The Beekeeper (2024 film)

The Beekeeper is a 2024 action thriller film produced and directed by David Ayer and written by Kurt Wimmer. It stars Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, and Jeremy Irons. The film follows a retired government assassin who sets out for revenge after his kind-hearted landlady falls victim to a phishing scam.

The Beekeeper was released in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios and in the United Kingdom by Sky Cinema on January 12, 2024. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $162.6 million worldwide against a budget of $40 million. A sequel, The Beekeeper 2, is scheduled for a theatrical release on January 15, 2027.

Plot

In rural Massachusetts, retired school teacher Eloise Parker lives alone but shares a warm friendship with Adam Clay, a quiet beekeeper who works in her barn. One day, Eloise falls for a phishing scam that steals her life savings, including over $2 million from a charity she runs; devastated and bankrupt, she kills herself. Adam discovers her body, and FBI agent Verona Parker, Eloise's daughter, arrests him on suspicion of murdering her. Adam is exonerated by the evidence and released, and Verona apologizes to him after discovering that her mother's savings were swiped. Adam, hellbent on revenge, contacts a mysterious group called the "Beekeepers" for information to locate those responsible. After some searching, they trace the scammers to a call center near Springfield run by Mickey Garnett.

Adam storms the call center, assaults Mickey's staff, and burns it down, killing some guards in the process. Mickey's boss, Derek Danforth, instructs Mickey to kill Adam, but Adam eliminates the assailants at the barn and severs some of Mickey's right hand fingers with a bandsaw. Mickey escapes and calls Derek to warn him about Adam, but Adam catches Mickey, ties him to his truck using ratchet straps and sends it off a bridge, killing him. Adam then picks up Mickey's phone and warns Derek that he is his next target. Derek alerts Wallace Westwyld, a former CIA director serving as the head of security for Danforth Enterprises, Derek's tech firm. Recognizing Adam as a former Beekeeper, Wallace alerts the CIA, who dispatches Anisette, a current Beekeeper, to kill Adam. Anisette ambushes Adam at a gas station, but he kills her after a fierce battle and removes one of her fingers; the Beekeepers promptly declare neutrality. Adam uses Anisette's severed finger to enter her compound and search for Derek's primary Call Center.

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 rallies a black ops team led by Pettis and briefs them on the Beekeepers, revealed to be an elite clandestine human intelligence organization tasked with protecting the United States by any means necessary while operating above and beyond governmental jurisdiction, with a strict organizational culture inspired by worker bees in a beehive. Pettis's team deploys to secure Nine Star and kill Adam, but tensions with an FBI SWAT team outside and manager Rico Anzalone's refusal to evacuate create confusion that allows Adam to incapacitate the SWAT team, kill Pettis and his men, and interrogate Anzalone. Verona and Wiley pursue Adam, who disarms Wiley and escapes.

Verona and Wiley learn Derek is the son of Jessica Danforth, the incumbent President of the United States, and warn FBI deputy director Jackson Prigg that Adam may attempt to kill her for Derek's misdeeds. Wallace sends Derek to accompany Jessica at their coastal mansion, which is protected by anti-Beekeeper mercenaries led by Lazarus, who now has a prosthetic leg after an encounter with a Beekeeper. Adam infiltrates the mansion during the party, and after being spotted, Adam fights his way through the building, disarming and neutralizing the Secret Service Counter Assault Team and killing Lazarus and his men; while Jessica and Prigg confront Derek, who admits to abusing Wallace's CIA algorithms to rig Jessica's election. When Jessica threatens to reveal his crimes to the public, an enraged Derek shoots Prigg and prepares to execute Jessica, but Adam shoots him in the head and flees as Verona and Wiley arrive. Verona pursues Adam and holds him at gunpoint, but ultimately decides to let him go. Grateful, Adam nods at Verona before fleeing to the beach, where he dons his buried diving gear and disappears into the sea.

Cast

• Jason Statham as Adam Clay, a highly skilled assassin known as a Beekeeper who has retired to live a quiet life
• Emmy Raver-Lampman as Verona Parker, Eloise's daughter working as an FBI agent who investigates Adam
• Josh Hutcherson as Derek Danforth, a tech bro who is the CEO of Danforth Enterprises and the leader of an international scamming ring
• Bobby Naderi as Matt Wiley, an FBI agent and Verona's partner
• Minnie Driver as Janet Harward, the CIA Director
• David Witts as Mickey Garnett, the manager of the call center that scammed Eloise
• Michael Epp as Pettis, leader of the tactical team hired to protect the Nine Star United Center
• Taylor James as Lazarus, a South African mercenary experienced in killing Beekeepers who leads the Danforths' mercenary guards
• Jemma Redgrave as Jessica Danforth, President of the United States and Derek's mother
• Enzo Cilenti as Rico Anzalone, the manager of the Nine Star United Center
• Phylicia Rashad as Eloise Parker, a retired school teacher and Adam's close friend
• Don Gilet as Jackson Prigg, Deputy Director of the FBI
• Jeremy Irons as Wallace Westwyld, the former CIA Director, now head of security for Danforth Enterprises
• Megan Le as Anisette Landress, a psychotic amateur Beekeeper tasked with killing Adam

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 and Ultra HD Blu-ray by MGM Home Entertainment on April 23, 2024.

Reception

Box office

The Beekeeper grossed $66.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $96.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $162.6 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 theatres 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 182 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".