Directors discuss Reynolds and Branagh’s Cold War thriller Mayday

The Hollywood Reporter article says writer-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein used a trailer breakdown to explain how their forthcoming film *Mayday* blends Cold War action-comedy with an unexpected, suspenseful opening. They said the trailer was designed to wrong-foot audiences by initially resembling a horror scenario, before revealing the film’s central odd-couple dynamic between Ryan Reynolds’ stranded American pilot and Kenneth Branagh’s Russia-based former KGB officer. That tonal shift matters because it helps distinguish *Mayday* from more conventional aviation or espionage films and sets up the film’s unusual mix of action, comedy and tension.

The directors said producer David Ellison, himself a pilot, was heavily involved in keeping the flying elements believable, including details such as the “hard deck”, a safety altitude set 5,000 feet above the ground during manoeuvres. The trailer opens with Reynolds’ character, Troy “Assassin” Kelly, crashing behind enemy lines in Russia and being cared for by Branagh’s Nikolai Ustinov, before moving into action scenes including a restaurant fight. Daley and Goldstein said Branagh rehearsed his stunts extensively and that the film uses longer takes in its fight scenes, inspired by 1980s and 1990s Jackie Chan films, so audiences can clearly follow the choreography. Apple is due to release *Mayday* on streaming on 4 September.