A WORKING MAN
A brutal, prayerful rescue thriller — for grown-ups who can take the language.
Should You Watch It?
Here's the trade you're making. A WORKING MAN is a genuinely riveting rescue thriller — Jason Statham doing what he's done well for two decades, David Ayer directing with the same energy he brought to THE BEEKEEPER, and a story with real moral backbone underneath the gunfire. A father fights to save another father's daughter. A Catholic family prays. The kidnapped young woman herself recites the Lord's Prayer in her darkest moment and fights back rather than waiting to be saved. That's rare, and it's worth noticing.
It's also relentlessly hard-R. Nearly 100 obscenities, most of them "f" words, run through the dialogue. The violence is frequent and some of it very strong — gunfights, broken limbs, stabbings, a man interrogated with hot coffee to the face. The plot turns on sex trafficking, and drug use shows up more than once.
This is not a movie to watch with your kids in the room, or to let slip past you as "just an action movie." For adults who can handle the content and want a story with a genuinely pro-family heart, it delivers. Watch it as an adult, on your own terms.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESLevon Cade is a retired British commando raising his young daughter in Chicago, trying to leave his soldiering days behind and just do honest work for his boss, Joe. When Joe's college-age daughter Jenny vanishes after a night out — kidnapped by the son of a Russian mobster running a trafficking operation — Joe asks Levon to use the skills he's tried to walk away from. Levon is reluctant. His father-in-law already doubts he's fit to be a father himself. But he can't refuse.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this one works on its own terms, and the source materials back that up. Jason Statham brings the same command he's honed across two decades of action leads, and director David Ayer — reuniting with Statham after THE BEEKEEPER — keeps the rescue plot moving with genuine tension and even some humor along the way. The script, co-written by Sylvester Stallone and Ayer, gives the story a small but real twist: the "damsel in distress" isn't just a victim. Jenny fights her captors herself, using karate her father paid for years earlier, which gives the rescue plot two active characters instead of one.
It's a well-made, purposeful thriller — not just competent action, but action built around people you're rooting for.
The Worldview
This film wears its morality plainly. Levon fights not just because he's capable, but because he's a father, and he recognizes a father's desperation in his boss. Joe's family is Catholic, and at the story's most dangerous moment, Jenny — held captive, facing real danger — recites the Lord's Prayer rather than despairing. Her captors try to silence her; she keeps fighting instead. There's a patriotic thread too: Levon's bond with the American commandos he served alongside, and his use of that hard-won training in service of someone else's family. A small, warm scene where he gives his own daughter a patch joining her father's flag and her mother's flag underlines the film's real subject — family loyalty that crosses borders.
None of that erases what the story is built on. It runs through the Russian mob's trafficking of young women, a corrupt policewoman on the mob's payroll, and violence that is often very strong. The film doesn't glamorize this world; it treats the traffickers as villains and the rescue as righteous. But the road there is dark, loud, and profane.
Scripture doesn't flinch from stories like this one. "Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed" (Psalm 82:3). A father risking everything to bring home a kidnapped daughter is an old story, and a good one — even when it's told this roughly.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong moral, pro-family worldview as hero (a widowed former commando with a young daughter) fights against Russian mobsters to locate and rescue the college-age daughter of his boss, the boss and his family are Catholic, and the daughter starts to recite the Lord’s Prayer at one point while the two kidnappers are transporting her, plus Pro-American and patriotic elements include subplot where hero served his country in commando jobs overseas with American commandos and is still friends with his American brothers-in-arms, and hero uses the skills he honed in that service to save kidnapped young woman
Foul Language
About 96 obscenities (including about 83 “f” words), villains say three GD profanities, three OMG profanities, and young woman gives two obscene hand gestures as she and hero leave a place where they overcame many bad guys
Violence
Very strong and strong violence includes many gunfights with hero killing many henchmen, lots of very strong and strong hand-to-hand combat, hero appears to break some arms and legs, several explosions, hero ties Russian mobster to chair hanging over pool to gain information about young kidnapped woman, some head shots with guns, fighting with knives incudes some stabbings, hero throws hot coffee into mobster’s face to subdue him and interrogate him, girl escapes kidnappers and runs away at one point (will she escape?), and hero rescues his father-in-law from burning house set on fire by henchmen from the Russian mobsters hero is fighting
Sex
No sex scenes but implied sex trafficking (plot involves an ex-military man searching for his boss’s young adult daughter who’s been kidnapped to be sex trafficked by a mobster to a sleazy middle-aged man), sex trafficking client is mad at young woman because she bit his cheek off screen (requiring some stitches off screen) and he wants to cut her with large knife, but hero interrupts, and woman fights back, woman strangles violent man by wrapping her legs around his neck, van tips over and skids as two men in van fight bitterly against hero whom they’ve captured, gunshot hits van driver and blood splatters
Nudity
No explicit nudity, but some images of female cleavage
Alcohol Use
Some whiskey and beer drinking, images of people in bars, young women are shown bar hopping and seem tipsy until one is kidnapped
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Brief smoking, man snorts cocaine, hero sees bartender surreptitiously dealing drugs over the bar to people, hero infiltrates Russian criminals by buying meth and then dumping them down toilet and in a stream;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Kidnapping, story deals with the Russian mob, son of Russian mobster does criminal things without his father’s knowledge, and there’s a corrupt policewoman who’s in the employ of the Russian mobsters.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Jenny recites the Lord's Prayer at her most desperate moment instead of giving up. What does it look like to turn to prayer, not despair, when you're afraid?
Matthew 6:9–13 · Psalm 34:17Levon risks everything for a daughter who isn't his own, because he recognizes another father's desperation. What does Scripture say we owe the vulnerable and the endangered, even strangers to us?
Psalm 82:3–4The film treats Jenny as a fighter, not just a victim. How do you talk with your family about the difference between real courage and the violence this movie glorifies to get there?
Levon gives his daughter a patch joining two flags — a small picture of family loyalty across difference. What does honoring your family, even imperfectly, look like in your own household?
Ephesians 6:1–4The Final Word
A WORKING MAN earns its four stars honestly — a well-built rescue thriller with a hero worth rooting for and a moral center rarer than you'd expect from this genre. It also earns its −2 honestly, with language and violence that put it firmly out of bounds for anyone but adults. So here's our answer, same as we opened with: worth the trip — adults only. Looking for something the whole family can watch together instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.
