Cleaner is a 2025 British action thriller film directed by Martin Campbell, written by Simon Uttley, Paul Andrew Williams, and Matthew Orton, and starring Daisy Ridley, Taz Skylar and Clive Owen. The film was released in theatres on 21 February 2025.
When activists take over an energy company’s annual gala held at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf in London, some more radical members of their group take hostages and threaten to blow up the building if police intervene. A dishonorably discharged but highly trained ex-soldier, who works as the building's window cleaner, attempts to save the hostages when she learns one of them is her older brother.
This film provides examples of:
- Acoustic License: Numerous conversations throughout the film take place on the other side of really thick glass. Especially prominent when Joey overhears the conversation when the terrorists first take over the building.
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Several scenes, such as Joey's phone call with Claire talking about their past or Joey's conversation with Michael outside the service elevator.
- Action Girl: Joey is a former special forces soldier who's very skilled with unarmed combat and firearms. She takes down many terrorists during the film, including Noah, their leader.
- Advertised Extra: You couldn't tell from the trailer that Marcus played by Clive Owen would only be in the movie for about 20 minutes.
- Agony of the Feet: Notably averted for a Die Hard-inspired movie where the protagonist breaking a glass window without cutting their feet open is a large plot point and major obstacle.
- Artistic License – Biology: The one-size fit all antidote to the sedative that is used at the beginning of the movie doesn't really match any real life analogue.
- Artistic Licence – Gun Safety: Somewhat averted. Joey, being an ex-army operator, checks the magazine of Marcus' gun when picking it up. However, she doesn't check the chamber and she keeps pointing it at her brother even after initially being startled by him.
- Artistic Licence Law Enforcement: A hostage situation in London proper involving plastic explosives and automatic weapons would probably summon a police response with hundreds of police officers and several choppers.
- Artistic Licence – Physics: It is stated at one point that even one of the vests going off would be enough to take out the building, which seems rather unlikely (though it's likely implied that if one of the vests goes off then ALL of them would, which would make more sense)
- Asshole Victim: It's hard to feel sorry for the corporate people who get the bomb vests strapped to them as all of them are wholly corrupt bastards who had been involved with polluting, coverups, denying climate change and even murdering people who try to stop their corruption. Thankfully, even after the terrorists are killed at the end, Joey leaks their crimes to the public and there's hope of them being punished, along with social change happening.
- Audible Sharpness: The audio mixing makes it sounds like the bottle Geoffrey was stabbed with was actually a knife.
- Bald of Evil: Noah wants to kill all humans. He's also bald.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. By the end of the film Joey's face is caked in blood.
- Bloodless Carnage: Given the violent way that Geoffrey is killed, there should be blood everywhere.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Given that Noah knows Joey can't shoot him without risking triggering the bomb, why does he throw his gun away?
- Bottomless Magazines: Weirdly inverted. Marcus's gun never fires, yet when Joey fires it into the street, it has maybe half the bullets that it should.
- Boyish Short Hair: Joey has her hair cut very short, with an overall masculine clothing style. She's an ex-special forces soldier who's a highly skilled fighter. Most of the female terrorists with the Earth Revolution group have a similar style too.
- Brick Joke: Joey motivates her brother Michael by referencing Avengers: Endgame, except she summarizes the plot wrong. At the end of the movie, her brother tells her that he was bothered by the fact that she summarized the plot wrong and explains in great detail why she is wrong.
- Camera Abuse: When Joey attacks the thug with the fire ax, the blow is shown from the perspective of the thug (complete with blood spatter on the lens).
- Chekhov's Skill: The opening shows that Joey is a great climber and not afraid of heights, an important factor in the movie.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Perhaps to justify why the gang is so small, half the gang is killed during Noah's coup.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: The gas canister to Gerald and his sex partner, resulting in Gerald being caught with his pants down.
- Collateral Damage: The terrorist associates who are unwilling to go with Noah are killed and their deaths are considered this.
- Combat Pragmatist: Joey finds herself without a firearm in many situations, requiring her to improvise, including the use of a fireaxe.
- Conspicuous Consumption: The party where the events happened seems rather extravagant.
- Contrived Coincidence: Michael is kicked out of the program the same exact day that the Miltons plan their gala.
- Corporate Conspiracy: One of the major driving forces of the plot is that the corporation hired a contract killing for an activist that Marcus was close to.
- Corrupt Bureaucrat: One of the party VIPs admits to taking bribes to look the other way.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Agnian Energy Company is run by corrupt bastards who have polluted, covered it up through bribes, greenwashed this, and even had an activist murdered so that she couldn't expose their crimes.
- Covers Always Lie: Joey never points a gun up while dramatically falling down the skyscraper.
- The Cracker: Zee and Michael are both very capable around computers.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Geoffrey getting killed by a bottle being shoved down his throat is certainly unique.
- Dark Action Girl: Earth Revolution, the eco terrorists who serve as the villains, are very egalitarian, with probably a third of them being female (fitting with the feminist politics of many such groups).
- Dark and Troubled Past: Joey's abusive father is the reason she ends up quitting the army.
- Dead Man Switch: Noah has one that will set off all the bombs his group has set, which prevents the police going into the building where they are or simply shooting him as it's triggered if his heart beat stops.
- "Die Hard" on an X: The film has similarities with the original Die Hard. A group of terrorists storm a building and take hostages, with a badass who just happens to be there taking them on. However, here they are sincere and not just using it as a cover to steal.
- Disney Villain Death: Joey kills Noah, the terrorist leader, through making him fall to his death from the side of the building.
- The Dragon: Noah's unnamed female henchmen, who puts up a good fight with Joey.
- Eco-Terrorist: Earth Revolution are radical environmentalists willing to use kidnapping and threaten their hostages with death so they can expose corrupt, environmentally damaging actions by an oil company. However, the original leader Marcus won't kill. Noah, however, is not only willing to but believes all humans should die to save the Earth. He takes over by murdering Marcus and the terrorists loyal to him.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Joey was once in the SRR, or Special Reconnaissance Regiment, one of the British Army's elite units. However, here it makes sense to justify how she can be such a badass, and take on the terrorists all by herself. She's the only military veteran character.
- Empathy Doll Shot: Joey's family photo of her and Michael is shown in the opening and later at her locker.
- Establishing Character Moment: For Marcus, when Noah brings Gerald in his underwear, Marcus angrily demands that Noah put Gerald's pants back on and treat him with dignity.
- Everything Is Online: Sure is convenient that all of the company information is accessible from the control room meant for the building.
- Evil Plan: Noah's plan is to kill possibly hundreds to bring attention to the energy corporation's crimes.
- Flipping the Bird: Multiple times by Joey, especially in the finale.
- Friendly Address Privileges: When verbally sparring with Noah, Claire asks if he wants to be addressed as Noah or Lucas to show that she knows who he is.
- Harmful to Minors: Two kids are shown in the building and are affected by the gas.
- Hollywood Tactics: The SWAT team's first attempt to enter with only 5 guys, no ground or air support, and then retreating by cutting through the street are very unrealistic.
- Hostage Situation: The central conflict of the movie. Surprisingly, despite the box blurb, Joey's brother is never taken hostage.
- Idiot Ball: One henchman has his MP5k jam, instead of trying to clear the weapon he pursues Joey without alerting any of his fellow henchmen.
- I Have Your Wife: Noah tries to pull this on Joey by threatening to find and take Michael hostage, but he never succeeds and doesn't seem to put a lot of effort into it.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: When Joey shoots into the streets, the movie presents the idea that she is near-missing intentionally, which seems absurd given that the weapon is a handgun and she is firing at least a hundred meters into the distance.
- Informed Flaw: Michael is noted to be autistic to the point where he qualifies for a government grant to be put in a home despite being ostensibly adult age, but other than losing his temper often, he is not shown to otherwise be suffering from autism. The most his mental disorder is shown is that he has issues making eye contact with people when speaking with them, which is typical for people with autism.
- Instant Death Bullet: Every person who is shot instantly dies except for Marcus.
- Jitter Cam: When Joey saves Zee in the stairwell, the shot is filmed as a Dutch Angle.
- Meaningful Name: A character named Noah intends to kill all of humanity... bonus points for the fact that it is made explicit that this was a name he chose.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Noah and his compatriots believe humanity has become a virus killing the Earth. Because of this, it's their belief that we must all die.
- Neck Snap: Appears to be what Joey does to a henchman, it looks like she did a sleeper hold but the henchman later confirms there is no pulse, meaning she may have cracked his neck.
- The Needs of the Many: Noah says his terrorism is a numbers game, viewing killing hundreds of people as acceptable when faced with millions more who will die from climate change. However, it turns out he really wants to destroy humanity, viewing us as a virus that must die.
- No One Could Survive That!: Noah is smart enough to realize that Joey is probably not dead after they slowly lower a bomb on a rope to her.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: The hostages are forced to make video confessions of their crimes through being threatened by the eco terrorists holding them, who will kill everyone otherwise. Zee is also coerced into going along with Noah's plan by one of his followers aiming a gun at her head.
- Offscreen Karma: The results of Joey and her brother publishing all the data is presented as voice over with an establishing shot of London.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Joey only gets called by her full name Joanna on a couple occasions.
- Parental Neglect: Joey and Michael's parents seem to be completely uninvolved in their lives.
- Parental Substitute: Joey is this for her brother, it's not explained what happened to their biological parents.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Joey is a short, slim woman (probably the smallest adult in the film) who's nonetheless an ex-special forces soldier who's very skilled with unarmed combat and firearms. She takes on many terrorists herself, though not without getting wounded.
- Police Are Useless: Somewhat averted, while the police don't resolve the plot their intervention ultimately is key to Joey's success.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Joey's recollection of Avengers: Endgame, much to her bother's frustration.
- Posthumous Character: The activist killed by the corporation in prison is a major motivation for the characters.
- Precision F-Strike: Joey says it many times in the film, but special attention is given to when Michael curses.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The contract killing that inspired Marcus is an unsubtle reference to the actions of companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle in South America.
- Shout-Out: Many to the original Die Hard 1, but especially notable when the bad guy falls out of the building at the end and a watch is involved.
- Soft Glass: Even after being weakened, the building glass broke like safety glass as opposed to how it would have actually broken.
- Throw-Away Guns: Joey has trouble retaining firearms after using them.
- Tomboyish Name: Joey's full name is Joanna, but she goes by this nickname mostly. This fits with her tomboy style, and she's quite an Action Girl too.
- Underestimating Badassery: Notably averted for a Die Hard 1 style film, Noah from the beginning of the film treats Joey as a legitimate threat, likely because he is aware of her background.
- Viewer-Friendly Interface: For those who can't keep up with the progress bar when Michael is hacking the computer, the computer also flashes many graphics making it clear that the file has been encrypted.
- Villain Has a Point: Noah does have a point that Marcus has been fairly unsuccessful so far, although one wonders if the plan had gone according to how Marcus meant to do it the same result would have occurred.
- Villainous Rescue: Noah has this when he finds out that Joey is not dead and has broken into the building.
- We Need a Distraction: The in-universe reason for why Claire allows Joey to run around even though she is not a member of law enforcement.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The movie makes a point of showing that Joey prevented Zee from being executed, but never shows her fate.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: While conversing with Noah on the other side of the window and pointing a gun at him, it is unclear why she doesn't just shoot him and resolve the situation. Given the thickness of the window, it would be unsurprising if handgun bullets would not have been sufficient to penetrate.
"PRICK!!"
