Mayday (2026) review: A Cold War buddy comedy that sticks the landing

When Mayday landed on Apple TV on September 4, it did not try to be the next great Cold War thriller. It set out to be something rarer: a buddy comedy that actually earns its laughs while a plot involving a downed fighter jet, a KGB defector, and a dash across Soviet Russia plays out around it. It mostly pulls that off, and for a Tuesday-night watch with my wife, “mostly pulls it off, and pulls it off consistently” is exactly the bar that matters.

The pairing is the whole pitch. Ryan Reynolds plays Troy “Assassin” Kelly, a US Navy pilot whose top-secret mission behind enemy lines goes sideways and leaves him stranded in Soviet territory. Kenneth Branagh plays Nikolai Ustinov, a gruff ex-KGB agent with an odd fondness for American culture, who finds Kelly before anyone more dangerous does. Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the pair behind Game Night and Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, know exactly what they are doing when they put a fast-talking American opposite a Shakespearean-trained straight man and let the two of them work out the rest. Critics were split — Rotten Tomatoes has it at 81 percent from 79 reviews with a 6.3 average, Metacritic sits at a “mixed or average” 60 — but for the actual job this film is doing, that split makes sense: it was never trying to impress critics, it was trying to make two people on a couch laugh, and it did that job well.

That’s the pedigree. What actually matters for a dad deciding whether to spend two hours on this after the kids are down is whether the film earns its runtime without demanding much from you — and it does, because it never pretends to be more than it is.

Narrative architecture: An alliance built on not having a choice

The emotional engine here is the classic odd-couple dynamic, just relocated to 1987 behind the Iron Curtain instead of a police precinct or a suburban cul-de-sac. Kelly is loud, improvisational, and completely out of his depth the moment he lands on Soviet soil. Ustinov is measured, cynical about his own government, and the only reason Kelly survives past the first twenty minutes.

The plot itself is straightforward by design: Kelly’s mission implodes, he is discovered by Ustinov before Soviet forces catch up to him, and the two form a reluctant partnership to reach the US Embassy in Moscow. Getting there means stealing military hardware, commandeering an aircraft, and staying a step ahead of the people hunting both of them — Ustinov as much as Kelly, since helping an American defector is its own death sentence. There is no ambiguity about where the story is headed; the pleasure is entirely in the friction between two men who need each other and clearly resent needing anyone.

That friction is the part that translates to real life better than the spy-thriller trappings do. Anyone who has had to work closely with someone they did not choose — a co-parent during a rough patch, a boss you did not pick, the other dad at the school pickup line who somehow ended up organizing the carpool with you — recognizes the shape of this relationship immediately. Trust here is not earned through a heartfelt speech; it is earned because the alternative is getting shot.

The two actors sell it. Reynolds does his usual thing well, but Branagh is the reason the pairing works — he plays it completely straight, which is what gives Reynolds something to bounce off instead of just riffing into a void.

Behind the iron curtain: Making a comedy out of the Cold War

The genre-bending is the film’s actual craft achievement, even if it never gets the credit a straight thriller would. Filmed across Montreal and Budapest standing in for 1987 Soviet Russia, the production leans into period detail — the boxy cars, the drab uniforms, the analog tech — without ever letting the setting turn the film heavy. Daley and Goldstein’s background is the reason this works: Game Night proved they can hold real stakes and genuine comedy in the same scene without either one undercutting the other, and Mayday runs the same playbook against a much bigger canvas.

Three choices keep the tone from tipping into parody on one side or self-serious thriller on the other:

1. A believable Cold War backdrop, played straight: the sets, costumes, and hardware are era-accurate rather than cartoonish, so the danger reads as real even when the dialogue is doing comedy.
2. Casting an actor who won’t wink at the camera: Branagh grounds every scene he’s in, which means Reynolds’ improvisational energy has an actual wall to bounce off instead of playing against a co-star who is also mugging for laughs.
3. A plot that escalates instead of stalling: the story keeps moving — new obstacle, new set piece, next beat — so the comedy never has room to go stale before the film changes the situation again.

Watching it at home: The cozy couch pick

This is a streaming-first release, and it plays like one in the best sense — there is nothing here that demands a home theater upgrade or a dedicated viewing setup. Pull it up on the Apple TV app on whatever screen is already in your living room, and it holds up fine. If your TV’s built-in smart platform is the usual sluggish mess of ads and lag, a dedicated Apple TV box is genuinely the better way to actually enjoy a film like this rather than fighting the interface for five minutes before it even starts.

There is no reason to chase a premium format here. This is not a film built around scale or spectacle; it is built around two actors and a script, and it works exactly as well on a regular 55-inch panel at 9pm on a weeknight as it would on anything fancier.

It also slots in neatly next to Apple’s other action-comedy originals. The Family Plan is the closest sibling in tone — another “ordinary guy gets pulled into extraordinary danger and jokes his way through it” premise, just with a minivan instead of a Soviet border. If you want Apple TV to scare you instead of make you laugh on a different night, Silo is the far more serious end of the same platform’s slate.

The real test: Watching it with my wife

Here is the actual review that matters more than any of the above: my wife and I put this on for a genuinely relaxed evening, no expectations beyond “let’s watch something that isn’t a documentary about serial killers for once,” and it delivered exactly what we needed. It is funny in a way that does not require either of you to be paying close attention to a dense plot — you can look away to refill a glass of wine and not lose the thread.

The standout for us, without question, was the extended sequence where Kelly has to hide from a Soviet search inside a closet while Ustinov tries to talk his way past the people looking for him. It should not work as well as it does — a grown man crammed into a wardrobe is not exactly a new comedic idea — but the timing on it, and the sheer commitment from both actors treating an absurd situation as a genuine crisis, had us both laughing out loud more than once. It is the kind of scene that sums up the whole film: nothing about the premise is original, but the execution and the chemistry make it land anyway.

Neither of us walked away thinking about it the next day, and that is fine. Some nights you want a film that argues with you afterward, and some nights you want ninety minutes of good company on the couch that ends with both of you smiling. Mayday is squarely the second kind, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Want more movie nights sorted for less effort? Prime Video’s 30-day free trial is worth having in your back pocket alongside Apple TV — catalogs change constantly, so it never hurts to have both covered.

Is Mayday worth watching?

Yes, especially as a low-stakes couples’ or family-after-bedtime pick. It is not a prestige spy thriller, but it is a consistently funny buddy comedy carried by real chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. A solid 4 out of 5.

Where can I watch Mayday?

Mayday streams exclusively on Apple TV. It released on September 4, 2026, and is included with an Apple TV+ subscription — no separate rental fee.

Who directed Mayday?

Mayday was written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the duo behind Game Night and Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. It was produced by Apple Studios, Skydance Media, and Ryan Reynolds’ own Maximum Effort.

Is Mayday based on a true story?

No. Mayday is a fictional story set against the real backdrop of the Cold War in 1987. The premise, a US Navy pilot shot down over Soviet territory, is invented for the film, not drawn from an actual incident.

Is Mayday suitable for kids?

It is rated PG-13 for action violence, strong language, smoking, and some suggestive references. It is fine for teenagers, but the swearing and a couple of tenser action beats make it a poor fit for younger kids. Save it for after they are in bed.