Prime Video's Heads of State reportedly cost $190 million after its budget ballooned during the Hollywood strikes.
Prime Video's biggest blockbuster hit last year certainly delivered for audiences, but just like the chaos on screen, there were plenty of problems behind the scenes, too.
Thanks to the Hollywood strikes, production was held up, and that means rising costs. But when a movie gets to number one on the charts, it makes it all worthwhile, right? According to a new report, Heads of State reportedly cost $190 million, with its budget ballooning during the strikes. The film still shot to the top spot on the service, but the costs certainly make you think twice.
Again, this is not just “it looked expensive, so let’s pick a number", because, via Forbes, the budget became known through financial documents tied to the U.K. production structure and tax-credit system, the same kind of filings that can reveal how much major productions actually spent. The film stars Idris Elba as Sam Clarke and John Cena as Will Derringer, two world leaders forced to work together after becoming targets of a global conspiracy.
Elba plays the British Prime Minister, while Cena plays the U.S. President, a former action movie star turned politician. The two clash, bicker, and eventually have to team up when things go spectacularly wrong, because apparently even international diplomacy needs a buddy-action phase.
The cast includes Priyanka Chopra Jonas as MI6 agent Noel Bisset, Jack Quaid as Marty Comer, Paddy Considine as Viktor Gradov, Stephen Root as Arthur Hammond, and Carla Gugino as Elizabeth Kirk. COLLIDER Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it.
BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns.
Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 8RESOURCE 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them.
BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity.
DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 8THREAT 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid.
No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing.
EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 8AUTHORITY 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do.
Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to.
Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 8ENVIRONMENT 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters.
BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand.
EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 8ALLIANCE 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose.
BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities.
I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 8MORALITY 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen.
Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed.
I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 8PURPOSE 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers.
Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for.
This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The Resistance, Zion The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. The Wasteland Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break.
That's you. Los Angeles, 2049 Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. Arrakis Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. A Galaxy Far, Far Away Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Is 'Heads of State' Worth Watching? Collider’s review stated that Heads of State knows exactly how dumb it is and turns that into its biggest strength, and argues that the chemistry of the leading duo is easily the best part of the whole thing. Much like their dynamic in The Suicide Squad, the two bounce off each other really well, giving the film the kind of buddy-comedy spark it needs.
Credit is also doled out to Ilya Naishuller, who brings real style and personality to the action in a way that makes the movie feel more polished than a lot of other straight-to-streaming blockbusters. The plot is completely ridiculous and a lot of the supporting cast is wasted, but the film gets away with it because it fully embraces its own nonsense instead of pretending to be smarter than it is. Heads of State is streaming on Prime Video.
Heads of State Like Follow Followed PG-13 Action Thriller Comedy Release Date July 2, 2025 Runtime 113 minutes Director Ilya Naishuller Writers Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Harrison Query Producers Idris Elba, John Rickard, Marcus Viscidi, Peter Safran Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse
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