THE BEAST (2026)

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Renny Harlin
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Joel Kinnaman, Guy Burnet, Eoin Macken, Daniel Francis-Berenson
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 November 2026

Synopsis: When a militia of unidentified hostiles coordinates a coup against the U.S., the president is forced to drive the presidential limousine and unlock the full extent of The Beast's highly classified offensive capabilities to save his injured Secret Service agent, reunite with his wife, and save the world.

Movie Review:

We’ve seen enough “the U.S. president is in peril” movies from the Olympus Has Fallen franchise to Air Force One and White House Down to know the formula. The Beast follows it, but with less suspense, less story and far more repetition.

The film opens in the middle of a firefight. Secret Service agent Taft (Joel Kinnaman) battles a masked gunman inside the presidential limousine then the movie reveals that the president (Samuel L. Jackson) is behind the wheel of the armored vehicle known as the Beast. Taft is bleeding badly, the attackers keep coming, and the film offers little context for the chaos.

That’s the basic setup and, for much of the runtime, almost the entire story. There’s little character development or narrative momentum beyond two men trapped in an armored car under attack. The film stars Jackson and Kinnaman, with Renny Harlin directing. Harlin was a major action director in the late ’80s and ’90s, thanks to films such as Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger. After Cutthroat Island stalled his Hollywood career, he went on to make films in China, including Skiptrace and Bodies at Rest.

Harlin still knows how to stage explosions and keep the action moving: the film delivers plenty of gunfire, rockets and wreckage. But spectacle can only carry a story so far. Even at around 90 minutes, The Beast feels sluggish and repetitive. Between attacks, the president and Taft make strained conversation including a detour into the president’s memories of Vietnam while the president tends to Taft’s wounds and periodically checks in with someone over the car’s radio.

The attackers’ identities and motives remain unclear for much of the film, and the two men seem to have little support outside the Beast. The car itself is loaded with enough gadgets to make a James Bond vehicle jealous. Jackson, meanwhile, brings his familiar, profane charisma to the role and gives the film most of its spark. He’s so forceful a presence that the president occasionally feels more like an action hero than a head of state.

The Beast reunites Jackson with Harlin, who previously directed him in Deep Blue Sea (1999), and with Kinnaman, his co-star in RoboCop (2014). This reunion is unlikely to be remembered as fondly as either of those films. The Beast is a chaotic, noisy action film that mistakes constant motion for momentum and seems headed straight for the scrapyard.

Movie Rating:

(As unbelievable as it is, a 77 year old Jackson gets to be a one-man killing machine)

Review by Linus Tee