The Beekeeper is a 2024 American action thriller film directed by David Ayer and written by Kurt Wimmer. It stars Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Phylicia Rashad, Jemma Redgrave, and Jeremy Irons. The film follows a retired clandestine human intelligence operative who sets out for revenge after his kind-hearted landlady becomes the victim of a phishing scam that steals millions of dollars from a charity she runs. The Beekeeper was released in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures on January 12, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews and grossed $153 million worldwide against a $40 million budget.

Plot

Retired school teacher Eloise Parker lives alone but shares a warm friendship with Adam Clay, who lives in her barn and quietly occupies himself with work as a Beekeeper. Eloise falls for a phishing scam that bankrupts her and steals her life savings, including more than $2 million from a charity she runs. Devastated, she commits suicide. Adam discovers her body and is arrested by FBI agent Verona Parker, Eloise's daughter. After being cleared and released, he contacts a mysterious group called the Beekeepers for information that will help him find the people responsible and seek justice for Eloise; after some searching, they give Adam an address for a call center run by Mickey Garnett. Adam storms the call center and burns it down. Mickey's boss Derek Danforth instructs Mickey to kill Adam, who easily kills Mickey's men and cuts off some of Mickey's fingers with a bandsaw. Mickey escapes and calls Derek to warn him that Adam is a Beekeeper, but he is ambushed by Adam, who kills him by tying him to his own car and sending it driving off a bridge. He picks up Mickey's phone and warns Derek that he is the next target. Derek informs Wallace Westwyld, a former CIA director, who is running security for Danforth Enterprises. Wallace contacts current CIA director Janet Harward, who learns that Adam is a retired Beekeeper. She sends Anisette, a current Beekeeper, to kill him. Anisette tries to kill Adam at a gas station, but he defeats her in a fight and burns her to death. The Beekeepers declare neutrality. Verona and her partner Matt Wiley anticipate that Adam's next target is the Nine Star United Center in Boston, which oversees Derek's global scam call centers. Wallace gathers a group of ex-special forces personnel and briefs them that the Beekeepers are a highly-skilled and dangerous clandestine human intelligence organization, tasked with protecting the United States while operating above and beyond governmental jurisdiction. Derek's refusal to evacuate the Nine Star employees causes confusion that enables Adam to defeat the FBI's SWAT team, infiltrate the building, and wipe out Wallace's men. Verona informs FBI deputy director Jackson Prigg that Adam will attempt to kill Derek but may also target Derek's mother, U.S. president Jessica Danforth, due to Derek using the funds from his scam operation to finance her election campaign. At Jessica's beachside mansion, Wallace hires a group of mercenaries to take down Adam, who manages to infiltrate the mansion, while Jessica learns the truth about Derek's illegal activities. Adam kills the mercenaries, while Jessica decides to reveal Derek's scamming activities to the world. An enraged Derek kills Jackson and attempts to kill Jessica, but Adam shoots him in the head and escapes. Despite having a clear shot at Adam, Verona decides not to shoot him, and he acknowledges her with a nod before fleeing to the beach. He digs up the scuba diving gear he had hidden, puts it on, and disappears into the sea.

Cast

Production

In August 2021, it was announced that Jason Statham would star in the film for Miramax and would also serve as a producer through his company Punch Palace Productions. David Ayer signed on to direct in May 2022. Principal photography ran in England from September to December 2022. Locations included Tyringham Hall and the Kingsferry Bridge. In preparation for the film's opening scenes, Statham learned several methods of beekeeping and interacted with real bees.

Release

MGM acquired the film's distribution rights in the United States in August 2022. In February 2023, Sky Cinema acquired the rights in the United Kingdom, with StudioCanal handling the U.K. theatrical release on behalf of Sky Cinema. It was released by Amazon MGM Studios on January 12, 2024. The Beekeeper was released on VOD and digital platforms on January 30, 2024, followed by a release on DVD, Blu-ray & UHD Blu-ray on April 23, 2024.

Reception

= Box office

= The Beekeeper grossed $66.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $86.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $153 million, against a budget of "$40 million or less". In the United States and Canada, The Beekeeper was released alongside Mean Girls and The Book of Clarence, and was projected to gross $17–19 million from 3,303 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $6.7 million on its first day, including $2.4 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $16.6 million, finishing second behind Mean Girls. The film made $8.5 million in its second weekend and $6.7 million in its third weekend, remaining in second at the box office. It spent its first eight weeks in the Top 10 at the domestic box office.

= Critical response

= On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 181 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Cheerfully undemanding and enjoyably retrograde, The Beekeeper proves that when it comes to dispensing action-thriller justice, Statham hasn't lost his sting." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. A review in The Guardian says the non-shooting scenes are rushed and both Rashad and Driver are underused, and describes it as "a solid, low-stakes, medium-reward new year's effort". Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert praised the film's various aspects, including its range of villains, but regretted: "It's a real shame that The Beekeeper isn't the righteous trash masterpiece that it keeps threatening to turn into." John Nugent of Empire magazine said that Statham is "as gruffly convincing as he usually is (though it's 20 minutes before he's even allowed to kick any ass)" but called the action scenes "horribly inconsistent" and noted that "you do have to put up with quite a lot of stuff about bees".

References

External links

Official website The Beekeeper at IMDb

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