Mayday (2026) Review!!

Synopsis – Lieutenant Troy Brennan’s reconnaissance mission over Soviet territory goes awry, forcing him to crash-land and survive in Russian wilderness while evading capture or rescue.

My Take – Ryan Reynolds has literally built his career on the back of buddy‑comedy action flicks (some hits, some misfires), so by now you know the drill: slick fights, rapid‑fire quips, and a breezy good time. This latest Apple TV outing delivers exactly that, even if it initially feels like an aggressively familiar Top Gun‑tinged slice of 1980s nostalgia with Reynolds in full motor mouth mode.

But writers‑directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) know the enduring pleasures of the mismatched‑buddy formula. Two men, clashing personalities, cultural divides, a shared predicament, and no choice but to rely on each other, its classic 80s action‑comedy DNA.

They lace it with laugh‑out‑loud gags and slickly staged set pieces: brawls, chase sequences, an outrageous nuclear‑missile vehicle stunt, fighter jets zig‑zagging across the sky, and a climactic mid‑air showdown. And steadily, the Cold War adventure wins you over with inventive filmmaking, sharp physical comedy, and the unexpectedly delightful fresh pairing of Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh.

Sure, they don’t reinvent the genre, but they inject enough comic momentum and filmmaking spirit to keep it from feeling like a hollow retread. At just under two hours, we are left with a brisk, entertaining ride, full of bromance, humor, and stunts. The film never digs deep, but its self‑aware, unpretentious tone is exactly what makes it work. And yes, the final wink suggests a sequel may be on the horizon. ]

Set in 1987, forty years into the Cold War, the story follows US Navy pilot Troy Kelly (Ryan Reynolds), one of the squad’s most accomplished aviators, who finds himself handpicked for a covert mission over Soviet territory. Unfortunately, for him despite being led by a more senior, cockier co-pilot (Louis Cancelmi), his jet is gunned down, leading to him crash-land behind enemy lines. When he wakes up, he finds himself tied to a bed, staring down the nightmare every soldier dreads: capture, interrogation, the specter of becoming a prisoner of war.

Strangely, what steadies him are the symbols of American identity scattered around the room, including a poster of Tony Scott’s Top Gun (1986), with Tom Cruise’s Maverick staring back like a phantom comrade. His captor is revealed as Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh), a former KGB officer who abandoned his “American‑ass‑kicking” days a decade earlier.

With Soviet forces scouring the countryside for the downed pilot, Nikolai insists they cannot remain in the isolated log hut. Reluctantly, Troy accepts the uneasy alliance. Together, the unlikely pair set out across hostile terrain, their only hope of survival lying in reaching the US Embassy—two men bound by circumstance, mistrust, and the faint possibility of redemption.

From then on is a gauntlet of set pieces familiar to directors Daley and Goldstein’s sensibilities: a runaway train, a daring captivity escape, and a chase involving a nuclear missile. Working within what seems a modest budget, the filmmakers craft imaginative shots and energetic sequences that lend the film more visual personality than most streaming-era comedies. Their flair is unmistakable—cameras swing with momentum, cling to car doors, and drop into striking overhead angles. One side-shot of Nikolai and Troy driving through rural and urban Russian backdrops lingers in memory.

Yet amid the relentless pacing, the two carve out moments of heart, allowing the two men to see past national identities and political assumptions that should make them adversaries. The humor about Russian life and 1980s geopolitics keeps the film from tipping into solemnity.

Cultural misunderstandings spark laughs, but Nikolai and his countrymen are never reduced to caricatures. The underlying message is simple yet sincere: ideology, nationality, and appearances are flimsy barriers to human connection. Some side plots, like Troy’s strained bond with his terminally ill father (David Morse) and Nikolai’s estrangement from his daughter (Maria Bakalova), feel perfunctory, minor embellishments to the central story. But the film redeems itself with a wildly improbable, yet deeply satisfying flight of fancy in its finale. Ultimately, it’s a good-natured riff on the oddball buddy comedy, a small dent in the wall of hostility that still separates America and Russia.

Performance wise, Ryan Reynolds stays firmly in his established lane. As Troy, he talks almost incessantly, meeting danger, uncertainty, and Cold War tension with a bottomless supply of wisecracks. Anyone weary of his familiar persona won’t find a reinvention here, but the material feels less strained than his most indulgent Deadpool riffing. The jokes don’t sound over‑workshopped, and several land with genuine bite.

The real surprise is Kenneth Branagh. His casting is both atypical and quietly inspired, revealing a playful comic side rarely glimpsed in his statelier dramatic roles. As Nikolai, the nominal straight man, Branagh mines comedy from physical precision—always in motion, perpetually five steps ahead, recognizing disaster before anyone else sees it coming.

Marcin Dorociński lends sincerity to the antagonist role, grounding the conflict with gravitas. Meanwhile, Maria Bakalova and David Morse make competent impressions despite limited screen time, adding texture without distracting from the central duo. On the whole, ‘Mayday‘ is unabashed oddball popcorn entertainment that proves much better than its thin Cold War and buddy comedy-action setup suggests.