Back in Action (2025 film)

Back in Action is a 2025 American action comedy film directed by Seth Gordon from a script he co-wrote with Brendan O'Brien. The film stars Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Andrew Scott, Jamie Demetriou, Kyle Chandler, and Glenn Close. The film was released by Netflix on January 17, 2025.
CIA NOC operatives Matt and his pregnant fiancée Emily are tasked by their superior and friend, Chuck, to obtain the key called the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) – a device that can control any electronic system. They must get it from the Polish KGB-agent-turned-terrorist Balthazzar Gor during his children's grandiose birthday party.
Matt and Emily manage to steal the device and escape to a rendezvous point. However, on their flight home, the crew ambushes them for the Key as they are on Gor's payroll. The duo manages to neutralize the flight crew and barely escapes the plane crash. Realizing someone must have fed the flight crew information of their Key, the two decide to go off the grid.
Fifteen years later, the now married Matt and Emily reside in Atlanta under new identities while trying to care for their children Leo and Alice. This is until a filmed brawl involving the couple inside a nightclub attracts the attention of Chuck, as well as Gor's Polish–Belarusian mercenary group Volka, whose men shoot Chuck while he is trying to warn Matt and Emily.
Matt and Emily manage to lose the mercenaries, taking the children with them from school, before catching a flight to England. Matt had hidden the ICS Key inside the manor belonging to Ginny Curtis. She is Emily's estranged mother, and former MI6 sniper who heads an offshore NGO, Foxhunter Ltd.
Arriving in Heathrow, the family is pursued by both Volka and MI6, led by Emily's ex-boyfriend Baron. While they are inclined not to show their secrets to their children, the couple are forced to reveal the truth to them once they witness their parents fending off Volka's mercenaries and evading the pursuing MI6, before arriving at Ginny's manor.
When Matt and Emily find the ICS Key, they are forced to give it to Volka's mercenaries as they raid the manor. Chuck – who is not only revealed to be alive, but also working with Gor and Volka as revenge, due to him being fired from the CIA for the presumed deaths of Matt and Emily – abducts Leo and Alice and knocks their parents unconscious. Ginny fends off against a few of Volka's operatives, but her partner Nigel is injured by a stray bullet in the fray.
Using Leo's smart ring, they track Chuck down to a black-tie event in Tate Modern, London, where he plans to sell the ICS Key to the highest bidder. As a demonstration, his tech assistant Daphne uses the ICS Key to hack the power station to cause a brief blackout across London, then the Thames Barrier to forcibly open its floodgates. Matt and Emily infiltrate Tate Modern and knock out Chuck and Gor's guards while searching for their children.
The couple are followed by Baron and MI6, who also arrive to apprehend Chuck. While Baron's agents apprehend the Volka operatives, the couple, with assistance from Ginny, pursue Chuck, who intends to escape with Leo and Alice from London through the Thames Barrier. Nigel spots Daphne and crashes his van into hers, rendering her unconscious and securing the ICS Key.
Ginny guides Nigel to close the Thames Barrier while Emily commandeers a boat, and she and Matt catch up to Chuck. Leo and Alice jump out into the water, as Emily and Matt subdue Chuck, and leave him on the boat as it crashes into the now closing barrier, presumingly killing him.
Rescued by both the police and MI6, the family rest in relief as they reconcile with Emily's mother. As the entire family attends Alice's soccer game, Matt and Emily are met by Baron. He informs them that Chuck's body has never been found, suggesting he may still be alive, and proposes they recruit Emily's father, whom Matt is unaware of.
In June 2022, it was reported that Cameron Diaz was coming out of retirement for a Seth Gordon and Brendan O'Brien penned action comedy entitled Back in Action, also set to star Jamie Foxx. Beau Bauman was revealed to be producing for Good One Productions with Seth Gordon producing for Exhibit A and Foxx, Datari Turner, O'Brien and Mark McNair executive producing. In August 2022, Foxx spoke about persuading Diaz (whose last film prior to her retirement in 2014 was Annie, which he also starred in) to join the cast, telling Entertainment Tonight that "Cameron is such an incredible force and she has done so much in this business" and that he asked her "'Do you wanna have some fun? Just have some fun!' And I think that's what brought her to it...we're so happy that it's happening and looking forward to it".
In November 2022, Glenn Close and Kyle Chandler were added to the cast. In February 2023, Andrew Scott, McKenna Roberts, Rylan Jackson and Jamie Demetriou joined the cast. Principal photography took place in London from December 2, 2022, to March 9, 2023. In late February 2023, Diaz shot scenes at the River Thames. Filming in Atlanta began on March 28 and wrapped in late April. In mid-April, while Foxx was hospitalized for a medical emergency, body doubles were used to film his remaining scenes. The opening scene showing a cityscape was filmed in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
While Gordon and O'Brien were solely credited with the screenplay, various contributions were made by Andrea Berloff, Matteo Borghese, Joel Church-Cooper, Adam Cole-Kelly, Dana Fox, Paul Fruchbom, John Gatins, Joe Nussbaum, Cassie Pappas, Lennon Parham, Sam Pitman, Ellen Shanman, Laura Solon, David Stassen, Jessica St. Clair, Victoria Strouse, and Lillian Yu.
Back in Action was released by Netflix on January 17, 2025. It was originally set to be released on November 15, 2024, before being pushed to its current release date.
The film amassed 46.8 million views in its first three days, giving it the biggest opening weekend for an English-language Netflix film since The Adam Project.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 28% of 93 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "It's good to have Diaz and Foxx back, but they deserve a warmer welcome than this rote action-comedy." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com gave the film one out of four stars and wrote, "Back in Action isn't as obnoxiously soulless as Red Notice, but it's firmly within that subgenre of glossy, globetrotting action pictures you can stream while you fold your laundry. It all feels so cynical."
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two and a half out of four stars, writing, "Director Seth Gordon (Four Christmases, Horrible Bosses) knows how to film fast-moving comedies with star appeal, and Diaz (who hasn't lost an ounce of onscreen charisma) and Foxx are terrific together, but wouldn't it have been lovely if they had tackled more creative and challenging material? Trading quips while engaging in high-wire action sequences that defy all credibility is the movie equivalent of ordering fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner when there's a whole world of more interesting menus out there."