‘Die Hard’ Fans Need To Stream Daisy Ridley’s ‘Cleaner’ on HBO Max

While it may not be a Christmas movie, the new Daisy Ridley action flick Cleaner on HBO Max should send a gift of gratitude to the classic terrorist hostage movie Die Hard for its overt story inspiration. Directed in a fast-paced style by Martin Campbell that never bores for a second, Cleaner concerns a professional window washer (Ridley) who finds herself amid a violent eco-terrorist onslaught during a sprawling office celebration in a massive high-rise.

Thanks to the entertaining performances by Ridley and Clive Owen, and Campbell’s deft action scene direction, Cleaner overcomes its slightly derivative screenplay to deliver an amusing action-thriller that’s more than good enough to pass the time. At the very least, for hardcore Die Hard fans, Cleaner will rinse the bad taste left behind by the latest franchise entry, A Good Day to Die Hard.

‘Cleaner’ Follows the ‘Die Hard’ Blueprint

Cleaner

2
/5

Release Date

February 21, 2025

Runtime

97 minutes

Director

Martin Campbell

Writers

Paul Andrew Williams, Simon Uttley, Matthew Orton

Producers

Cindy Cowan, Thomas Fanning, Sebastien Raybaud

In Cleaner, Daisy Ridley plays Joey, a former soldier who learned how to climb walls in her home as a child to avoid her abusive father. Now a professional window cleaner with a rebellious streak, Joey looks after her neurodivergent brother, Michael (Matthew Tuck), who joins her at a lavish London office party for Agnian Energy.

Although Agnian Energy claims to promote green technology and champion the environment, a gang of eco-terrorist activists storms the Agnian Tower building during a shareholders’ party. They gas the guests and hold them hostage. Led by Marcus (an underutilized Clive Owen), the gang plans to expose the company’s lies, as it is a large-scale polluter that does not protect the environment as it claims.

Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, Joey must think fast and utilize her skills as a former soldier and wall climber to evade danger, fight back, and subdue the terrorists nearly single-handedly. At its core, the Die Hard formula couldn’t be more stark: a giant building overrun by armed terrorists must be stopped by a one-person army who shouldn’t be there to begin with.

‘Cleaner’ Wipes Away a Lack of Originality with Old-Fashioned Action

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Despite its obvious inspirations as a bald Die Hard knock-off, Cleaner atones for its lack of originality through its slick action set pieces, quick pace, brisk runtime, and the committed central performances. Martin Campbell deserves a ton of credit for bringing his experience from the elaborate Casino Royale and GoldenEye James Bond movies to give Cleaner a high-grade gloss and pristine action sheen.

Moreover, Campbell’s recent action work in movies like The Protégé and The Foreigner shines through as Joey assumes the role of a one-person battering ram who relies on her past to survive. In the few instances where she depends on her brother for help, Ridley showcases a multidimensional side of her performance, moving from a steely badass to an emotional wreck and back. Her performance goes a long way in masking the movie’s derivative deficiencies, fostering sympathy, and rooting for a happy ending.

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Although it never reaches the quality of the original Bruce Willis actioner, Campbell keeps Cleaner’s entertainment high through the fast-paced editing and relatively short runtime (89 minutes before the credits), which ensures nary a dull moment. If nothing else, Cleaner will wipe away the foul stench left behind by A Good Day to Die Hard, a whimpering way to say goodbye to John McClane, arguably America’s most iconic action character short of Ethan Hunt.

Where ‘Cleaner’ Triumphs and Falls Short of ‘Die Hard’

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To be clearer, Die Hard is a much better movie than Cleaner will ever be. Although she acquits herself well and shows a new side of her acting range, Ridley’s Joey is no John McClane, the cool, rough, gruff, wisecracking NYC cop who carried a franchise for 25 years. Moreover, Cleaner lacks the much-needed comedic one-liners and hilarious zingers that Bruce Willis brought from his time in Moonlighting.

However, without spoiling the particulars, Cleaner does differentiate itself from Die Hard in one significant, arguably beneficial way. There’s a sudden mutiny within the eco-terrorists that leads to an unpredictable plot twist, something most Die Hard fanatics will not see coming. While it’s one of the stronger parts of the plotting, the problem is that the twist results in the elimination of one of the movie’s most formidable characters, which hurts the overall dramatic effect.

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Die Hard fans who can overlook Cleaner’s weak spots will come away with a similar adrenaline spike. Those who cannot get enough of a fancy skyscraper being targeted by hostage-holding terrorists, only to watch them fall victim to a single person who outwits and overmuscles them at every turn, then Cleaner has whipped up the proper formula.

It may not reinvent the wheel or push the genre forward, but as an affectionate riff on a timeless action classic that remains entertaining from start to finish, Die Hard diehards could do a lot worse.

Cleaner is available to stream on Max

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