You can practically hear the pitch meeting behind G20: It’s Air Force One meets Die Hard, with a few modern tweaks and just enough screen time for an “edgy” hacker teen. But what could’ve been a smart, self-aware thrill ride ends up as a scattershot slog. It’s a movie that wants to be a tense political thriller, a gritty action romp, and a family drama all at once – but never finds the confidence (or the tone) to pull off any of them.

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Viola Davis stars as President Danielle Sutton, a former war hero turned U.S. president that’s currently in hot water back home. She travels to the G20 Summit – a gathering of the world’s richest and most powerful leaders – to pitch a bold global hunger initiative aimed at empowering African farmers. But before the coffee gets cold, terrorists led by Rutledge (Antony Starr) hijack the summit in a bloody raid, taking world leaders and their spouses hostage.

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It’s only thanks to Secret Service Agent Manny Ruiz (Ramón Rodríguez) that Sutton, British Prime Minister Oliver Everett (Douglas Hodge), and a few others escape. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game between Sutton and Rutledge, with her family (including First Gentleman Derek Sutton, played by Anthony Anderson, and their token rebellious teen daughter Serena, played by Marsai Martin) caught in the crossfire.

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This movie desperately wants to be Die Hard, if Bruce Willis had to save the building while his well-meaning partner and tropey kids hung around to help. But it never fully commits. One minute it’s trying to be a serious global thriller, the next it’s tossing off cringey one-liners like “Let’s dance, Madame President” with no trace of irony.

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Davis, to her credit, is absolutely game. Bloodied, bruised, and glowering, she brings more intensity than the script deserves. She’s electric in the third act, going full John McClane in heels. But the tonal chaos and sluggish first half make it hard to earn those fist-pumping moments. The setup takes too long, and the payoff never fully arrives.

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Antony Starr, so menacing on The Boys, is wasted here as a one-note villain with murky motivation and dialogue that sounds AI-generated. His “burn it all down” spiel is as generic as it comes. And Anderson, a gifted comedian, is stuck in neutral as a concerned dad who doesn’t really add much to the story. 

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It also doesn’t help that the movie feels like a long pilot for a streaming series. For the most part it's visually flat, narratively meandering, and constantly unsure of its identity. Some early marketing suggested G20 might be an over-the-top, knowingly absurd action movie. Instead, it’s a pale imitation of better, more fun, and far more self-aware films.

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There is something undeniably satisfying about seeing a badass Black female president storm through waves of faceless mercenaries to save the world. And sure, the fantasy of a likable First Gentleman isn’t bad either. But it’s hard to escape the sting of that wish fulfillment in what now feels like the darkest possible timeline.

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In the end, G20 is all ingredients, no recipe. It’s a movie that could’ve leaned into the fun, embraced the absurdity, or at least acknowledged how ridiculous its premise is. Instead, it shoots for gravitas and lands somewhere between an expensive network pilot and a deeply confused thriller. 

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The result is a big swing and a miss, with Davis once again delivering more than the material deserves.