'Cleaner' (2025) Movie Review

If you used to be in the military but are now trying to adjust to civilian life—you know, a normal, hum drum job, taking care of family members, the usual—you are going to wind up in a bit of a Die Hard situation when you least expect it. That’s the expectation movies have set up for us, and that is precisely what Martin Campbell’s new action thriller Cleaner delivers. It scratches a familiar itch but doesn’t stand out in any way.

 

At this point, we’ve had a version of Die Hard in just about every possible scenario. Speed—Die Hard on a bus. Under Siege—Die Hard on a ship. We could go on for quite some time. While Cleaner may at first glance look like it’s straight up doing Die Hard—terrorists take over a building and the window cleaner must save a bunch of hostages—it does shake things up a bit and gives us a Die Hard dangling off a building riff. 

 

[Related Reading: 'Murder On the Orient Express' Movie Review]

Daisy Ridley plays Joey Locke, the former military window cleaner in question. She’s stretched super thin trying to work and care for her autistic brother, Michael (Matthew Tuck), who keeps getting kicked out of care facilities. Working late one night so her boss doesn’t fire her, a group of environmental activists, led by the charismatic sophisticate—aka, their Hans Gruber—Marcus (Clive Owen), take over a swanky corporate party. Think Die Hard, but if Gruber believed his political spiel.

 

While this forms the primary narrative thrust of Cleaner, the script from Paul Andrew Williams (Bull), Simon Uttley (Alleycats), and Matthew Orton (Moon Knight) tries to layer in additional texture and nuance. Flashbacks to childhood trauma show us why Joey is such a good climber; she was dishonorably discharged from the military, but it was because she was standing up for what’s right; her therapist even gets in on the act, filling the Reginald VelJohnson, eyes-on-the-outside role. Attempting to tweak the formula a bit, a rogue faction emerges within the ranks of the invading radicals, and the writers try to peek into the mind of the billionaire class. There’s even the obligatory, and thankfully brief, “the cops think Joey’s the real bad guy” lip service. But none of this matters or develops to offer any meaning or substance to the surrounding film. 

 

[Related Reading: 'Gemini Man' Movie Review]

Cleaner does, however, include my newest, and admittedly super niche and picky, cinematic pet peeve; the idea that there will be any consequences for the ultra-rich industrialists who run and are destroying the world when their misdeeds—whether corporate or personal—are exposed to public scrutiny. A quick perusal of the nightly news is more than enough to drive home the fact that this isn’t the case anymore. (Remember when Howard Dean made a weird noise at a campaign event and the American populace collectively decided he wasn’t fit to be president as a result? That seems so quaint now.) Movies need to catch up with this or they’re going to start feeling naïve and out of date from the jump.

 

This is also a movie that staunchly, steadfastly refuses to take any discernable stance. It pretends to bring up ideas like, maybe environmental degradation is bad, or perhaps a profit-above-all-else mentality isn’t great for the world. Only the film trips all over itself with tepid takes; it has big “fine people on both sides” energy. However, it does land heavily on finger-wagging, pearl-clutching, this-is-the-wrong-way-to-protest narrative the mainstream media loves so much. And in the end, Joey is ultimately fighting to preserve corporate interests and a capitalist agenda, an agenda that pushes her deeper and deeper into poverty, to the brink of homelessness, and denies her brother the medical help he desperately needs, and that he is punished for not having access to, because they can’t afford it. Yay, it was capitalism all along, but the film has no interest in recognizing that fact. And to be fair, hoping for that from a middling thriller is probably too much.

 

[Related Reading: 'A Good Day to Die Hard' Movie Review]

Whether working on the scale of films like Casio Royale or more modestly budgeted fare recently, like The Protégé, Campbell is nothing if not a strong, sturdy craftsman. You can generally expect a tight, reliable, entertaining ride. I often lament that they rarely make this style of mid-budget action programmer anymore, but while Cleaner is well made, moves at a steady clip, and offers a few fun, thrilling moments, it travels straight down the middle and never veers from that path. It’s not bad, it simply isn’t memorable and doesn’t stand out in any way. 

 

It feels lazy to reference Die Hard so often, but it’s unavoidable. Cleaner clearly and frequently references John McTiernan’s 1988 classic. It’s so Die Hard Joey even fights a tall, tough blonde in a stairwell; it’s so Die Hard they even Die Hard the main villain off a skyscraper. [Grade: C]