Gal Gadot's The Runner Thriller Disappoints

Gal Gadot's new Prime Video thriller, The Runner, is available to stream from Wednesday, September 2, 2026. According to a review from ScreenRant, the film is an underwhelming entry in the voice-on-phone genre, failing to become memorable despite a clear premise.

Gadot plays Maia, a London-based attorney and single mother prosecuting a powerful crime boss. Her day is upended during a morning jog when she receives a call from a stranger, played by Damian Lewis, who has kidnapped her son, Noah. The kidnapper, a professional hired to protect the mobster, has injected the boy with a fatal, slow-acting dose of insulin. He gives Maia an ultimatum: follow his instructions to the letter and kill her star witness, or her son will die.

A Premise That Fails to Deliver

The film's core concept involves Maia being forced to reroute her run to a hotel where her witness is held, all while being monitored by the hacker who can see her every move. ScreenRant notes that while this setup has natural dramatic tension, the execution falters. The review states that watching the movie largely means watching a phone call and a jog, and making that cinematic requires significant help that The Runner does not provide.

Director Kevin Macdonald employs a heavy dose of stylistic flourishes, including quick cuts, soft focus, and hyperreal colors, in an attempt to drum up excitement and tap into a runner's high. However, the ScreenRant critic argues these techniques do not often translate into feelings, making the film come off as a poor imitation of a Danny Boyle movie like 127 Hours.

Performances and Plot Lack Depth

The dynamic between Maia and the kidnapper needs to power the film, but the characters are reportedly not complex enough on the page. The review states that Gadot, while handling the action capably, is not an engaging enough deliverer of dialogue to bridge the gaps when the plot slows down. Their exchanges lean heavily on Maia's backstory, which adds up to disappointingly little by the film's end.

The script is plotted well enough, according to the source, but is neither rich nor witty enough to sustain interest during slower moments. The film is compared unfavorably to other recent entries in the genre, like 2024's Carry-On and 2025's Drop, which the review says are better because they more actively play with audience expectations.

A Few Successful Moments

The film does have some success with specific set pieces. The review highlights one sequence where Maia has her phone stolen on a subway as the moment where everything clicks. In this scene, the protagonist is presented with a challenge that fits the story's shape and is forced to push herself to her physical and emotional limit. The critic suggests the movie didn't need to escalate its premise as much as it later does, implying that more focused, grounded obstacles might have served it better.

Ultimately, ScreenRant concludes that The Runner has too few of these effective moments. It is described as a relatively weightless diversion that won't live long beyond its runtime. The film's technical details are as follows:

The cast is led by Gal Gadot as Maia Marten, with Rory Wilmot as her son Noah and Damian Lewis as the kidnapper, Aaron Gill.