Ryan Reynolds has survived superheroes, assassins and time travel.
Now he has to survive the Soviet Union.
Apple TV’s Mayday throws Reynolds into the middle of the Cold War alongside Kenneth Branagh for an action-packed buddy comedy that deliberately feels like it escaped from the 1980s.
And that is exactly what directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein wanted.
Reynolds stars as Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly, a hotshot U.S. Navy pilot sent on a highly classified mission deep inside Russian territory.
The operation does not go according to plan.
In fact, it goes catastrophically wrong.
Troy ends up stranded behind enemy lines with no obvious route home, surrounded by people who would very much like to know why an American military pilot has suddenly appeared inside the Soviet Union.
His chances of escape look terrible.
Then Nikolai Ustinov finds him.
Played by Kenneth Branagh, Nikolai is a former KGB operative who initially seems like exactly the person Troy does not want discovering him.
He is experienced.
Dangerous.
Russian.
And perfectly capable of dealing with an American intruder himself.
But Nikolai also has a weakness that Troy never expected.
He loves American culture.
That unlikely obsession becomes the beginning of an even more unlikely partnership.
Rather than immediately handing Troy over, Nikolai gradually becomes involved in the pilot’s attempt to escape Soviet territory.
What follows is less a conventional spy thriller than a collision between two men who should theoretically regard each other as enemies.
One is an arrogant American fighter pilot accustomed to taking risks.
The other is a gruff former intelligence operative who understands exactly how dangerous those risks can become.
Neither appears particularly thrilled about working with the other.
Naturally, that is where the comedy begins.
The new trailer makes the chemistry between Reynolds and Branagh the film’s biggest weapon.
Reynolds brings the fast-talking confidence audiences have come to expect, but Mayday places that personality in an environment where jokes do not necessarily solve problems.
Nikolai is far less impressed by Troy than Troy is by himself.
Branagh therefore becomes the perfect deadpan counterweight.
The former KGB agent watches Troy make increasingly questionable decisions with the exhausted expression of someone already calculating how much additional work this American is creating.
But Nikolai is hardly just the sensible half of the partnership.
The trailer reveals that when violence begins, he may actually be the more dangerous man.
Branagh gets an unexpectedly substantial action role, fighting enemies at close range and demonstrating that leaving the KGB did not mean forgetting everything it taught him.
Daley and Goldstein have even compared the character’s physical presence to an old-school action hero.
Branagh reportedly committed heavily to the stunt work, rehearsing with the stunt team and performing a significant amount of his own action.
That gives the film an amusing reversal.
Ryan Reynolds may be the actor audiences immediately associate with Deadpool-style combat.
In Mayday, Kenneth Branagh may be the one everyone should actually be afraid of.
The movie is set during the final years of the Cold War, allowing Daley and Goldstein to play with the visual and cinematic language of the 1980s.
Mayday openly embraces the era’s buddy movies.
The filmmakers have cited the strange combination of danger, comedy and genuine emotion that defined many of those films as a major inspiration.
That influence is visible throughout the trailer.
Two incompatible men are forced together.
Neither trusts the other.
Both need something.
They argue constantly.
Then somewhere between gunfire, military pursuit and increasingly absurd situations, they begin developing an actual friendship.
It is the kind of formula that powered films like Midnight Run, Lethal Weapon and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Mayday simply places that relationship across one of the biggest geopolitical divides of the 20th century.
There is even a direct connection to another defining 1980s movie.
Mayday includes footage from Top Gun, reportedly used with Tom Cruise’s permission.
That is an especially fitting reference for a film starring Reynolds as a reckless American military pilot operating during the same decade.
But Mayday is not simply parodying Top Gun.
The production invested heavily in practical aviation footage of its own.
Daley and Goldstein have discussed shooting real aerial material rather than relying entirely on digital effects, giving the flight sequences the physical weight associated with the movies Mayday is paying tribute to.
Once Troy reaches the ground, however, the film becomes considerably stranger.
Nikolai’s fascination with American culture creates some of the trailer’s funniest details.
He may have spent his career working for the Soviet intelligence system, but parts of his home and personality suggest somebody who has spent a suspicious amount of time admiring the country he was supposedly trained to oppose.
That contradiction also feeds into the larger idea behind the movie.
Mayday takes place in a world where governments insist that Americans and Soviets belong on opposite sides.
Then it traps one American and one Russian together long enough for them to realise the political labels do not automatically tell them everything they need to know about one another.
The directors have described the movie as being about patriotism but ultimately about humanity.
Fortunately, they are delivering that message with considerably more explosions than most philosophical discussions require.
The supporting cast includes Maria Bakalova as Anna Ustinov, Marcin Dorociński as Alexander Volkov and David Morse as Harold Kelly.
Bakalova joins the film after breaking out internationally through Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, while Dorociński will be familiar to audiences from projects including Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Vikings: Valhalla.
Behind the camera, Mayday reunites Daley and Goldstein after Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
The filmmaking duo has built a reputation for mixing genre storytelling with comedy rather than treating one as an interruption to the other.
Game Night turned suburban comedy into a surprisingly effective thriller.
Dungeons & Dragons combined fantasy spectacle with character-driven humour.
Mayday applies the same philosophy to espionage.
The Cold War remains dangerous.
People can be killed.
Troy genuinely needs to escape.
But the movie never forgets that placing Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh together in the middle of Soviet Russia is inherently capable of producing chaos.
Skydance Media produces the film alongside Reynolds’ Maximum Effort, with Reynolds also serving as an executive producer.
The finished movie runs approximately one hour and 50 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating.
Perhaps the most promising thing about the trailer is that Mayday does not appear interested in pretending it is a grim historical espionage drama.
The premise is knowingly cinematic.
A cocky American pilot.
A Russian former spy.
Secret missions.
Military pursuits.
Explosions.
Cold War paranoia.
And an unexpected friendship between two people who were raised to believe they belonged on opposite sides.
That is the movie.
And sometimes that is more than enough.
Ryan Reynolds may have entered Soviet territory expecting a secret mission.
Instead, he appears to have found Kenneth Branagh.
Which may turn out to be much more useful.
Mayday premieres globally on Apple TV on September 4, 2026.
Watch the official trailer below.
