Heart Of Stone Trailer: Gal Gadot Plays A Secret Agent In This Netflix Action Thriller

Over the past few years, Netflix has fallen into a bad habit of releasing largely forgettable, uninspiring action films. "The Gray Man" and "Red Notice" drew the most attention because they were star-studded and incredibly expensive, but films like "Army of the Dead," "Spenser Confidential," "The Mother," and "Extraction" didn't exactly light the world on fire.

Now the streamer is hoping to kick off a new action franchise with "Heart of Stone," which puts "Red Notice" veteran Gal Gadot front and center amid some high-flying, explosive, and yes, heavily CGI-enhanced action. But while it might be easy to write this off as just the latest in a long line of lazy Netflix action movies, I'm not ready to judge this book by its cover. No, there aren't any showcase moments here that feel as visceral as anything Tom Cruise has done in the "Mission: Impossible" movies (which are a clear inspiration for this), but there are a few reasons why I think "Heart of Stone" could end up surprising me.

First, they gave Gal Gadot's character a Classic Action Movie Protagonist name: Rachel Stone. It's gloriously dumb in the same way that names like John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Commando") or Mason Storm (Steven Seagal in "Hard to Kill") are gloriously dumb. Also, Gadot has not shown herself to be a particularly versatile performer, but a role like this seems to play to her strengths: It lets her be physical and frown a lot. Meanwhile, co-star Jamie Dornan has proven himself as more than just another bland white dude who can be interchangeably slotted into movies like this, so there's the chance he brings some energy to this movie that it looks like it might need. (Have you seen "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" yet? He's surprisingly great in that.)

There's one other significant reason I'm not ready to roll my eyes and ignore "Heart of Stone." One of the writers behind this film is Allison Schroeder ("Hidden Figures," "Christopher Robin"), and the other is Greg Rucka, who wrote one of Netflix's most creatively successful original action films ever, the Charlize Theron-led banger "The Old Guard." Can Rucka bring some of that same magic to another action flick? I'm certainly willing to find out.

Tom Harper ("Peaky Blinders," "The Woman in Black: The Angel of Death," "Wild Rose") directs, and the supporting cast also includes Alia Bhatt, Matthias Schweighöfer, and Sophie Okonedo.

Here's the official synopsis:

Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) appears to be an inexperienced tech, on an elite MI6 unit headed up by lead agent Parker (Jamie Dornan). What her MI6 team doesn't know is that Stone actually works for the Charter — a covert peacekeeping organization, secret even from other spies, which uses cutting-edge technology to neutralize global threats. Rachel has been trained to be the consummate professional: a phenomenal field agent who sticks to the mission, follows the numbers, and trusts no one. When a routine mission is derailed by mysterious hacker Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt), Rachel's two lives collide. As she races to protect the Charter and strives to beat the odds, her humanity might just be her biggest asset.

"Heart of Stone" hits Netflix on August 11, 2023.