The film stars Gerard Butler (who is also a producer) and features a supporting cast that includes Ali Fazal, Navid Negahban, Bahador Foladi, Nina Toussaint-White, Tom Rhys Harries, Vassilis Koukalani, Mark Arnold, Corey Johnson, and Travis Fimmel.

Loosely based on actual events, the story follows a CIA operative and his translator who flee from Afghanistan after their covert mission is exposed.

Tom Harris is a freelance undercover operative working for the CIA to insert malware into a secret Iranian nuclear research facility.

Roman is a Muslim convert, living under the outward pretense of a Dubai socialite, a lifestyle he secretly despises.

After he arrives in Herat, due to an intelligence leak, the news names Tom as the operative responsible for the destruction of the nuclear facility.

Roman directs Tom and his Afghan-American translator Mohammad “Mo” Doud to an extraction point in Kandahar.

Tom and Mo are chased by Farzad and ISI agent Kahil Nassir but they elude both pursuing parties and escape to the desert.

Meanwhile, Roman stops communicating with the CIA and arrives in Afghanistan to join the Afghan SF Commandos masquerading as an ISIS-K unit.

In June 2016, former military intelligence officer Mitchell LaFortune sold his spec script Burn Run to Thunder Road Films.

[6][7] In June 2020, it was announced Gerard Butler would produce and star in the film, which had been retitled Kandahar, reteaming with Angel Has Fallen and Greenland director Ric Roman Waugh.

[4][3] In the United States and Canada, Kandahar released alongside The Little Mermaid, The Machine, About My Father, and You Hurt My Feelings.

The website's consensus reads: "Gerard Butler remains a sturdy screen presence, but even for hardcore action fans, Kandahar is hardly worth watching.