Netflix’s Red Notice is approaching, and the official trailer has revealed some interesting details about the story of the upcoming action movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. The movie will be Johnson’s third collaboration with writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber following the releases of Central Intelligence (2016) and Skyscraper (2018). Red Notice is scheduled to release on Netflix on November 12, 2021.
In recent years, Netflix has put increasing energy into producing its own big-budget action movies, drawing in some big names to star. Extraction, The Old Guard, Triple Frontier and Project Power have all found success in different ways on the platform, establishing a reputation for the streamer as a major home for genre films as well as original series and assembled classics. Red Notice is the latest action venture from Netflix, and with three superstars like Johnson, Reynolds and Gadot headlining, it could be one of the streamer’s biggest hits yet.
Prior to the release of the official Red Notice trailer, not a lot was known about the story of the film. And even in the trailer itself, many of the details remain unclear. But there’s still plenty to dig into in the footage that’s been released, painting an exciting picture of what's to come. Here’s everything known about the story of Red Notice.
The Rock Plays An Elite Criminal Tracker
In Red Notice, The Rock plays FBI agent John Hartley, an elite criminal tracker sent around the world to hunt down dangerous ne’er-do-wells. Given his presence, responsibilities and reputation that are alluded to in the trailer, it seems that he has achieved a certain level of fame in the criminal underworld as a force to be reckoned with. In many ways, Johnson’s Red Notice character seems incredibly similar to his Luke Hobbs character from Fast and Furious – an Interpol operative who is sent to stop particularly dangerous groups of or individual criminals. With luck, Red Notice can deliver on the promise that Johnson’s Hobbs & Shaw failed to capitalize on.
Ryan Reynolds And Gal Gadot Are Rival Criminals
Both Reynolds and Gadot play prolific criminals in Red Notice, who are both being pursued by Hartley. Ryan Reynolds plays Nolan Booth in Red Notice, who appears in the trailer to be some kind of master thief, and Gal Gadot plays Sarah Black, whose illicit operations may be more complicated. There’s plenty of big and explosive action in the trailer, which seems to position Gadot’s character as the main villain. It’s unclear exactly how she amassed such a formidable criminal empire, but the soldiers fighting to imprison and/or kill Hartley and Booth in the movie appear to all (or at least mostly) be working for her.
It’s also clear that, while they share a general profession, Booth and Black are not exactly friends. An early shot shows the three main characters fighting around a collection of priceless Fabergé eggs, which it appears both Booth and Black want to steal. It’s unclear at this point if they have any kind of extensive history, but it should be a highlight to see them clash over the course of the story, especially once Hartley gets involved.
Dwayne Johnson And Ryan Reynolds Join Forces
The main conceit of Red Notice seems to be the fragile, often comedic alliance that forms between Johnson’s Hartley and Reynolds’ Booth as they join forces to take down Gadot’s Black. It’s a classic buddy cop movie dynamic, with Booth appearing to be swindled into helping Hartley exchange for some more relaxed punishment for his own crimes. Hartley clearly detests criminals, and Booth seems to be accustomed to working alone, making for what’s sure to be a hilarious combo as they struggle to establish some kind of teamwork while fighting against and fleeing from Black’s soldiers. The two have had fantastic chemistry on screen together in the past, making their pair-up in Red Notice particularly exciting for fans.
Red Notice Is A Globetrotting Adventure
Despite being a streaming original for Netflix, it looks like Red Notice will be loaded with all the exotic locations of a big-budget theatrical blockbuster. The trailer shows definitive scenes in Paris and Spain, as well as some in a snowy prison in the mountains somewhere. It’s unclear if all of those stops along the way are directly in pursuit of Gadot’s Sarah Black, but she pops up in most of them in the trailer. Again, this structure plays to the biggest strengths of Dwayne Johnson’s time in Fast and Furious, while also introducing a little more spy comedy energy into the mix. The action in the trailer takes many forms, from car chases and prison escapes to bullfights and large-scale heists. It’s a fun collection of set pieces, and there are sure to be more in the final version of the film.
Dwayne Johnson And Ryan Reynolds Escape From Prison
The previously mentioned snowy prison is a big part of the Red Notice trailer, and it looks like Hartley and Booth get locked up there before an action-packed escape. One scene shows them in what appears to be the warden’s office, realizing in a shocking moment that Black actually seems to be running the place. It’s unclear exactly how they arrive there or what the facility’s role is in the overarching plot of the film, but there are plenty of looks at the two tenuous allies fighting through the guards and even braving explosions in order to escape in an action-packed prison break. Given that the duo’s alliance is formed in the prison, it seems like it probably features in an earlier part of the film.
Ryan Reynolds And The Rock Fight A Bull
Another particularly noteworthy moment in the Red Notice trailer shows Reynolds and Johnson’s characters in the middle of what appears to be a Spanish bullfighting arena, staring down a real-life bull. Again, the specifics of how they wind up there are a mystery, but how they get out of it is bound to be entertaining to watch. The trap many action-comedies fall into is playing too heavily to tropes and not introducing enough originality. But if Red Notice can keep things as fresh and fun as it looks in the trailer, it could be a huge hit when it arrives on Netflix on November 12, 2021.
