The film stars Liam Neeson, Noma Dumezweni, Lilly Aspell, Jack Champion, Embeth Davidtz and Matthew Modine.
[6] It is the third remake of the 2015 Spanish film El desconocido, which follows a man (Neeson) who gets trapped in his car after receiving a threat that it will explode if he gets out.
Matt Turner works as a financier at Nanite Capital under his friend and CEO Anders Muller and lives with his wife, Heather, and two children, Emily and Zach, in Berlin.
Once they realize that the pressure plate is only located under Matt's seat, the bomb squad safely removes Zach and Emily, who is treated for her injuries.
Anders reveals that he wanted to make Matt the fall guy for the series of bombings to cover up his scheme of embezzling €208 million wired into his crypto account.
During the credits, the news reports state that the bombings were part of the heist perpetrated by Anders, and Matt cooperates with Europol to resolve the incident.
[4][5] In the United States and Canada, Retribution was released alongside Gran Turismo, The Hill, and Golda, and was projected to gross $2–3 million from 1,750 theaters in its opening weekend.
The website's consensus reads: "Retribution may prove mildly diverting for hardcore fans of films depicting Liam Neeson as a parent in peril, but in most respects, this thriller is strictly standard stuff.
[3] In a mixed review for Vulture, Bilge Ebiri stated that "Neeson’s action movies often turn on his characters’ anxieties as a father and/or husband — sublimating his own tragic personal history into the realm of fictional motivation."
[26] Noel Murray, in the Los Angeles Times, found "The script is too flatly functional, weighed down by periodic info dumps where various people try to explain how Matt’s floundering business might connect to his current predicament.
and that "While Retribution is far from Neeson’s best, it still mostly works, so long as you tune out the dialogue and focus on the hero’s twitchy face, waiting to see which will blow to smithereens first: his car or his patience".