Ad Vitam is now Netflix's ninth most-watched non-English film ever, with 38% on Rotten Tomatoes
At just 98 minutes, an action thriller starring Guillaume Canet has blown past expectations on streaming, barging into the all-time biggest hits.
If you spend any time digging through Netflix's action section, you know the platform is absolutely drowning in global shoot-'em-ups and chase flicks. Fast cars, moody assassins, tragic backstories—the works. But despite a rather brutal critical reception, one recent French thriller has somehow blitzed its way onto Netflix's all-time records, outpacing dozens of slicker, arguably better-reviewed efforts. Meet Ad Vitam, the streamer’s little Bourne-meets-Taken hybrid that, for reasons only the algorithm can explain, just won’t quit.
Ad Vitam is now Netflix's #9 most-watched non-English film ever, having racked up 63.1 million views since its January 2025 debut.
The Premise: Bourne, but Make It French
If you’re not familiar with Ad Vitam (released 10 January 2025), the concept is pretty much pure genre comfort food. Guillaume Canet stars as Franck Lazarev, ex-GIGN (that’s France’s answer to the SAS, for anyone outside France), a bloke desperately trying to enjoy an uneventful life with his pregnant wife, Léo (Stéphane Caillard). Predictably, bullets start flying: someone tries to kill him, armed thugs snatch Léo, and suddenly Franck is back in action mode—think hard stare, tactical jacket, the lot.
The film basically runs down the checklist of every French action box set ever made: government secrets; endless fistfights; breathless car chases around Paris; at least six scenes involving shouting in car parks. There’s a twist—obviously—involving Franck’s murky GIGN past, which, honestly, everyone probably saw coming before the opening credits finished. 98 minutes, in and out. Fast food cinema, served up with a faint whiff of disappointment if you’re hoping for actual character development.
Read more: Alpha is No. 3 on Netflix's non-English chart with 3.3 million views and a 22% Rotten Tomatoes score
Critics Loathe, Streamers Click
This all might sound a bit harsh, but even the numbers prove it: Rotten Tomatoes clocks Ad Vitam at a dismal 38%, and IMDb lands at 5.9 out of 10. So not exactly a critics' darling. Yet—and this is where things get weird—audiences do not care in the slightest. With 63.1 million views and a hefty 103 million hours watched, Ad Vitam has officially muscled its way into Netflix’s Top 10 non-English-language movies, snugly at #9 between Counterattack and Brick (not the Rian Johnson one, sorry cinephiles).
Let’s break down that Netflix Top 10 leaderboard so you can see where Franck’s bloody crusade fits in:
- 1. Troll – 103M views / 178.6M hours watched
- 2. Under Paris – 102.3M / 177.3M
- 3. Society of the Snow – 98.5M / 239.7M
- 4. Exterritorial – 91.7M / 166.5M
- 5. The Great Flood – 86.6M / 157.3M
- 6. Nowhere – 85.7M / 155.6M
- 7. The Platform – 82.8M / 129.7M
- 8. Counterattack – 66.9M / 94.8M
- 9. Ad Vitam – 63.1M / 103M
- 10. Brick – 61.8M / 104M
Sequel Already on the Way
Clearly, Netflix is keen to let this adrenaline-soaked cash cow keep running. Ad Vitam 2 has already entered production as of last month, which isn’t remotely surprising given those numbers. Guillaume Canet and Stéphane Caillard both return, along with Nassim Lyes and Zita Hanrot. They’re getting some new blood, too—Nicolas Duvauchelle, Sophie Marceau (yes, from the Bond films), and Mathieu Amalric (also Bond, more Quantum of Solace than The World Is Not Enough, if you’re splitting hairs). No word on a release date yet, but cameras are rolling, scripts are no doubt filled with terse dialogues about trust and vengeance, and you can expect the plot to be just as subtle as a head-butt.