed metaphor from Chris Evans in the first trailer for Netflix’s The Gray Man perfectly captures what directors Joe and Anthony Russo hope to deliver with their new international action-thriller. Ryan Gosling is a man on the run from an enemy determined to kill him. In a movie that looks like Jason Bourne meets John Wick.
For a movie with this budget (one of Netflix’s biggest ever), cast (absolutely loaded), and crew (the directors behind some of the biggest movies ever), this movie always had a lot to live up to. And the first trailer for The Gray Man indicates it will do just that. This promo comes loaded with action, style, and Ryan Gosling quips. However, it will take more than a quick tongue to survive his flight from the movie’s chief antagonist, Chris Evans’ mustache. Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
The Gray Man is CIA operative Court Gentry (Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.
This classic Hollywood premise is enough to get us to watch. As is the incredible cast. But adding in the John Wick 3 element puts this over the top. Forget making a world-class “merchant of death” escape a single foe. Too easy! Turn the entire planet on him and see how he survives.
Based on Mark Greaney’s novel of the same name, The Gray Man‘s screenplay comes from Joe Russo, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely. The film also stars Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Wagner Moura, and Alfre Woodard. The Gray Man comes to Netflix select theaters on July 15. It then debuts on Netflix on July 22. Which is just enough time for me to double-check that you make omelets with eggs. I’m pretty sure it’s action movies that involve killing a lot of people.