Just when the White House has the USA’s credibility in shambles, along comes Viola Davis to restore the balance. The G20 EGOT clearly has a blast playing American President Danielle Sutton, a kickass action hero tasked with saving the global economy. G20 won’t add another letter to Davis’s EGOT status, but it shows how much better action movies can be when the stars can, well, act. It’s also refreshing to see her relish a role that she could and should have had years ago. She’s a natural badass, but with Presidential poise. The irony of the timing can’t be lost on viewers, either. G20 delivers solid action while surely providing the only moment in 2025 that anyone will root for the American President.
G20 has an expectedly out there premise as President Sutton embarks to South Africa for a summit with the leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations. She plans to unveil a bold plan to solve world hunger. But controversy overshadows Sutton’s trip as her daughter, Serena (Marsai Martin), gets caught drinking underage at a bar after escaping the White House. Since Sutton can’t trust her daughter with the Secret Service, she brings Serena and her brother, Demetrius (Christopher Harrar), along for the trip. The First Gentleman, Derek (Anthony Anderson), gets double duty as babysitter.
However, when mercenaries wipe out Sutton’s security detail, ambush the G20 opening reception, and take the world leaders hostage, pulling double duty becomes Sutton’s calling. The President, who smartly trades her heels for sneakers before the party, jumps into John McClane mode. Sutton’s age also makes this performance something of a true anomaly: a mature woman action of colour as an action star.
The role may not quite reach the calibre of, say, The Woman King, but Davis brings a lot to the part. She suits the challenges of an action star extremely well. But she also has the authority to carry the presidential side of her role, too. She creates a strong yet composed action hero who confronts her own sense of imposter syndrome by kicking serious ass.
An early exchange with her former campaign rival and now ally and treasury secretary, Joanna (Elizabeth Marvel), leaves Sutton feeling like she has something to prove this summit, too. She’s a decorated war hero, but her detractors suggest she only got elected thanks to a Time cover photo of her carrying an injured boy to safety. However, when President Sutton stealthily evades the mercenaries, escaping with her bodyguard Manny (Ramón Rodríguez), International Money Fund president Elena Romano (Sabrina Impacciatore), British Prime Minister Oliver Everett (Douglas Hodge), and South Korean First Lady (MeeWha Alana Lee), she summons the courage displayed in that iconic shot. Everyone else is a hostage, including Derek and Joanna and President Sutton gamely proves herself more than capable as wife, mother, and world leader.
Predictably, Sutton’s kids are also in peril. But Serena’s a tech whiz and somewhat ludicrously outsmarts global mercenaries like she’s Penny with her computer book on Inspector Gadget. But while G20 proves surprisingly plot heavy—story beats include every hot topic from Bitcoin to AI—it really picks up steam once it kicks into action mode.
Director Patricia Riggan (Under the Same Moon) smartly relies on Davis’s acting muscles and a robust stunt team to carry the adventure. G20 offers mindless full-throttle action, and it doesn’t let up once it gets going. If there’s a major fault, it that it just keeps going, and going, and going.
Riggan stages some terrifically entertaining set pieces, including a shootout in an elevator fuelled by Cirque du Soleil acrobatics. Meanwhile, Impacciatore (The White Lotus) steals one of the grander action sequences by hauling ass in a beefed-out armoured car called The Beast—actually one of two pimped out rides loaned to the production by Tyler Perry—that outruns rockets and performs feats not seen since Speed. Her comedic timing offsets Davis’s sterner focus. G20 swings big and largely delivers, but it needs these moments of levity to bring one along for the outrageous ride.
The film also finds a worthy foil in mercenary Rutledge (Antony Starr), a snarling Australian whose heavily-chipped shoulder contrasts with the sense of honour instilled in Sutton by battle. They’re fallen soldiers from opposite sides of the divide. G20 sometimes struggles to integrate character development amid all the action—there’s a breakneck start/stop energy when it ups the dramatic stakes between shootouts—but that also gives Davis and the game ensemble more to work with as she, her family, and the baddie converge for a preposterously thrilling finale.
Falling somewhere in line between Air Force One, Die Hard, and Murder at 1600, G20 feels firmly indebted to maximalist 1990s’-early 2000s’ action filmmaking. It’s consistently entertaining with a healthy mix of spectacular action and comedic relief. It’s the kind of film that offers ideal big screen popcorn movie escapism. However, with its release on Prime Video, the perfect “Saturday night with a frozen pizza” movie with or without the family will do. And a second term for President Davis would probably do America a world of good. Let’s hope there’s no tariff on frozen pizza.
