Gal Gadot’s latest spy thriller is a mess of a movie. Heart of Stone wants to be a tense, globe-trotting actioner about a shadowy peacekeeping agency hunting a hacker, but it gets lost in its own plot twists and forgets why any of it matters. The film, directed by Tom Harper from a screenplay by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder, runs 122 minutes and stars Gadot as Rachel Stone, a global intelligence operative who races to stop a hacker from stealing her agency’s most dangerous weapon. It is a premise that could work. It does not.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Rachel Stone’s Mission
Rachel Stone is supposed to be the film’s anchor. She is an intelligence operative for a peacekeeping agency called Charter, and she is tasked with protecting a mysterious AI system known as “The Heart.” The film spends its runtime chasing this object across casinos, ski resorts and mercenary ambushes, but it never quite explains what The Heart actually does or why it is so dangerous. That lack of clarity is the film’s biggest problem.
Stone’s mission begins in the Italian Alps, where she joins a team of MI6 agents led by Parker, Yang and Bailey. Their job is to extract Mulvaney, an arms dealer who is betting on a live stream of a US Navy SEAL combat operation. The extraction goes wrong when Yang is caught trying to sedate Mulvaney, and a gunfight breaks out. Parker manages to get Mulvaney on a cable car while the team heads down the mountain to face his security forces. Stone stays behind, pretending to be injured, and contacts a mysterious agent named Jack who feeds her probability information on how to get down safely.
It is a promising setup. A lone operative using probability data to navigate a hostile mountain. The film should lean into that tension. Instead, it cuts away from Stone to follow the rest of the team, and the scene loses its momentum almost immediately.
The Hacker and the Cover
Stone’s discovery that the hacker she saw in the Alps is Keya Dhawan, played by Alia Bhatt, is meant to be a twist. Dhawan is an orphan with links to Indian criminal syndicates, and Stone learns that Charter itself leaked Dhawan’s location to MI6 so they could track her down. The setup suggests a deeper game of deception, but the film never fully commits to it. Stone goes undercover to find Dhawan, and when she arrives in London, she is ambushed by a squad of mercenaries.
Jack orders Stone to evacuate, but she refuses, going back to save the team at the expense of her cover. After they escape, Stone reveals she is a Charter agent. Parker, played by Jamie Dornan, murders Yang and Bailey, revealing himself as a double agent working with Keya. He admits to secretly killing Mulvaney as part of his mission to find The Heart, a quantum computer used to guide Charter’s operations.
This is where the film’s plotting collapses. Parker’s betrayal should be shocking. Instead, it feels like one twist among many, and the film rushes through the consequences without giving the audience time to process them. The reveal that Parker was a double agent is meant to shake up the story. It does not.
The Double Agent Problem
Parker’s role as a double agent is the film’s central mystery, and it is also its weakest link. He is revealed to be working with Keya Dhawan to find The Heart, a quantum computer used to guide Charter’s operations. The reveal is supposed to be the climax of the first act, but it is buried under a pile of other twists and turns. The film introduces a hacker, a traitor, a stolen AI and a global peacekeeping agency, and it never stops to let any of it land.
The result is a movie that feels overstuffed. There is too much happening, and none of it is given room to breathe. The film moves from the Alps to London to a series of ambushes without ever slowing down enough to let the stakes settle. By the time Parker is revealed, the audience has forgotten why anyone wanted The Heart in the first place.
The Supporting Cast
The cast is capable, but the script does not treat them with care. Sophie Okonedo plays Nomad, Stone’s superior at Charter, and she is mostly there to deliver exposition. Alia Bhatt is wasted as Keya Dhawan, a hacker whose identity is discovered in the Alps but whose motives are never fully explained. Matthias Schweighöfer shows up as Jack of Hearts, the mysterious agent feeding Stone probability data, but his role is underdeveloped. Paul Ready, Jing Lusi, Enzo Cilenti, Joe Reisig, Luca Fiamenghi and Thomas Arnold round out the supporting cast, but they are mostly bit parts in a story that cannot hold their attention.
The film’s runtime is generous, and it is easy to see where Harper could have trimmed. The opening stretch, which follows Stone’s extraction of Mulvaney, is a good example. It is tense, well-shot and full of action, but it drags because the film keeps cutting away to follow the rest of the team. The same problem persists throughout. The film keeps adding layers — a hacker, a traitor, a stolen AI — without ever peeling back the ones it has already put in place.
The Production Budget
Heart of Stone was a costly project. It had a reported production budget of $150 million, making it one of Netflix’s most expensive original films. That money is on screen. The Alps look stunning, the casinos are lavish, the action sequences are kinetic. But a big budget does not buy a coherent story, and the film’s flaws are not aesthetic. They are structural.
The film’s tagline is “Defy the Odds.” That is a promise the movie does not keep. It asks the audience to defy the odds alongside Rachel Stone, but it never makes those odds clear. The Heart is the object everyone wants, but the film never explains what makes it so valuable. The hacker is the target, but the film never explains what she knows. The double agent is the threat, but the film never explains his motives beyond a vague mission to find The Heart.
The Review Numbers
Heart of Stone received mixed reviews from critics. Its aggregate score sits at 4.4 out of 10, and it emerged as Netflix’s second-most-watched film in the second half of 2023 with nearly 110 million views. The numbers are impressive, but they do not change the film’s weaknesses. A movie can be popular and still be bad. This one is both.
What Went Wrong
The film’s problems are not small. They are fundamental. Here is a quick rundown of the issues:
- The Heart is introduced but never explained.
- Keya Dhawan is discovered but never motivated.
- Parker’s betrayal is revealed but never earned.
- The supporting cast is capable but underused.
- The pacing is fast but unfocused.
Taken together, these are not minor complaints. They add up to a movie that never coheres. The audience is asked to keep track of a hacker, a double agent, a stolen AI and Charter’s global peacekeeping agency, and the film does not help. It throws information at the wall and hopes it sticks.
The Verdict
Heart of Stone is a frustrating watch. It has pieces of a good movie — a strong lead performance from Gadot, a beautiful setting, a kinetic energy — but it never puts them together. The plot is a jumble of twists that never resolve themselves, and the film’s final act, which should be its strongest, is spent tying knots that the audience never had time to understand.
The film is not a failure, but it is a disappointment. It had the makings of a tense spy thriller, and it squandered them.
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