HBO Max has released a new clip from Those Who Wish Me Dead, Warner Bros. upcoming thriller starring Angelina Jolie. The film is set for a day-and-date release on the streaming service on May 14, when it will also arrive in theaters.
The clip features Jolie as Hannah, the experienced smoke jumper haunted by a failed mission, as she attempts to keep young Connor (Finn Little) from the assassins (Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen) that murdered his father. Caught in the middle is Jon Bernthal’s Ethan, a sheriff held hostage by those assassins. It’s a tense scene that sets the film’s chase in motion.
That kind of tension is right in director Taylor Sheridan’s wheelhouse. The Sicario writer adapted the script from Michael Koryta’s 2014 novel of the same name, with Koryata and Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond). That’s a veritable recipe for an intense action-thriller.
This clip beautifully captures Sheridan’s signature sense of creeping dread. Jolie’s tough-as-nails heroine caught in the middle of unspeakable violence certainly feels at home among Sheridan’s protagonists, like Sicario’s Kate Macer or Wind River’s Jane Banner. Bernthal is perfectly cast as a tough guy with a heart of gold, but also impressive here are Hoult and Gillen. Those are two actors often associated with big, charismatic characters, but they embody their stony-faced killers with chillingly restrained performances.
After the scene explodes into gunfire, we’re privy to some quick flashes of the rest of the film, including the fires the assassins set to smoke out their quarry. We also catch glimpses of the rest of the cast, including Tyler Perry, Jake Weber, and Tory Kittles.
Those Who Wish Me Dead hits theaters and HBO Max on May 14. Check out the clip below.