“Operation Vengeance” is that rare spy action film that tries to be something more than just a series of shootouts and covert operations.
Behind the outer shell of a big action thriller, entirely different themes gradually emerge: old debts, friendship, love, money, business, betrayal, and the price of decisions a person makes long before he understands their consequences.
The film was released in cinemas on 11 September 2026, and it almost immediately becomes clear: the story here will not be simple.
This is one of those cases where the creators decided not to limit themselves to a single theme.
There is intelligence, politics, war, money and cryptocurrency, business, friendship, love, betrayal, relationships between people, and an attempt to set right the mistakes of the past.
And all of it is packaged into a fairly serious spy action film with good action and a rather complex plot.
The director is Guy Moshe, and the lead roles are played by Liam Neeson, Zachary Levi, Quincy Isaiah, Wes Chatham, Lara Wolf, Navid Negahban, Annet Mahendru, and Titus Welliver.
Liam Neeson plays Larry — an experienced mentor and handler of former CIA operatives. And, of course, Neeson is here in exactly the element we love him in: calm, composed, dangerous, and with an expression on his face as if he already knows how it will all end.
Zachary Levi plays Tucker — the direct leader of the team, who takes the group on a dangerous operation to Tehran.
The squad also includes Quincy Isaiah as Clay and Wes Chatham as Alex.
Separately, it is worth noting Lara Wolf, who plays Maryam — a journalist and activist who helps the heroes after several years of imprisonment in Iran. The film also features Navid Negahban, Annet Mahendru, and Titus Welliver.
The film jumps quite deftly between genres.
At one moment it is almost a pure military action film, then a spy thriller, then a story about money and business, then a drama about relationships and friendship.
And the action here really is strong. The shootouts, the operations, the work of the team, and the entire intelligence side of things look convincing and keep the tension up.
Critics, too, more often single out the staging of the combat scenes and the duo of Levi and Neeson, though at the same time they criticise the film for being overloaded, for its complicated screenplay, and for its excessively long running time.
And here we partly agree with them.
The film could easily have been made shorter.
We are not at all big fans of films that noticeably run past the usual one hour forty — with rare exceptions. And in “Operation Vengeance” you can periodically feel that some episodes could have been cut without losing the story.
But the nicest thing is that the film does not fall apart by the finale.
On the contrary, the resolution turned out to be genuinely interesting and very successful. Everything that was laid out before the viewer for so long begins to come together at the end into a coherent picture.
So after the finale, a good impression remains.
If the film had been tightened up a little and some of the drawn-out moments removed, our rating would be even higher.
But even as it is, this is a thoroughly worthy spy action film — complex, rich, at times dramatic, and with good action.
Gaya's rating: 8.2/10.
