Critics Panned Gal Gadot’s The Runner, but Viewers Made It a Hit

The Runner, a thriller from Kevin Macdonald starring Gal Gadot, arrived on Prime Video on 2 September. In three weeks it has collected some of the harshest reviews of the year while topping streaming charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The film has a 10% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 28 out of 100 on Metacritic. Yet in its first week it became No. 1 on Prime Video in the US and the UK, and according to FlixPatrol it was leading in 38 countries by 4 September.

What the film is about

Maia Marten (Gal Gadot) is a London lawyer on the eve of an important trial. During her morning run a stranger calls to say he has kidnapped her son, Noah. The boy is diabetic, and the kidnapper sends Maia readings from his insulin pump so she can see how much time she has left.

To get her son back, Maia has to run across the city, obey every order from the caller and trust no one. The story unfolds almost in real time: she has about an hour. Damian Lewis plays the caller, and the cast also includes Alfred Enoch, Rory Wilmot as Noah and Phoenix Di Sebastiani.

Who made it

Kevin Macdonald won an Oscar for the documentary One Day in September and is known in fiction for The Last King of Scotland and The Mauritanian. The screenplay is by Mark Gibson and the producer is David Kosse, with Rockwood Pictures producing for Amazon MGM Studios.

The cinematographer is Anthony Dod Mantle, an Oscar winner for Slumdog Millionaire; Sam Rice-Edwards edited and Tom Hodge composed the score. The project was announced in November 2024, and the film runs about an hour and a half.

London as a film set

Filming ran from 22 April to early July 2025, and almost the whole film was shot on real London streets. The streets were not closed: Gadot ran among ordinary passers-by while the cameras were hidden.

Maia’s route takes in recognisable landmarks: Hampstead Heath, Kentish Town, Regent’s Canal, Canary Wharf, Covent Garden, King’s Cross station, the City, the Millennium and Waterloo bridges and the museum ship HMS Belfast on the Thames. The most spectacular moment is her leap from Waterloo Bridge onto a barge.

A flop with critics, a hit with viewers

Reviewers did not hold back. Peter Travers advised anyone invited to watch it to give a two-word answer: “hard pass”. The New York Times’ Robert Daniels called the film unimaginative, the A.V. Club’s Jacob Oller called it a perfect hate-watch, and Variety’s Dennis Harvey wrote that it lacks the suspense or novelty to lift an overfamiliar concept. It did find defenders: Film Focus Online called it a silly but efficient thriller that knows exactly what it is.

Viewers saw it differently. As well as reaching No. 1 in the US and the UK, the film took second place on Prime Video’s worldwide chart, ahead of Project Hail Mary and Masters of the Universe. Nielsen recorded 368 million minutes of viewing between 31 August and 6 September.

It is a familiar streaming story: a simple premise, a famous star and a “one hour in a life” format work better for audiences than for critics.

Where to watch

The film is available only on Prime Video. Cast, stills and the trailer are on the film’s page in our AMDB database.