Heart of Stone

Release poster

**Heart of Stone** is an American spy action thriller movie starring Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okonedo, and Matthias Schweighöfer.

## Synopsis

> An intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable — and dangerous — weapon.
>
> Official Netflix synopsis

## Plot

*This section is a detailed plot of this movie. **There are major spoilers.** Click to expand.*

In the Italian Alps, an MI6 team is tasked with extracting potential asset and arms dealer, Mulvaney. Rachel Stone, in the tech support team, is in a van with Bailey, but is called upon to enter the ski lodge casino to be near enough to hack into security's encryption key.

To maintain her cover while in the casino, Stone plays one hand of blackjack. Field agents Parker and Yang are given access to the restricted gambling area, where their plan to inject Mulvaney to fake a heart attack is thwarted by his bodyguard. However, Parker is able to isolate and take him on a cable car.

Meanwhile, Stone feigns a twisted ankle so the MI6 team goes on without her. She then reconnects with Charter, a secret peace-keeping organization for whom she is actually working. Hoping to prevent Mulvaney's security team from taking out Parker, Stone is guided by her Charter contact, Jack, to get ahead of the cable car. She takes out the six-man security team, hiding the bodies. However, Mulvaney apparently takes cyanide and dies.

Back in London, the MI6 team are reprimanded for botching the job. Later that night, as the team wind down together, they speculate about the rumored Charter.

Stone goes to Charter headquarters where the head Nomad criticizes her actions. Concerned about young savant hacker Keya, she's told she and the MI6 team is seeking her out in Lisbon. However, in Lisbon, they are ambushed by several people. Although Stone is given an escape route, she opts to stay and save her MI6 team. She thus blows her cover, revealing that she is a Charter agent. Once this is revealed, Parker kills the other MI6 team members, revealing that he is a double agent. He paralyzes Stone as he relates he's going after the Heart, which is the core of the AI system used by the Charter to guide their operations.

Parker reveals that he was working with Keya to shake down Mulvaney. Once discovering the Charter protects and controls the Heart, he put the pressure on the team until Stone reveals herself. Poisoning Stone which immobilizes her, he then embeds a device in her arm which can infiltrate Charter once she's in their facility.

As they revive Stone at Charter headquarters, she rips out the device Parker had embedded in her arm to hack into the Heart. Luckily the Locker, which protects the heart, is 85,000 feet above ground, and Jack confirms that the Trojan Horse was stopped in time.

Nomad takes Stone off the case as her cover has been compromised. Keya contacts Stone to mock her, but Stone threatens that she's coming after Keya to avenge her friends.

The Charter's four "kings" meet to discuss why Parker is determined to obtain the Heart. He's seeking revenge against them as he was abandoned and left for dead on a Chechnya mission. Parker and Keya find and retrieve the Heart in the Locker, high above western Africa, only for Stone to intervene.

Parker takes off in a helicopter with the Heart, while Stone and Keya fall in the desert in Senegal. There Keya reveals that the Heart can only be unlocked using her biometric data. Ambushed by locals bribed by Parker’s men, Stone escapes by jumping into the sea. Stone washes ashore and is rescued by the Six of Hearts and is flown to Iceland with Charter's aid, where Parker is using the Heart to kill the Charter members, especially the 'kings'.

Using a tracker Stone placed on Keya, Charter locates them at Reykjavik University. Keya sees Parker's obsession for power and revenge at all costs, and his complete disregard for collateral damage. He takes out one king with her whole family, another by setting a trap, and he plans to take out the third, Nomad, by cutting off the ventilation in their underground bunker using the Heart.

Wanting to right her wrongs, Keya helps Stone. Shutting down the Heart, Parker's revenge plot is paused. In the ensuing fight, Keya and Stone stop Parker and reboot the Heart in time to save the lives of Nomad and Charter members.

In the end, Stone is assigned to lead a team with Keya and Jack.

## Cast

* Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone, Nine of Hearts
* Alia Bhatt as Keya Dhawan
* Jamie Dornan as Parker
* Matthias Schweighöfer as Jack of Hearts
* Sophie Okonedo as Nomad, King of Hearts
* Jing Lusi as Yang
* Paul Ready as Bailey
* Archie Madekwe as Ivo
* BD Wong as Jiang Hsu, King of Clubs
* Glenn Close as Nancy Morrison, King of Diamonds
* Mark Ivanir as King of Spades
* Diana Yekinni as Clara, Six of Hearts
* Jon Kortajarena as the Blond

## Production

It was announced in December 2020 that Gal Gadot had signed on to star in the film, which is planned to be the beginning of a franchise in a similar vein to the *Mission: Impossible* franchise. Tom Harper was in negotiations to direct. The story was conceived by Greg Rucka, and the script was written by him and Allison Schroeder. Harper was confirmed in January 2021, with Netflix acquiring the distribution rights to the film. In February 2022, Jamie Dornan was cast to star alongside Gadot. In March, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jing Lusi and Paul Ready were added to the cast.

Principal photography began in the Alpin Arena Senales (South Tyrol) on January 26, 2022, following in London on March 8, 2022. The second schedule of filming then took place in Reykjavík, Iceland the following month, after which production moved back to London in May, for the succeeding schedule. The fourth schedule took place in Lisbon, Portugal. Filming wrapped on July 28, 2022.

## Release

*Heart of Stone* was released by Netflix on August 11, 2023. Within its first two days, the film was number one on the Netflix English-language list with 33.1 million views.

## Gallery

### Trailers

Heart of Stone - Gal Gadot - Official Trailer - NetflixHeart of Stone - First Look - Netflix

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart\_of\_Stone\_(2023\_film)
2. ↑ https://variety.com/2023/film/festivals/heart-of-stone-trailer-gal-gadot-jamie-dornan-netflix-1235647182/
3. ↑ https://deadline.com/2023/08/heart-of-stone-painkiller-the-mother-netflix-top-10-ratings-1235520028/