The veteran Hollywood actor Russell Crowe has once again hit streaming success with his 2026 action film, The Get Out. After getting a lukewarm response in its theatrical debut in June 2026, the film is currently rising on streaming this week. Crowe, who is known for his varied and eclectic choice of movies, has chosen such a film, which, though deliciously unique, belongs to the same film school as John Wick on the one hand and Heat on the other.
While maintaining its unique flavor, The Get Out makes an intriguing pairing of the coming-out-of-retirement trope, as propelled to mythical status by John Wick, with the tense crime-fighting atmosphere of Heat. While the Derrick Borte directorial still manages to maintain its identity, it won’t be an overstatement to say that the film just feels like a warm handshake between John Wick and Neil McCauley.
The Get Out Is A Perfect Coming Out of Retirement to Survive Story Just Like John Wick
The Get Out focuses on an aging nightclub owner, Manco Kapak, who wishes to retire quietly with his girlfriend Sunny after suffering a medical scare. However, as he tries to get away from his criminal past, a robbery of a cartel’s money from his nightclub forces him back to business. Meanwhile, he also gets pursued by a mysterious businessman, Joe Carver, who wants to buy his club. What follows next is a gripping tale of betrayal and dark humor with escalating violence.
One of the major aspects in which The Get Out is reminiscent of John Wick is that its protagonist is a man contemplating leaving his violent past behind. As Manco wants to retire to a quiet life, the sudden attack in his nightclub forces him to come back to the dangerous world he was contemplating leaving.
Moreover, Manco’s life, like Keanu Reeves’ John Wick, apparently changes after one robbery. John Wick tells the story of a former hitman who is grieving his wife’s death. However, a group of Russian gangsters tears through his quiet life as they try to intimidate him into selling them his 1969 Boss 429 Mustang. After John doesn’t give in to their demands, the gangsters invade his home, killing the puppy his wife left him and taking away his car. Though John left his job as an assassin behind to lead a peaceful life, he is forced to come back from his retirement to take revenge for his puppy’s death.
Similarly, the robbery in Manco’s nightclub initiates a chain reaction, creating paranoia in his life and bringing him back to a life of violence. As the story progresses, the film gradually becomes darker, and the stakes go higher.
Interestingly, in both John and Manco’s lives, the desire to return to a life of violence stems more from a survivalist point of view, rather than from the desire to become a savior of mankind. Like John’s, it is Manco’s keen desire to settle scores and avoid the reverberations of his former life that drives the quiet future he is dreaming. To ensure a peaceful future, however, Manco has to resort to a life of violence and guns once more, as he also navigates disloyalty and suspicious men who crowd his life.
The Get Out’s Manco Kapak Becomes A Man Trapped Between Multiple Enemies Like Neil McCauley
Manco and Neil McCauley from Heat, played by the mighty Robert De Niro, are similar in more ways than one could count. The similarity, in a way, runs to the elemental level where the thin line between the right and the wrong gets blurred decisively — primarily because of the films’ generalized treatment of violence.
Crime is no longer treated as an aberration, which needs to be eliminated from the world. Rather, violence is just an extension of the profession these men have chosen. For Manco and McCauley, crime is something to be logically dissected and methodically carried out. It is the outcome that interests them more, and violence is not an isolated spectacle.
However, with both these men being actively in the criminal world, they are trapped between multiple factions. Defeating just one antagonist will not set the path of life right. While McCauley gets actively pursued by the LAPD homicide and robbery detective Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino), he is not the only one. Like him, Manco also finds himself antagonizing more than one enemy, which inverts the traditional narrative of virtue winning over vice.
What emerges as a cat-and-mouse chase between McCauley and Hanna soon gives way to a relationship of begrudging respect and calculated antagonism as bigger and more villainous antagonists are in play. Crowe’s The Get Out, in turn, creates a world where the question of good and bad remains till the end.
Despite being surrounded by constant threats, however, these criminally conditioned men do not lose composure. Even in the middle of constant threats, it is their cool and calculating nature that adds a sharp definition to their danger. These are men not to be trifled with, and the characters’ understated dangerousness makes it clear to the audience.
The Get Out Creates Its Own Criminal Ecosystem Within the Nightclub
Like its predecessors, Manco’s nightclub in The Get Out becomes a microcosm in itself. The establishment is situated at the crossroads of legitimate business and cartel activities, while the entire action surrounds it. The underbelly of Los Angeles and New York in Heat and John Wick, respectively, have previously served similar purposes. The ordinary buildings become part and parcel of geographical architecture.
While the geography helps in highlighting the criminal mythology, it also emerges as the backdrop of the films’ dramatic tension. In these cases, the dramatic tension arises from the characters’ internal struggles. While men like John, McCauley, and Manco try to come out of their previous life of violence, their desire to create an ordinary life creates internal struggle. It becomes the antithesis of the Continental in John Wick, where it is a neutral ground experiencing very little action.
However, the tension arises more because of external threats refusing to agree with the changes. Nevertheless, Crowe’s Manco emerges as a character who is a professional in the twilight years of his criminal career. His controlled menace and authoritative presence make him a character to be feared. And the center of his empire is his nightclub.
While The Get Out can easily be placed as the spiritual successor to John Wick and Heat, it is not without its own quirks. With the story gradually progressing and the understated physicality of the violence of his character slowly coming out, The Get Out breaks out of the mold of any of its predecessors. In the end, it becomes a movie that successfully creates its own niche while also being a spiritual successor to favorites like Heat and John Wick.
