The duo behind the criminally underrated Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ensure a safe landing for Mayday. Written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Mayday is an American-Russian bhai-bhai movie starring Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh and the Tom Cruise hit Top Gun.It’s 1987, a year after the release of Top Gun – a pop culture milestone as far as Mayday is concerned. The Cold War between the United States of America and the former Soviet Union is still in place.US Navy pilot Troy (Reynolds) is a vocal supporter of his country’s foreign policy and military might. Russia is the Bad Guy, with no democracy and a submissive populace, Troy firmly believes. Until he crash-lands in Russia during an intelligence-gathering mission and is rescued by former KGB operative Nikolai (Branagh).Having watched Top Gun over a hundred times on a bootleg video cassette, Nikolai is thrilled to be in Troy’s company. When Troy exhorts Nikolai to “Act like an American!” and help him flee the nasty KGB agent Alexander (Marcin Dorocinski), Nikolai reveals a skillset that shocks and awes Troy.
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Mayday (2026).Mayday is out on Apple TV, where its plea against demonising Russians possibly lands more softly than in a movie theatre. Troy finds that ordinary Russians aren’t brainwashed zombies but normal folk, just like Americans.They are eccentric, of course. A kid creepily stares at Troy throughout a dinner. While Nikolai is gruff and unemotive – by Troy’s standards, at least – he reveals his bottomless wisdom and humanity ever so often, especially in the company of his daughter Anna (Maria Bakalova).Even the glasnost-hating Alexander recognises what Troy can’t see. Alexander expresses a weightier variation of the sentiment expressed by the British band Depeche Mode (“People are people, so why should it be? You and I should get along so awfully.”)Alexander tells Troy and Nikolai, “Nations are like people. They do what they must to survive.” Of course, that doesn’t stop Nikolai from commandeering a missile launcher vehicle for a spectacular escape.The humour is light and easy. The chemistry between the leads is just right.Reynolds reins himself in, and isn’t as much as grating motormouth as clueless American on a personal discovery. Kenneth Branagh too is wonderfully restrained, an effective foil to Reynolds and a surprising action hero.The 111-minute film doesn’t stick around long enough to see US-Russian ties repaired, or to completely shatter American superiority. With Nikolai listing a McDonalds visit as one of his priorities, this isn’t exactly Good Bye Lenin!Mayday is a small dent in the wall of hostility that still exists between America and present-day Russia. The film is also a good-natured variation on the oddball buddy comedy.Once again, it’s the dapper Alexander who points out to Troy that America is better off addressing its own crimes against its citizens. “Don’t you KGB me,” Troy tells Nikolai. But in a refreshing change to the all-knowing American hero, Troy turns out to be wrong about a historic enemy.
