Jonathan Millar 
Anil Krishna 
James Oconner 
The Runner Review: Gal Gadot Leads a Tense, Fast-Paced Action Thriller on Prime Video
© Prime Video
Gal Gadot is back in full action-hero mode with The Runner, a new thriller on Prime Video directed by Kevin Macdonald. And while she may be best known as Wonder Woman, she has already spent plenty of time in this kind of territory with movies like Red Notice and Fast X. This time, though, the setup is a little more personal. Gadot plays a mother who has to keep running through London because her kidnapped son’s life depends on it.
It’s basically the familiar “save my child before it’s too late” action movie, except Liam Neeson isn’t the one doing the running this time. Gadot plays Maia Marten, a lawyer who gets pulled into an increasingly ridiculous nightmare after taking her son to school and heading out for her morning run. Mark Gibson’s script doesn’t exactly reinvent the genre, but it knows what kind of movie it wants to be. The Runner is short, tense and mostly interested in keeping Maia moving.
A Race That Can’t Stop
Maia’s normal morning goes sideways when she gets a call from an unknown person while she’s out running. Her son has been kidnapped, and the caller makes it very clear that she has to follow the instructions if she wants him alive. The really nasty part is that her son is diabetic, and the kidnapper threatens to stop giving him glucose if Maia refuses to cooperate.
Her job, then, is not simply to keep running. She’s given a specific route through London and told to assassinate one of her own clients. So for the next 80-plus minutes, Maia is essentially trapped in a moving obstacle course, trying to complete the task while also figuring out who is behind the whole thing and, more importantly, whether there’s some way out of it.
The simple setup actually works pretty well because the movie doesn’t spend too much time wandering around. There’s always another instruction, another problem or another reason Maia has to keep going. You can usually guess where some of it is heading, but the constant movement keeps things from becoming too dull.
Gadot Fits the Part, Even When the Movie Gets a Little Too Dramatic
The film wastes very little time establishing Maia as someone who can handle herself. She’s athletic, competitive and stubborn enough to keep going even when things start falling apart. Those qualities are important because the entire movie depends on Gadot being believable as someone who can physically survive this ridiculous situation.
And physically, she fits the role very well. Gadot has always looked comfortable in action scenes, and The Runner gives her plenty to do. Her performance can get a little melodramatic in places, particularly when the emotional side of Maia’s situation takes over, but it doesn’t completely derail the movie.
The bigger problem is Damian Lewis’ villain. The character is kept mostly hidden for much of the movie, which could have been an effective choice if there had been more underneath the mystery. Instead, the kidnapper ends up feeling strangely underdeveloped. He’s constantly talking to Maia, controlling almost everything she does, yet we don’t get enough of a sense of who he actually is or what makes him tick. For a villain who is basically present throughout the entire movie, that’s a missed opportunity.
The Editing Gets a Little Too Excited
There are also moments when The Runner seems to be trying a bit too hard to make itself feel intense. The editing becomes extremely frantic during some of the bigger sequences, and the visual effects used to show Maia’s panic don’t always help. Sometimes the movie would probably have been more effective if it had simply stayed with the action and let the situation speak for itself.
That’s especially noticeable because the basic premise already provides plenty of tension. Maia has a kidnapped child, a mysterious caller giving her orders and a limited amount of time to figure everything out. You don’t really need the camera and editing to scream at the audience that something stressful is happening.
Still, the movie does what it sets out to do. The Runner isn’t trying to be some complicated reinvention of the action thriller, and honestly, it doesn’t need to be. It’s a straightforward, fast-moving movie that gives Gadot a lot of running, fighting and generally looking exhausted while trying to save her son.
Final Verdict
The Runner is a decent bit of action entertainment that knows how to keep things moving. Gal Gadot is a natural fit for the physical demands of the role, and the short runtime means the movie rarely has time to completely lose momentum. The story itself is predictable, Damian Lewis’ villain deserved more development, and some of the hyperactive editing actually works against the tension.
But if you’re looking for something uncomplicated to throw on Prime Video for an evening, it does the job. It’s not particularly groundbreaking, and you’ll probably figure out a few of the twists before Maia does, but there’s enough running, danger and last-minute trouble here to make the ride worthwhile.
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