Gal Gadot's 84-Minute Action Thriller Is Officially Prime Video's Biggest Streaming Hit

Once upon a time, back when the world made more sense, we had a glorious thing known as "direct to video." Movies that were lower budget than big studio pics and not quite up to snuff wouldn't get a theatrical release; instead, they would be sent straight to VHS (later, DVD), where they would be discovered by film fans looking for something to watch. A lot of times, these movies were pretty lousy. But every so often, you'd find a diamond in the rough. Of course, the video store no longer exists (outside of a few boutique exceptions), which means the direct to video days are gone — but not forgotten.

Now we have direct to streaming movies instead. Many of the modern movies that go right to streaming are actually a bit higher quality than the old direct to video titles, while others are clearly just junk cobbled together to get some eyeballs focused on a streaming service. Which brings us to "The Runner," a new action thriller featuring Gal Gadot that went straight to Prime Video. Critics tore the film to shreds (it's currently sitting at 9% on Rotten Tomatoes), but Prime subscribers are all-in on the flick for now, as it's become the number 1 movie on Prime Video (according to FlixPatrol).

"The Runner" has a bit of a "Speed"-like premise, where a character is forced to keep performing an task under duress. Gadot plays Maia Marten, a prosecutor out for a run one day when she gets a phone call from an ominous figure who informs Maia that he's kidnapped her son. The kidnapper tells Maia she has to keep running, locate a hidden gun, and then use that gun to kill a witness in an upcoming court case. "The Runner" hails from director Kevin Macdonald, who also helmed "The Last King of Scotland" and the underrated political thriller "State of Play."

The premise of a woman out for a run when she gets a life-altering phone call reminds me of "The Desperate Hour," a drama from 2021 where Naomi Watts plays a jogging mother who gets a call informing her that there was a mass shooting at her son's school. That film came and went without much attention (I saw it at TIFF, where it went by the title "Lakewood," and found it disappointing), but "The Runner" seems to be faring better. 

It probably helps that Gadot's film is only 84 minutes long, which is the perfect length for the sort of forgettable thriller people want to throw on in the background as they lose their life savings using the FanDuel Casino app on their phones.