The Runner Is a Critical Disaster and a Streaming Smash for Gal Gadot

Few movies this year have been savaged by critics and embraced by audiences quite like The Runner. Kevin Macdonald’s thriller starring Gal Gadot debuted on Prime Video on September 2 and quickly became a case study in how little reviews can matter on streaming.

It holds a 10% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 28 on Metacritic. It also opened at No. 1 on Prime Video in the US and the UK, and FlixPatrol had it on top in 38 countries by September 4.

The setup

Gadot plays Maia Marten, a London lawyer preparing for a major trial. Out on her morning run, she takes a call from a man who says he has abducted her son, Noah. Noah is diabetic, and the kidnapper streams his insulin-pump readings to Maia’s phone so she can watch the clock run down.

To save him she has to keep moving across the city, follow the caller’s instructions to the letter and trust nobody, in a story told close to real time over roughly an hour. Damian Lewis plays the caller, with Alfred Enoch, Rory Wilmot as Noah and Phoenix Di Sebastiani in the cast.

The filmmakers

Macdonald won an Oscar for the documentary One Day in September and directed The Last King of Scotland and The Mauritanian. Mark Gibson wrote the script, David Kosse produced, and Rockwood Pictures made the film for Amazon MGM Studios.

Behind the camera is Anthony Dod Mantle, who won an Oscar for shooting Slumdog Millionaire. Sam Rice-Edwards edited and Tom Hodge wrote the score. Amazon announced the project in November 2024; the finished film runs about 90 minutes.

Shot on live London streets

Production ran from April 22 to early July 2025, and most of the movie was filmed on open London streets. Rather than lock down locations, the crew shot Gadot running through real crowds with hidden cameras.

Her route strings together Hampstead Heath, Kentish Town, Regent’s Canal, Canary Wharf, Covent Garden, King’s Cross, the City, the Millennium and Waterloo bridges and HMS Belfast. The set piece everyone mentions is Maia’s jump from Waterloo Bridge onto a passing barge.

Critics versus viewers

The reviews were brutal. Peter Travers summed up his advice in two words: “hard pass.” Robert Daniels of The New York Times found it unimaginative, Jacob Oller of the A.V. Club called it a perfect hate-watch, and Variety’s Dennis Harvey said it lacks the suspense or novelty to elevate a familiar concept. A few critics were kinder — Film Focus Online described it as a silly, efficient, low-ambition thriller that knows what it is.

Subscribers did not seem to care. Beyond the No. 1 debuts in the US and the UK, The Runner reached No. 2 on Prime Video’s global chart, ahead of Project Hail Mary and Masters of the Universe, and Nielsen counted 368 million minutes watched in the week of August 31 to September 6.

A clear hook, a marquee star and a ticking-clock format proved a stronger draw than any review.

Where to watch

The Runner is streaming exclusively on Prime Video. Find the cast, stills and trailer on the film’s page in our AMDB database.