Release Date: July 18, 2026 | Director: Jonathan Eusebio | Stars: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Alfre Woodard, Bradley Whitford | Studio: Lionsgate / 87North | Genre: Action-romance | Runtime: 115 minutes
Love hurts. Sometimes literally. How to Make a Killing pairs Glen Powell—Hollywood’s current “everyman hunk”—with Margaret Qualley—indie cinema’s ethereal presence—for a story about two assassins who fall in love while trying to kill each other. The premise sounds like Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), but the execution is pure 87North: brutal hand-to-hand combat, practical stunts, and emotional violence that cuts deeper than any blade.
The Setup: Assassins Anonymous
Powell plays Jack, a “retired” hitman running a bar in New Orleans. He’s not really retired—he still takes jobs, just selectively, justifying each as “moral necessity.” Qualley is Lily, a fellow assassin who arrives claiming to need his help. She’s lying. Her actual mission: eliminate Jack for reasons that unfold across the film’s first hour.
Their initial dynamic is professional flirtation. Jack teaches Lily his “system”—how to spot tails, how to poison drinks, how to make murder look like accident. Lily plays eager student, all while gathering intelligence for her employer. The training sequences are seduction disguised as education: close-quarters combat becomes intimate contact, weapon demonstrations become foreplay.
The Twist: Lovers’ Contract
The midpoint reversal: Jack knows Lily’s mission. He’s known since her arrival—her cover story had holes only another assassin would spot. Instead of killing her, he continues the charade, hoping to discover who ordered the hit. Lily, meanwhile, discovers Jack’s “moral” killings aren’t as justified as he claims. Both are manipulating each other. Both are falling for each other.
The bedroom scene that follows— choreographed like fight sequence, shot in single take—establishes their new dynamic: naked vulnerability, literal and figurative. They decide to jointly eliminate the threat, whoever it is. Partnership replaces employment.
The Second Twist: Mother Knows Best
Alfre Woodard enters as Eleanor, Jack’s former handler and surrogate mother figure. She’s also Lily’s actual mother—Lily was raised in the “business,” trained from childhood, sent to kill Jack as final test of loyalty. The family reunion is gunpoint confrontation: Eleanor wants Jack dead for past betrayal (he refused to kill a child, breaking assassin code); Lily wants out of the family business; Jack wants to survive.
The three-way standoff—dining room, Christmas decorations, everyone armed—lasts 20 minutes of screen time. Powell, Qualley, and Woodard reportedly rehearsed the sequence for three weeks. The dialogue shifts from threats to confessions: Eleanor’s guilt about raising killers, Lily’s desire for normal life, Jack’s realization that his “moral code” was always self-justification.
The Killing
The title’s double meaning pays off. “How to make a killing”—financially, through assassination fees; emotionally, through destroying lives. Jack and Lily’s final assault on Eleanor’s compound is 87North’s signature sequence: continuous camera work, practical explosions, hand-to-hand combat that leaves both protagonists bloodied and broken.
Jack kills Eleanor—not with gun, but with her own method: poisoned perfume, the same technique she taught him years before. Lily watches, understands this is her future if she stays in the business. They escape with money, wounds, and uncertain future.
The Ending
Final scene: Jack and Lily on beach, somewhere tropical, wounds healing. They have new identities, new passports, enough money to stop. But they’re watching other beachgoers, analyzing threat profiles, unable to turn off training. Lily asks: “What would we do? Normal jobs?” Jack responds: “We could try.”
The ambiguity is intentional. Director Jonathan Eusebio—87North veteran, Nobody (2021) second unit—wanted “action movie where violence has weight.” The beach scene, shot golden hour with natural light, suggests peace is possible but unlikely. The camera pulls back: they’re still armed, still watchful, still killers.
The 87North Factor
Lionsgate’s action boutique specializes in “grounded” combat—John Wick‘s gun-fu, Nobody‘s home invasion, Violent Night‘s Santa slaughter. How to Make a Killing adds romance to formula, testing whether love can survive shared trauma. Powell and Qualley’s chemistry—established in brief Top Gun: Maverick scenes—carries the film’s emotional weight.
The action is practical: Powell performed 70% of stunts, including the climactic compound assault. Qualley trained in Krav Maga for three months, her slight frame making combat vulnerability believable. Woodard, 71, insisted on performing her own gun handling—”I’ve been waiting for this role my whole career.”
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