early inspiration for \u201cMayday<\/a>\u201d), but is understandably suspicious given the circumstances, especially when Nick explains that the ropes were necessary to keep Troy still while performing \u201csurgery.\u201d <\/p>\nBut it\u2019s true and Nick\u2019s delight in tending to his own personal Maverick is sincere. With the Finnish border, and any hope of safety, more than a thousand miles away, he wants to keep Troy away from Red Army forces that are undoubtedly searching for him. Still when he suggests that Troy simply \u201cwait out the Cold War\u201d with him, the pilot decides it\u2019s time to go.<\/p>\n
The ensuing tense but hilarious fight sequences reveal that this kindly hermit has a serious, military-trained past \u2014 in the KGB, as it turns out, though he walked away when the horrors of his job threatened to define him. Now Nick dreams of eating McDonald\u2019s and traveling America by camper van.<\/p>\n
Back in Moscow, Alexander Volkov (Marcin Dorocinski), the anti-Gorbachev head of state security, is indeed looking for the downed American pilot in the hopes that his capture, and proof of his mission, will derail any notion of peace between the Soviet Union and the United States.<\/p>\n
His efforts force Nick and Troy on an excellent \u201880s-hits-fueled adventure in search of a way to communicate with the American Embassy in Moscow.<\/p>\n
![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788436211_933_.jpeg\")
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\u201cMayday\u201d riffs on \u201cTop Gun,\u201d \u201cLethal Weapon\u201d and \u201980s pop culture while celebrating glasnost-era optimism.<\/p>\n
(Apple TV)<\/p>\n
Exit left, pursued by, in Cold War terms, the Bear. <\/p>\n
Writers-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein may not have created Troy specifically for Reynolds (who also serves as executive producer), but it certainly feels like they did. As Troy, his signature wide-eyed, guileless delivery of sarcasm is a first line of defense that softens as his understanding of the Russian people, including his companion, grows. Branagh is just as perfectly cast. As his extraordinarily varied career proves, the man can do pretty much anything and \u201canything\u201d now includes making a shaggy, Bruce Springsteen-loving Siberian hermit with super-soldier abilities both a source of constant comedy and humanity.<\/p>\n
Even with a bushy beard, Branagh\u2019s face offers a window to Nick\u2019s life of regrets and his sudden wild hope.<\/p>\n
Together they are the perfect odd couple, getting in and out of trains, planes and military vehicles with quick-witted patter and a nonstop plot that nods to films like \u201cLethal Weapon\u201d and \u201cSilver Streak\u201d as reverently as it acknowledges \u201cTop Gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deeper emotional through lines \u2014 Troy\u2019s love for his ailing father (David Morse), Nick\u2019s troubled relationship with his daughter (Maria Bakalova), the peril and hypocrisy of attempts to politically paint nations as righteous or evil \u2014 are as sincere as Nick\u2019s love of American pop culture and serviceable enough. \u201cMayday\u201d is buoyed by self-aware nostalgia, for American \u201880s pop culture, for glasnost and for a time when comedy adventures like this one filled the cineplex.<\/p>\n
But the real exhilarating and exultant joy is that of the chase \u2014 two very different men forced on the run. It\u2019s tough to beat a film that\u2019s equal parts laugh-out-loud comedy and death-defying adventure.<\/p>\n
Especially when the people making it seem to be having so much fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple TV\u2019s \u201cMayday\u201d mashes the Cold War with \u201cTop Gun\u201d and every buddy adventure-comedy you\u2019ve ever loved and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[37366,273193,273194,146,273191,273192,17737,85,46,141604,1854,141605,14821,397,15931,111832,2080,37559,273190],"class_list":["post-604556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-adventure","tag-american-embassy","tag-buddy-movie","tag-entertainment","tag-first-line","tag-hermit","tag-hope","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-kenneth-branagh","tag-love","tag-mayday","tag-moscow","tag-movies","tag-new-film","tag-nick","tag-ryan-reynolds","tag-top-gun","tag-troy-brennan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788436211_733_.jpeg\")
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