SHE RIDES SHOTGUN (AMAZON PRIME) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: Where can you run when there’s nowhere to hide? Taron Egerton stars as newly released ex-con Nate in this gritty, explosive action-thriller. Marked for death by unrelenting enemies, Nate must now protect his estranged 11-year-old daughter, Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) at all costs. Shy, precocious, and wary of her father, Polly is swept up in Nate’s dangerous plight as they flee to evade the corrupt sheriff and brutal leader of a gang who will stop at nothing to protect his criminal interests. With scant resources and no one to trust, Nate and Polly form a bond forged under fire as he shows her how to fight and survive — and she teaches him what unconditional love truly means in this intense, moving story about loyalty, strength, and redemption.

MOVIE REVIEW:

She Rides Shotgun is a crime thriller adapted from Jordan Harper’s 2017 novel of the same name. Harper himself joins three other writers—Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski, and the film’s director, Nick Rowland to bring his Edgar Award–winning novel to the big screen.

An eleven-year-old girl named Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) is picked up at school by her tattoo-covered father, Nathan (Taron Egerton), whom she has not seen in years. Recently released from prison, Nathan has unknowingly put his daughter in danger after killing a member of the white supremacist gang Aryan Steel. As a result, Polly is marked for death.

With her mother and stepfather mercilessly murdered, Polly has no one to turn to except her estranged father. Nathan is forced to hastily impart basic self-defense skills to his daughter in case the bad guys catch up with them and that includes dirty cops. Knowing their options are limited, the father and daughter eventually work with a honest cop, Detective John Park (Rob Yang), to take down the notorious gang.

Unlike a rosy, planned vacation, She Rides Shotgun is a violent road trip that leads nowhere but doom. Nathan is a man who only knows how to use violence to maneuver his way through life, let alone care for a young child. The only person he ever looked up to was his older brother, who was no angel himself. Still, as the film progresses, the relationship between Nathan and Polly develops and strengthens, becoming one of the movie’s most worthwhile elements.

Then there is the mission: to take out the leader of Aryan Steel. Without spoiling the experience, the role is played by a fairly well-known character actor. Despite his menacing presence, there is too little backstory or characterization for this supposedly cunning and ruthless figure—one who controls both lawmen and cartels to make the final showdown truly compelling.

That said, Ana Sophia Heger more than delivers as a young girl trapped in an unbearable situation and forced to grow up far too quickly, with only her beloved teddy bear for comfort. Egerton, meanwhile, is consistently credible as either a righteous figure or a tough guy, and here he is a tour de force opposite Heger, allowing audiences to root for this unlikely father-daughter pair as they ride the odds together.

All in all, this is a dark and gritty crime drama. While there are occasional outbursts of violence, it is not a high-octane, shoot-’em-up actioner. Rowland and his writing team stick faithfully to the source material, elevating what could have been a standard crime story into an effective and moving tale of a father and daughter on a heartbreaking, blood-soaked journey.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee