Ryan Reynolds crashing a fighter jet behind the Iron Curtain sounds like the setup for another excuse to let Reynolds wisecrack his way through an action movie.
And, to be fair, Mayday absolutely gives him that opportunity.
But the pleasant surprise in Apple TV’s new action comedy is Kenneth Branagh, whose wonderfully strange former KGB agent transforms what could have been a disposable streaming adventure into a funny, energetic buddy movie with considerably more charm than expected.
Written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the team behind Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Mayday knows exactly what kind of movie it wants to be. It’s a throwback Cold War adventure that borrows from Top Gun, road movies and mismatched-buddy comedies without taking any of them particularly seriously.
The result isn’t especially deep.
It is, however, a lot of fun.
Ryan Reynolds Goes Behind Enemy Lines
Set in 1987, Mayday stars Reynolds as Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly, a hotshot U.S. Navy fighter pilot sent on a top-secret mission into Soviet territory.
Naturally, everything goes wrong.
Troy ends up stranded behind enemy lines with Soviet forces hunting him and few realistic options for getting home.
His unlikely salvation arrives in the form of Nikolai “Nick” Ustinov (Branagh), a former KGB agent whose fascination with American culture makes him considerably different from the Soviet operative Troy initially assumes him to be.
Nick doesn’t exactly scream reliable rescue partner.
But Troy doesn’t have many alternatives.
What follows turns Mayday from a military action movie into a road comedy as the pair make their way across the Soviet Union, avoiding Marcin Dorociński’s Alexander Volkov and an assortment of increasingly dangerous obstacles.
The destination matters.
The relationship that develops along the way matters more.
Kenneth Branagh Steals Mayday
Reynolds is doing something familiar here.
Troy is cocky, quick with a joke and capable of responding to imminent death with a sarcastic remark. Anyone who has watched Reynolds over the last decade knows the rhythm.
Fortunately, he’s very good at it.
More importantly, Mayday gives him someone who can completely disrupt that rhythm.
Branagh is hilarious as Nick.
Rather than attempting to out-Reynolds Reynolds, Branagh approaches the comedy from the opposite direction. Nick is eccentric, sincere and utterly committed to his peculiar worldview.
That makes the pairing work.
Troy thinks he’s the cool guy in this relationship. Nick doesn’t particularly care.
And the longer they’re together, the more Mayday allows Branagh to reveal that there’s considerably more underneath the eccentricity.
Nick isn’t simply the funny Russian sidekick. He’s a man carrying regrets of his own, particularly involving his estranged daughter Anna (Maria Bakalova).
Branagh finds enough sadness underneath the comedy to make Nick feel like a person rather than a collection of punchlines.
He’s also unexpectedly convincing when Mayday asks him to become an action hero.
Reynolds may be the name that gets people to press play.
Branagh is the reason they’ll probably remember the movie.
Game Night Directors Know How to Build an Action Comedy
Daley and Goldstein understand something that a surprising number of action comedies forget:
The action can be funny too.
Instead of stopping the movie for a joke and then restarting the action, Mayday frequently builds comedy directly into its fights, chases and escalating disasters.
That was one of the great strengths of Game Night, and it’s evident again here.
The camera participates in the joke.
Characters stumble into solutions.
Plans fail in entertaining ways.
And the increasingly absurd situations — including a memorable sequence involving a nuclear missile transport truck — give the directors room to keep escalating without completely abandoning the movie’s Cold War setting.
There’s an infectious “how much bigger can this get?” energy to the second half.
It helps Mayday feel more cinematic than many star-driven streaming action movies that are technically expensive but somehow still look like television.
This feels like a movie.
The Top Gun Influence Is Impossible to Miss
Setting Mayday in 1987 gives Daley and Goldstein permission to indulge in plenty of period nostalgia.
The biggest influence is obvious.
Top Gun had arrived one year earlier, and Troy is practically built as a comedic variation on the swaggering fighter-pilot archetype Tom Cruise turned into a phenomenon.
The movie isn’t subtle about the connection.
Nick’s affection for American culture even includes a bootleg VHS copy of Top Gun, turning the film itself into part of Mayday’s Cold War cultural exchange.
But the references generally feel playful rather than desperate.
The filmmakers aren’t simply pointing at the 1980s and asking audiences to recognize things.
They’re using the decade to create a world in which these two men have been taught they’re supposed to be enemies even as virtually everything about their developing friendship suggests otherwise.
That’s where the movie finds its heart.
Mayday Is Better at Comedy Than Sentiment
Where Mayday occasionally loses altitude is when it tries to make that heart explicit.
Troy has an ailing father back home, while Nick’s relationship with Anna gives him his own emotional baggage.
Those threads are important because they give both men something beyond survival to care about.
But the screenplay doesn’t spend quite enough time developing them for every emotional payoff to land.
David Morse, playing Troy’s father Harold, and Bakalova are both useful presences, but neither gets enough material to make those relationships as affecting as the movie wants them to be.
That’s especially noticeable when the third act reaches for sentiment.
The friendship between Troy and Nick works because Reynolds and Branagh have spent the entire movie building it.
Some of the surrounding emotional material feels more like the screenplay telling us what we’re supposed to feel.
Thankfully, Mayday doesn’t linger on those moments for long.
There’s usually another chase, fight or Branagh reaction waiting around the corner.
Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh Are the Real Mission
The Cold War plot ultimately isn’t complicated enough to sustain Mayday on its own.
It doesn’t need to be.
This is a movie about putting two enormously charismatic actors together and letting their differences create friction until friction becomes friendship.
Reynolds gives the movie momentum.
Branagh gives it personality.
Daley and Goldstein give both actors enough cleverly staged chaos to prevent their journey across the Soviet Union from becoming a series of interchangeable action sequences.
Could Mayday have dug deeper into the politics of its setting? Absolutely.
Could the supporting characters have used more development? Definitely.
But a movie this knowingly silly doesn’t need to become a Cold War dissertation to justify itself.
Sometimes you just want Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh escaping Soviet agents while hauling a nuclear missile through Moscow.
On that particular mission, Mayday succeeds.
Final Verdict
Mayday isn’t reinventing the buddy action comedy, but John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein know how to execute one exceptionally well.
Ryan Reynolds brings his familiar wisecracking charisma, while Kenneth Branagh delivers the movie’s biggest surprise with a performance that’s funny, strange and unexpectedly warm.
The story is thin and some of the emotional beats arrive without enough groundwork, but the chemistry between its leads and a series of inventive action sequences keep Mayday moving whenever the screenplay threatens to stall.
It’s precisely the kind of movie that’s easy to recommend for a Friday night: energetic, funny, undemanding and considerably better made than the average straight-to-streaming action comedy.
Come for Ryan Reynolds.
Stay for Kenneth Branagh.
Mayday
Ryan Reynolds brings the swagger, but Kenneth Branagh steals the mission in a funny, energetic Cold War buddy comedy that knows how to have a good time.
Where To Watch Mayday
Mayday is streaming now exclusively on Apple TV. The Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh action comedy premiered globally on Friday, September 4, 2026.
Is Mayday worth watching?
Yes. Mayday is an entertaining throwback buddy action comedy powered by strong chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. The story is lightweight, but the comedy and inventive action make it an easy recommendation.
Where can I watch Mayday?
Mayday is streaming exclusively on Apple TV. The movie premiered globally on September 4, 2026.
Who stars in Mayday?
Ryan Reynolds stars as U.S. Navy pilot Troy “Assassin” Kelly opposite Kenneth Branagh as former KGB agent Nikolai Ustinov. The cast also includes Maria Bakalova and Marcin Dorociński.
Who directed Mayday?
Mayday was written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the filmmaking team behind Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
When is Mayday set?
Mayday is set in 1987 during the Cold War, shortly after the release of Top Gun, which becomes part of the movie’s playful take on 1980s American culture.
Thomas Miller is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Seat42F, covering television, movies and streaming entertainment. He launched Seat42F in 2007 and has spent nearly two decades covering the entertainment industry.
