Gal Gadot's new thriller takes her son, then tells her not to stop running

Streaming really has become the halfway house for the mid-budget parent-in-peril thriller — that once-vibrant genre where everything goes sideways for someone's mum or dad. Cinemas seem to have quietly ushered those stories to the door ever since the post-Taken craze ran out of steam, but fans stubbornly keep turning up for them online. And if you've got a taste for these well-worn formulas, rest easy: the appetite's not gone anywhere.

Prime Video in particular is doubling down on these in 2026, chucking out things like Playdate and The Wrecking Crew for anyone after some low-to-mid-octane peril. The most noticeable change, though, is who's doing the saving: the genre's leading men have increasingly been swapped out for women — think Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, and now Gal Gadot, all having a pop at the desperate-parent routine that once revived Liam Neeson's whole career.

Gadot’s Getting Into Gear

After her Wonder Woman glow faded a bit (and a couple of iffy post-franchise choices), Gadot clearly fancied something smaller-scale and a little more relentless. The result is The Runner — an 84-minute, no-fat thriller directed by Kevin Macdonald (bit of a change of pace after some of his previous work) and penned by Mark Gibson. Gadot stars as Maia Marten, a big-shot London lawyer who gets her day turned upside down: she steps out for a jog, hears the phone ring, and just like that, someone's kidnapped her son. The rules: don’t stop moving, follow every anonymous instruction, or else.

The Runner premieres on Prime Video worldwide on 2 September 2026.

The setup practically waves a flag at Taken, but let’s be honest, the phone-tormentor angle feels more Phone Booth, and the enforced-constant-motion bit is a clear nod to Speed. So, we’re definitely in ‘mash-up of thrillers you’ve half-watched on ITV4’ territory — not necessarily a complaint, mind.

Sweat, Injury, and Accessory Jokes

Gadot, it turns out, prepped for this one by roping in an Olympic trainer to sort her running style, before injuring herself anyway. She chatted to People about the process, and here's what she actually said:

"So it took a lot of trial and error and adjusting, and we did it. And I'm so excited to finally share this film with everybody."

She added that the recovery required time off work, and her parting shot about the end of the shoot? "The last day I was ready to finish. I mean, crutches are a nice accessory, but not for me." Honestly, that second quip says more about marathon running for cinema than most reviews.

The Money and the Mix-Ups

Now, context matters here, because Gadot’s last couple of vehicles — Snow White and Heart of Stone — were both big gambles. Snow White apparently raked in just over $200 million at the box office (which sounds fine until you see the budget was north of $330 million), and Heart of Stone cost Netflix a reported $150 million and fizzled out after one go, franchise dreams in tatters. So going small and tight with a thriller probably makes financial sense if nothing else.

As a final spin of confusion, there’s another, completely unrelated film called Runner — starring Alan Ritchson — which hits US cinemas just nine days later, on 11 September. Expect a bit of a muddle as people try to work out which film they're actually supposed to be streaming or seeing. Happens more than you’d think.