HIT SQUAD

THE GRAY MAN Ryan Gosling's black ops badass is pursued by Chris Evans' sadistic contractor in the Russo brothers' relentless action-thriller.

- MATT MAYTUM

This may be our favourite film that we've ever made, says Joe Russo of The Gray Man. That's big talk from one-half of the sibling director duo behind Marvel Cinematic Universe megahits Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. It blends elements that interest us as storytellers and filmmakers, continues Joe. We liked the grounded, real-world universe it was set in. It's a clever, propulsive espionage narrative. The tone is edgy but quirky. It's intense action but highly entertaining...

The Gray Man has been on the Russo brothers' hit list for some time. Joe began work adapting Mark Greaney's novel into a screenplay while directing The Winter Soldier. When their Marvel contract was extended, the Russos put The Gray Man to the side. With various people attached in the interim, the Russos took back the rights postEndgame and enlisted their MCU collaborators Christoper Markus and Stephen McFeely to crack the script.

We always thought of the movie as a two-hander, explains Anthony Russo of the cat-and-mouse thriller dynamic. At the centre is Ryan Gosling's Courtland Gentry, who becomes better known by the alias Sierra Six when he's sprung from prison to train as an elite operative of a secretive CIA division. When some compromising information falls into his hands, suits at the agency (led by Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page) make the decision to terminate their most lethal asset. For that, they bring in Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a psychopathic freelance contractor not bound by the CIA's rulebook.