Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? That's a lot of star power.
But who ends up on top at the end of Netflix's "Red Notice"? Let's dive in.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson gets top billing in the action-comedy, which sees his character
Special Agent John Hartley tasked with working with one of the most notorious art thieves
in the world, Nolan Booth, played by Ryan Reynolds. They have to work together in order
to prevent the theft of three major historical artifacts by The Bishop, another art thief,
played by Gal Gadot.
At the beginning of "Red Notice," Special Agent Hartley is introduced as an FBI profiler
chasing after Nolan Booth. After hunting down Booth in Bali, Hartley seems shocked when
he finds his life completely turned upside down by The Bishop.
Framed for the theft of Cleopatra's first egg, Hartley is imprisoned in Russia where
he shares a cell with Booth. In prison, Hartley and Booth bond over the shared trauma from
their poor relationships with their fathers.
Hartley is subsequently forced to team up with Booth, supposedly to restore the former
FBI agent's good name and prevent The Bishop from getting all three eggs, which are worth
$300 million as a set. Their shared adventure first begins with a daring escape from prison
but eventually leads them all the way from Rome to South America.
"Oh that's fun."
"This is my best friend."
"We're not friends."
"We're best friends."
While the two repeatedly tell each other how much they hate one another, it becomes very
clear that the experience has produced a genuine friendship between them.
Eventually, however, the entire ordeal is revealed to be a ruse designed by Hartley
and The Bishop, who are actually lovers. While the final twist of the film might come as
a surprise to some viewers, small hints at Hartley's deception are scattered throughout
the film — from his unnecessary, flirtatious dance with The Bishop to his sudden ability
to escape from previously unbreakable handcuffs.
During their adventure, Booth reveals that his father was obsessed with locating the
hidden treasure of Hitler's secret arts and antiquities dealer. Unfortunately, for some
unknown reason, Booth's father came to believe that his son was responsible for the temporary
loss of a prized Nazi watch. As a result, as he reveals to Hartley in prison, his father
did not speak to him for more than a year, and their strained relationship led to Booth
embracing a lonely life of crime.
However, throughout the film, Booth and Hartley become close. After the two escape the reach
of the police in South America, Booth is actually willing to sacrifice the third egg in order
to save his new friend. After Hartley and The Bishop's betrayal is revealed though,
Booth quickly sells them out to Interpol, freezing their $300 million payout.
"See? Now we're even. Everyone loses, no one gets the money, and we can all be friends
again."
Booth then takes his new best friends on a mission to the Louvre in Paris, which he promises
will offer "double the payout" and "triple the challenge." Honestly, it all seems like
a lot to take on for someone who just wants to make a few friends.
While Nolan Booth and John Hartley both end up being decidedly different people than they
initially seem to be, Gal Gadot's The Bishop is pretty much exactly the character she says
that she is at the beginning of "Red Notice."
She loves to steal from people and takes joy in beating Booth at every turn. While the
film doesn't explore The Bishop's origins nearly as much as it does Booth's and Hartley's,
she does share a few important pieces of information that make it clear why she turned to a life
of crime.
In the middle of the film, The Bishop holds an intelligence analyst hostage and treats
him as a largely unwilling therapist. During their "session," she explains that she also
faced a tough childhood and that her father made her who she is today. She further questions
whether her inability to accept second place is what keeps her from being truly happy,
and admits that she struggles to trust people.
However, the events of the film seem to lead to her discovering a newfound faith in her
fellow human beings. When presented with the opportunity to form a three-person team with
her lover/art-thieving partner and her former rival, she is the first to accept. In fact,
while Hartley is initially reluctant to form a new team, it's Gadot's Bishop who persuades
him into agreeing.
Interpol Inspector Urvashi Das, played by Ritu Arya, perhaps the only truly honorable
character in "Red Notice," spends the entirety of the film just trying to keep up. She quickly
deduces that Special Agent John Hartley is not who he claims to be and chases the film's
art-thieving trio all over the world.
After The Bishop and Hartley reveal the location of all three of Cleopatra's eggs, Das leads
a team of police to recover them, crashing the wedding of an Egyptian billionaire's daughter
and arresting performer Ed Sheeran in the process. While Das is ultimately unable to
keep The Bishop, Hartley, or Nolan Booth in prison for a substantial period of time, one
has to hope that putting Ed Sheeran behind bars serves as some sort of consolation prize,
right?
"Get off me! Do you know who I am? I was in 'Game of Thrones'!"
Das is last seen in "Red Notice" sending out three red notices in the hopes of catching
the infamous art thieves at the center of the movie, neatly setting up a sequel.
Cleopatra's eggs serve as the MacGuffin of "Red Notice."
"How are we going to find this egg?"
"I don't know. Look for a box that says ‘MacGuffin.’”
The hunt for Cleopatra's eggs is put into motion at the beginning of the film after
an Egyptian billionaire offers a $300 million dollar prize in exchange for having them delivered
to the wedding of his daughter, also named Cleopatra. The eggs are scattered across the
globe.
The first place they wound up is in a museum in Rome, the second is in a private estate,
and the third is in a long-forgotten South American bunker filled with Nazi memorabilia.
While it's not explicitly said what happens to the eggs after Inspector Das recovers them
in Egypt, it's safe to assume that they found their way to a museum of some kind. Hopefully,
it's a location where they'll be better protected than they were in their prior homes.
While the eggs certainly sound like legitimate artifacts, they are completely fictional.
In an interview with The Wrap, "Red Notice" producer Hiram Garcia even recounted his amusement
at director Rawson Marshall Thurber's ability to fool people with such a believable fictional
history for the objects. Garcia revealed,
"At the end of the pitch the same thing always came up which was, 'I had no idea about the
whole Cleopatra thing,' and with great comedic timing he always said, 'Oh I just made all
that up.' It has such a well-conceived backstory that you wish they were real, but no they
were totally made up. It's a very fun idea he had come up with."
Taking that into account, one can only imagine what other fictional treasures might exist
in the world of "Red Notice."
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