Cleaner

If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the "mid-budget" action movie—those lean, mean, 90-minute thrillers that used to populate Friday nights before every film needed a $200 million price tag and a multiversal map—I found it. It’s suspended 50 storeys in the air, holding a squeegee in one hand and a tactical knife in the other. Martin Campbell, the director who arguably saved James Bond twice (with GoldenEye and Casino Royale), spent 2025 proving that he hasn’t lost his touch for tension, even if the theatrical marketplace doesn't quite know where to put him anymore.

I watched Cleaner on a Tuesday afternoon while my neighbor was testing a new leaf blower outside my window, and honestly, the ambient roar of the wind actually added a strange, 4D layer of realism to the vertigo-inducing set pieces. It’s that kind of movie—one that grips you enough to ignore your surroundings, provided you aren't already terrified of heights.

The Vertigo of the Modern Hero

The premise is pure, unfiltered high-concept: Daisy Ridley plays Joey Locke, an ex-soldier (because of course) who has traded her fatigues for a harness and a bucket. She’s cleaning the glass of a London skyscraper during an energy company’s gala when a group of radical activists, led by Clive Owen’s Marcus, storms the building. They take 300 hostages, including Joey’s brother, played by Taz Skylar (who some might recognize as Sanji from the live-action One Piece).

What follows is essentially "Die Hard on a Squeegee," but Martin Campbell treats the geography of the building with a level of respect you rarely see in the CGI-saturated era of the 2020s. There’s a tangible, metallic weight to the action. When Joey is dangling outside, you feel the sheer vulnerability of being separated from a 500-foot drop by nothing but a few carabiners and some nylon rope. Ridley brings a grounded, wiry intensity to the role that feels miles away from the desert of Jakku. She’s not a superhero; she’s just someone who knows how to use gravity as a weapon.

Old School Craft in a Digital World

In an era where "The Volume" and green-screen stages make everything look like a polished screensaver, Cleaner feels refreshingly jagged. Campbell has always been a proponent of clear, readable action choreography. You always know where Joey is in relation to the terrorists, and more importantly, you always know which way is down. The film uses its $1.3 million box office return—a number that suggests it was either a victim of a botched limited release or a strategic pivot to streaming—to mask the fact that it’s a masterclass in economy.

The activists aren't just faceless goons, either. Clive Owen plays Marcus with a weary, intellectual bite. He’s the kind of antagonist who thinks he’s the hero of a different, much more important movie about climate justice, which adds a layer of contemporary social anxiety to the carnage. It’s a very "2020s" conflict: radicalized ideology meets corporate greed, with a window cleaner caught in the middle. Owen could do this role in his sleep, but he chooses to stay awake for it, providing a chilling counterpoint to Ridley’s frantic survivalism.

Why This One Slipped Through the Cracks

It’s a bit of a tragedy that Cleaner didn't make a bigger splash at the box office. In the current landscape, if you aren't a legacy sequel or a horror film with a viral marketing campaign, you’re basically a ghost. "The stakes are a thousand feet high," as the tagline says, but the financial reality of mid-tier action is currently six feet under. This is a "Friday Night" movie in the best sense—it’s efficient, it’s thrilling, and it respects your time.

One of the coolest details I dug up about the production was that they actually built a massive, multi-storey rig to simulate the exterior of the building. This wasn't all just digital trickery; the actors were genuinely hoisted up to capture the way wind affects movement and speech. That dedication to physical reality is what makes the fight scenes—especially one involving a heavy-duty window-cleaning cradle—feel so much more impactful than a standard punch-up. It turns out that fighting while trying not to fall to your death is a great way to keep the audience’s heart rate up.

Ultimately, Cleaner is the kind of discovery that makes being a film fan rewarding. It’s not trying to launch a cinematic universe or sell you a line of action figures. It just wants to make your palms sweat for 97 minutes. Daisy Ridley proves she has real staying power as an action lead, and Martin Campbell reminds us that experience behind the camera is worth more than a thousand CGI explosions. If you can find it on a streaming service or a lonely Blu-ray shelf, grab it. Just don't look down.