Unlocked (2017)

Unlocked has the lean, propulsive snap of a throwback spy thriller—no fancy myth-building, just a smart professional dropped into a world where every handshake might be a trap. Michael Apted keeps the pace brisk and the geography clear, while Noomi Rapace brings a bruised, determined intensity that makes the danger feel personal rather than procedural, and Orlando Bloom and Michael Douglas add welcome texture to the shifting alliances around her. The vibe is tense and street-level, with urgency that builds scene by scene until it feels like London itself is holding its breath. It’s not for the squeamish—violence is frequent and occasionally graphic—but if you miss espionage movies that move like a knife and trust the audience to keep up, this one scratches that itch.

Unlocked wants to be a slick, paranoid spy thriller about trust, trauma, and a ticking-clock attack, and on paper the cast and London setting should make it crackle. In practice, it plays like a checklist of genre beats you’ve seen before, with twists that feel more inevitable than shocking and plotting that can get oddly muddled when it should be razor-clean. Noomi Rapace brings real grit and urgency, and a few action moments land, but the film rarely rises above “serviceable” into memorable. If you’re allergic to predictable conspiracies and familiar spy-movie clichés, this will feel like wasted time; if you just want a competent, violent, mid-budget chase-and-betrayal thriller, it’ll do the job.