The Rhythm Section is a 2020 action thriller film directed by Reed Morano and with a screenplay by Mark Burnell based on his novel of the same name.

[3] Starring Blake Lively, Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown, and follows a grieving woman who seeks revenge after discovering that the plane crash that killed her family was a terrorist attack.

Stephanie leaves the brothel to live with Proctor and studies his research on the crash, which suggests that it was caused by a bomb made by a postgraduate engineering student named Reza, who attends university in London.

Through Proctor's notes, Stephanie discovers his source is disgraced MI6 agent Iain Boyd, whom she finds living in seclusion in Scotland.

Boyd says Reza is a bombmaker hired by a terrorist known as U-17, who carried out the bombing at the behest of an Islamist cleric who was later killed in a drone strike.

Boyd meets Stephanie in London and warns her to disappear, as MI6 has offered to take him back if he can eliminate the newly resurgent "Petra".

It became harder to get financing in place due to complicated Chinese rules that Tang's company had to follow, especially after Ford left a year later.

[6] Production was halted for six months after Lively broke her knuckle on the film set; insurance covered the extra costs this delay created.

That date was again postponed, as the studio left any material from the film out of its preview of upcoming releases at CinemaCon, seen by observers as a sign Paramount had drastically reduced its expectations for The Rhythm Section.

[4][11][12] In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Gretel & Hansel, and was originally projected to gross $9–12 million from 3,049 theaters in its opening weekend.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Blake Lively delivers an impressive lead performance, but The Rhythm Section plods predictably through a story that could have used some flashier riffs.

"[19] Richard Newby of The Hollywood Reporter agreed: "Stephanie's training gives her just enough to get by, and her fighting skills are unrefined and ugly ... the film's car chase is one of collateral damage, close calls, and not a single smooth turn in sight.