Red One is a 2024 American Christmas action comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris Morgan, from an original story by Hiram Garcia.

It stars Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J. K. Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, and Wesley Kimmel.

In the film, Callum Drift (Johnson), the head of North Pole security, teams up with the hacker Jack O'Malley (Evans) to locate a kidnapped Santa Claus (Simmons) on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve, an unidentified black ops team breaks into the North Pole complex and kidnaps Santa.

MORA director Zoe Harlow's subordinates discover the complex's location was compromised by Jack O'Malley, a freelance black-hat hacker.

Hiram Garcia at Seven Bucks Productions conceived the idea for the film,[9] which was developed into a screenplay by Chris Morgan for Jake Kasdan to direct.

[4] Johnson later admitted to frequent tardiness as well as urinating in bottles on set, but Evans and Kasdan defended him.

[29] Footage of Red One was first shown at CinemaCon in April 2024 to journalists selected by Johnson's publicist, but they were not allowed to write about what they saw.

[2] Following the film's weak previews performance, Variety concluded that, "With a massive budget of $250 million, plus marketing costs, it'll take a Christmas miracle for Red One to become a profitable hit at the box office.

"[32][33] In its second box office weekend, the film dropped 59% to $13.3 million, finishing in third behind newcomers Wicked and Gladiator II.

The website's consensus reads: "Wrapped in slick packaging but wholly lacking in holiday magic, Red One is a ho-ho-hum action-adventure.

"[36] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 34 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

[2] Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, gave the film one star out of five, describing it as "profoundly depressing and blandly sentimental" and concluding "this commercial and formulaic slice of content is a toy destined to be forgotten, not by Boxing Day, but mid-November.

"[38] Glenn Garner of Deadline Hollywood said the film "blends genres for some family-friendly holiday fun with a generous dose of self-aware absurdity" and wrote: "Yes, it's cheesy, but this movie is best when it leans heavily into the cheese.

If that makes your eyes roll, keep in mind this is a Christmas movie ultimately intended for kids who've made it all the way through the MCU on Disney+ twice and their parents now need a reprieve.