Samuel L. Jackson’s Presidential Action Thriller ‘The Beast’ Unleashes Its Explosive First Trailer

Hollywood has never been shy about putting its Commander in Chief in harm’s way, from hijacked planes to White House sieges. It’s a subgenre that thrives on spectacle, and every few years a new entry tries to one-up the last with a bigger stunt or a more absurd premise.

This time, the twist isn’t the setting or the villain, but the vehicle itself. Rather than trapping its president inside a besieged building or a falling aircraft, this new action thriller straps him behind the wheel of one of the most heavily fortified cars in the world and lets chaos unfold from there.

The first trailer for ‘The Beast’ has now arrived, confirming Samuel L. Jackson will star as the President of the United States, a leader forced to use his armored limousine to stop an unknown militia and save the world. The film, directed by Renny Harlin, is set to hit theaters on October 9, and the newly released footage wastes no time showing off just how far the filmmakers are willing to lean into over-the-top action.

In the story, a militia of unidentified hostiles coordinates a coup against the United States, forcing Jackson’s president to personally drive the presidential limousine, nicknamed The Beast, while unlocking its full arsenal of highly classified offensive capabilities. Along the way, he must protect a grievously injured Secret Service agent, reunite with his wife, and ultimately save the country from collapse.

Jackson previously played a version of this role in 2014’s ‘Big Game,’ where his character survived a hijacked Air Force One, so this isn’t entirely new territory for the actor. This time, though, the action stays grounded, trading the skies for the streets as Jackson’s president uses the vehicle’s hidden weaponry, including a pair of Gatling guns that emerge from the trunk, to fight off attackers in real time.

Joel Kinnaman co-stars as Agent Taft, a Secret Service agent who spends much of the trailer wounded and relying on the president to get them both out alive. The dynamic between the two adds a buddy-thriller element to the film, with Kinnaman’s character even getting a lesson from Jackson on how to properly deliver one of his signature profanities.

Guy Burnet and Colin Morgan round out the supporting cast, though their specific roles have not been detailed extensively in the marketing so far. The screenplay comes from Umair Aleem, while Harlin directs, bringing his background in genre action filmmaking from films like ‘Cliffhanger’ and ‘Die Hard 2’ to a project built almost entirely around a single, heavily weaponized vehicle.

Harlin’s involvement gives ‘The Beast’ an added layer of nostalgia for fans of 1990s action cinema, even as the film leans into a more modern, R-rated sensibility with its trailer’s liberal use of profanity and explosive set pieces. This marks his second collaboration with Jackson, following their 2007 film ‘Cleaner,’ which received a considerably less enthusiastic reception than this new project appears to be generating early on.

The film is produced by Keith Kjarval, Wayne Marc Godfrey and Nicki Cortese, with Aura Entertainment distributing. Given the pedigree of its director and the star power Jackson brings to any project centered on a foul-mouthed authority figure with a very particular set of skills, ‘The Beast’ seems positioned to carve out its own niche in the crowded president-in-peril subgenre.

With just over a month to go before its theatrical release, the marketing push around ‘The Beast’ is only going to intensify from here. Whether audiences respond to its blend of political thriller tropes and gleeful, R-rated excess will become clear once it finally opens on October 9.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!