Sep 05, 2026 9:00pm IST
‘Mayday’ Review: Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh’s Bromance is in ‘Top Gun’ Form in Rip-Roaring Action Comedy
Apple TV’s new original film, “Mayday,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, is an easy sell to anyone looking for a rollicking time. It is written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, a duo that has demonstrated they know how to deliver a fun time with “Game Night” (2018) and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (2023). In fact, the old-school, 80’s charm of those films is very much present in this pretty solid period action comedy set in the same era, with its outright ode to Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer’s enemies-to-BFFs dynamic in “Top Gun” (1986).
The year is 1987, and the Cold War is on between the United States and the Soviet Union. “Top Gun” has made pilots look cooler than ever. Troy Kelly (Reynolds), call sign “Assassin,” is a U.S. Navy pilot who pulls a save worthy of Tom Cruise’s Maverick during a training exercise. Instead of a punishment, he gets dispatched on a secret reconnaissance mission to the Soviet in a cool aircraft. When the mission goes wrong and he is forced to eject, Troy is trapped behind enemy lines and rescued by an ex-KGB agent, Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh). In the wild, with no help but Nikolai, a nifty carpenter and huge fan of all things American, the two become friends and hatch an escape plan.
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From its first act itself, “Mayday” gets the heart and humor right. Troy feels like an extension of the quintessential Ryan Reynolds charm. He’s always with a quip, and his emotional beats, like his relationship with his ailing father, Harold (David Morse, and eventually with Nikolai, are always with a touch more levity than usual. Nevertheless, in this case, it works perfectly. Reynolds has done this buddy routine a few times before, and he is a natural fit for this part.
But it is the arrival of Sir Kenneth Branagh on the scene that truly lands (pun intended) what this film is trying to do, both physically and emotionally. His Nikolai is magnificent at every turn, whether it is the almost-scary-to-a-point American fanboy act he pulls with Reynolds’ Troy or the incredibly well-choreographed and agile action sequences—one at a Russian bar and the other in a train full of soldiers. In the scenes that demand he get serious—when Nikolai feels betrayed or when he reconciles with his estranged daughter, Anna (Maria Bakalova)—Branagh carries the weight better, and you can actually feel the tone shift a shade or two.
For a film that's been so casually dropped on streaming, “Mayday” looks incredibly good, and is going to make you laugh out loud a lot more times than you can count. It is also extremely aware of its cultural and political setting, and employs it perfectly to elicit both compassion and humor. There’s a vein running throughout the film of highlighting just how similar both countries might be despite their differences. And you might think it’s the usual fare about showing the outsider, Troy, how the locals are sweet and helpful and not all bad. But the film pulls off a feint when the similarity turns out to be the general apathy that regimes have towards the well-being of the very people that make the country they attach their sense of duty to. If that doesn’t unite people across borders and score a gold star for relatability, nothing else will.
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The runtime is pretty tight, and the film feels light and spry as it moves from one event to the next. The writing and Branagh’s sincere performance don’t let Nikolai become a caricature; he’s so instantly the guy you want to root for. Even the bad guy, Alexander Volkov (an effective Marcin Dorociński), isn’t some exaggerated villain; just a man doing his duty and—if this writer might add—looking pretty good while doing it too. The scene where he climbs a tree to retrieve a piece of evidence and when he interrogates Nikolai in his house (very “Inglourious Basterds”) will have you sit up and pay attention. You’d think the “Top Gun” nods and name drops would get overwhelming, but they’re just the right amount of nostalgia baiting, as are the McDonald’s hype and the Bruce Springsteen songs played on cassette tapes.
Ultimately, it is the match-step bromance between Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, in a film that's written to let them play to their strengths, that ultimately makes this a fun flight worth taking this weekend. They could be our wingmen, anytime.
“Mayday” is currently streaming on Apple TV.
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