Ryan Reynolds has spent the last decade perfecting the art of playing Ryan Reynolds in various costumes, so the idea of him as a hotshot Navy pilot during the Cold War already sounds like a recipe for chaos. Enter Mayday, the new action comedy from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein that pairs Reynolds with Kenneth Branagh in a buddy spy scenario so absurd it somehow makes perfect sense.
The new poster just dropped, and it’s a reminder that sometimes the best movies are the ones that know exactly how ridiculous they are and lean into it with full commitment.
The premise is beautifully simple. Reynolds plays Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly, a U.S. Navy pilot sent on a top-secret mission into Soviet territory in 1987. When the operation implodes, he crash-lands behind enemy lines and thinks his life is basically over. Then Branagh shows up as Nikolai Ustinov, a gruff ex-KGB agent with a deep love for American culture. What follows is an unlikely alliance that somehow evolves into a genuine friendship. It’s basically a rom-com disguised as a spy thriller, and that’s exactly why it works on paper and probably on screen too.
Daley and Goldstein have already proven they can handle action-comedy with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but Mayday feels like a different beast entirely. The Cold War setting gives them a playground full of paranoia, bad wigs, and inherently funny geopolitical tension. Reynolds doing his usual rapid-fire sarcasm while trapped in 1987 Russia is already a compelling visual.
Branagh playing against type as a Soviet agent who probably owns every Springsteen album adds a layer of charm that most spy movies completely miss because they’re too busy being serious.
The supporting cast doesn’t hurt either. Maria Bakalova plays Anna Ustinov, Marcin Dorociński shows up as Alexander Volkov, and David Morse appears as Harold Kelly. These aren’t just filler roles. They’re characters who actually matter to the story, which is more than you can say for most streaming action movies that treat their ensemble like disposable props.
Apple TV is releasing Mayday on September 4, which gives them a prime slot to capture audiences who are tired of the same old franchise offerings and want something with actual personality and heart.
What makes Mayday genuinely promising is that it isn’t trying to launch a cinematic universe or set up six sequels. It’s a self-contained story about two guys from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain who become friends under the worst possible circumstances. That simplicity is refreshing in an era where every movie needs to justify its existence with a ten-year plan.
Mayday just wants to make you laugh, make you care about these characters, and maybe remind you that the Cold War produced some genuinely wild stories worth telling. The poster promises exactly that kind of old-school buddy comedy energy, and if the final movie delivers even half of that charm, we’re in for a very good time. Sometimes that’s all a movie needs to be.
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