Hidden Strike

After an oil refinery in Iraq owned by Chinese firm Unicorp gets attacked by mercenaries led by Owen Paddock, ex-special forces soldier "Dragon" Luo Feng leads his private security company in evacuating the civilian employees in a convoy along the Highway of Death to the safety of the Green Zone.

Needing money to fix a well in a rural village, former US Marine Chris Van Horne reluctantly joins his mercenary brother Henry in attacking the convoy, who claims they are tracking down a man responsible for attacking them years earlier. The mercenaries create a massive sandstorm and use it to cover their attack. After the convoy fends them off and clears the sandstorm, Feng discovers that 5 civilians have been kidnapped, including Professor Chang who has the authorization codes to the oil refinery.

Chris confronts Henry and Owen concerning the kidnapping, the latter telling him that he intends to reactivate the refinery and profit off the oil trade. After an enraged Chris leaves, Owen shoots Henry for failing to kill Feng. Feng tracks down Chris and confronts him, but learns about his intentions in taking the job and helping the children in his village.

After Owen scares Professor Chang into cooperating, he sends his men to find her bag which contains the codes, which Chris accidentally took with him earlier. Chris gives it up to protect the village. Chris and Feng return to the refinery, defeat Owen's men and foil his plans. Owen is killed in an ensuing car chase. Afterwards Feng's team arrest the perpetrator behind the oil heist. Chris and Feng fixes the well and is offered and accepts a new mission with Feng.

• Jackie Chan as "Dragon" Luo Feng
• John Cena as Chris Van Horne
• Pilou Asbaek as Owen Paddock
• Ma Chunrui as Luo Mei
• Amadeus Serafini as Henry Van Horne
• Hany Adel as Captain Azir
• Laila Ezz EL-Arab as Soraya
• Zhenwei Wang as Xiao Wei
• Simon Gong Jun as Hai Ming
• Tim Man as Knox
• Rachael Holoway
• Max Huang
• Hou Minghao as Assistant Ning

The movie was originally planned as a collaboration between Jackie Chan and Sylvester Stallone, but Stallone backed out and was replaced by John Cena.[3][4] It was filmed in 2018,[5] with locations in China standing in for the Middle East.[6]

The film had been known under several potential titles including Ex-Baghdad, Project X, Project X-Traction, and SNAFU before settling on Hidden Strike.[6][3]

A trailer for the film was released on 30 May 2023.[7]

The film was released theatrically on 6 July 2023, in the United Arab Emirates and select international markets, and on 28 July 2023, in the United States and internationally on Netflix.[8] The film became the most viewed on Netflix worldwide in its launch weekend, charting as the number 1 movie in the U.S. and 53 other countries, without any promotion from the platform.[9] It remained as the U.S. and global number 1 movie on Netflix for 2 weeks, registering 56.8 million views worldwide in its first 28 days of release.[10]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 24% of 17 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review.[11]

Chase Hutchinson of Collider gave the film a 'D' grade, criticizing the plot, action and overuse of computer generated effects, and the lack of chemistry between Chan and Cena.[12] James Marsh of the South China Morning Post, who gave the film 1 out of 5 stars, also noted the lack of chemistry between the two stars, and said the story was "a tired, by-the-numbers affair" with "underwhelming" action.[13]

Other critics gave more favorable reviews. Si Jia of Geek Culture gave the film 6.1 out of 10 and wrote "Come for the action, stay for the delightful chemistry between Chan and Cena – but not much else. While Hidden Strike has its fair share of charm, it’s ultimately a forgettable jaunt that serves as sheer popcorn entertainment, and will likely become a distant memory a few months down the road."[14] Neil Soans of The Times of India gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Neither star is expendable because of their sheer drawing power, but that’s expected from such a celeb-driven blockbuster that’s likely to lead to a sequel if this one does well enough. A brain-dead yet amusing flick, Hidden Strike makes the most of Chan and Cena’s abilities to entertain on-screen."[15]

Hidden Strike at IMDb