High-Rise, High Risk: Cleaner Puts Daisy Ridley 50 Stories Up and Mostly Sticks the Landing
Martin Campbell parks his camera on the wrong side of the glass and lets Daisy Ridley do the heavy lifting in a lean, vertigo-laced Die Hard riff that shines more often than it smudges.
On paper, Cleaner sounds like a dare: take a skyscraper siege, swap Los Angeles for London, and entrust the rescue mission to a former soldier now employed as a high‑rise window cleaner. Then ask the man who re-launched Bond—Martin Campbell—to sell the pitch with practical, rubber‑grip conviction. Amazingly, the movie follows through. It’s brisk, unfussy, and just self-aware enough to know it’s borrowing from the best. It also gives Daisy Ridley the sort of physical star vehicle that turns a performance into a persona. Less amazingly, a handful of tin-eared lines and a politics-by-post-it approach keep this from vaulting into action-classic territory. Still: sweaty palms, clenched jaw, satisfied grin. That’s not nothing.
The pitch (and the pedigree)
The setup is pure elevator pitch. Ridley plays Joey Locke, an ex‑soldier-turned-squeegee specialist working the façade of One Canada Square when eco-activists seize an energy company’s gala and take hundreds hostage—including Joey’s neurodivergent older brother. She’s stuck outside the glass; everyone who matters is trapped inside. Campbell, whose CV includes GoldenEye and Casino Royale, knows his way around a vertical playground, and he keeps finding angles that make “outside-looking-in” feel both isolating and tactical. This is a 97‑ish minute British action thriller (R in the U.S., 15 in the U.K.) that understands pace is a special effect of its own.
What works right away
For a film built on a cheekily improbable premise, Cleaner is surprisingly tactile. Ropes creak; suction cups thud; wind turns into an antagonist. Ridley’s Joey is not a quip machine in the McClane mold; she’s focused, flinty, and often silent—less a swaggering cowboy than a careful climber. That difference matters. It shifts the movie’s energy from shoot‑’em‑up spectacle to puzzle‑solving suspense, and it gives Campbell license to stage problem‑solving sequences with a Bond‑ish patience: a drill here, a line there, a rhythmic knife strike that clears an entry point just wide enough for human hope to slip through. When the film leans into that “tinker, tailor, tower-scaler” vibe, it sings. (RogerEbert.com quite rightly called it a “concept action movie with a bit of heart,” and the description fits.)
Ridley cleans up
Daisy Ridley has movie‑star presence that reads from 500 feet away. Cleaner uses that quality without glamorizing it. Joey is all bruises and breath, a human metronome counting off micro-risks across a sheet of glass. Ridley plays her as capable but not invincible—calm until she isn’t, stoic until her brother is in play. Several critics have singled out Ridley’s credibility as an action lead; it’s the film’s most bankable asset, and Campbell wisely gets out of the way to let her sell the vertigo.
Villains, motives, and the story’s murky middle
The antagonists are environmental radicals with a media strategy, a manifesto, and a factional rift. Clive Owen’s Marcus is the movement’s ideologue; Taz Skylar’s Noah is its escalation engine—restless, ruthless, impatient. The movie gestures at the difference between exposing corporate malfeasance and embracing violent spectacle, then largely retreats to the safer dramatic ground of “stop the worst guy.” That retreat keeps the plot nimble but sandpapers the film’s sharper ideas; it wants to be about something but mostly wants to be fast. Decider captured the tradeoff: the movie “touches on corporate corruption and radical activism” but ultimately avoids deep commentary in favor of “solid action sequences and suspense.” That’s not a crime—just a choice.
Campbell’s camera, Campbell’s instincts
Martin Campbell has always excelled at clarity. He makes sure you know where people are, what they want, and what could kill them in the next three seconds. Cleaner is no exception. He milks the outside‑in vantage so thoroughly that windows become characters—reflective confidants, barriers, mirrors that threaten to shatter at the wrong moment. As the action migrates from exteriors to interiors, the movie swaps airy dread for room‑to‑room tension, and Campbell pivots with the same sure hand he brought to Bond’s parkour chase in Casino Royale, albeit at a smaller scale and with a more grounded protagonist. (Sky’s own promo materials sell Cleaner on that Campbell pedigree, and for once the marketing spin checks out.)
The Joey–Michael thread
What keeps Cleaner from becoming just a stunt reel is the sibling bond. Joey’s relationship with her older brother (Matthew Tuck) supplies both stakes and shape—she’s not saving a crowd; she’s saving her person, and in the process the crowd. RogerEbert.com points to those “tender moments as siblings trying to protect one another” as ballast; the film needs that ballast because so much of it is literally and figuratively up in the air.
The writing: a few smudges left behind
Even good action films can live with a few clunky lines, but Cleaner occasionally slathers them on like surplus Windex. The banter between cops on the ground is more perfunctory than punchy. The villain speeches feel focus‑grouped. And when the movie reaches for social urgency, it sometimes lands on slogan. Still, criticism across the board has been measured rather than dismissive—think “good‑not‑great,” with nods to Campbell’s craft and Ridley’s chops. That consensus matches Rotten Tomatoes’ split decision (low‑50s for critics, mid‑60s for audiences at the time of writing), which is a polite way of saying the film entertains even when it doesn’t surprise.
A glance at the numbers (and a second life on streaming)
Theatrically, Cleaner barely made a ripple—about $1.3 million worldwide, with a late‑February U.S. release in limited theaters via Quiver Distribution. That’s a shrug in box‑office language, though the movie was never positioned as a multiplex steamroller. Then came the pivot: U.K. audiences got it as a Sky Original in early May, and U.S. viewers found it on Max in mid‑June. On streaming, the movie punched above its weight, spiking to the top of Max’s charts despite the muted theatrical run. If you want a neat encapsulation of our current film economy—small box office, big couch—it’s right here.
The Die Hard question (because of course)
Does Cleaner invite Die Hard comparisons? It practically begs for them. The confined crisis, the lone operator threading the building’s arteries, the chatter with law enforcement—it’s all recognizable. But the twist is perspective. Joey’s vantage outside the glass, and her particular skill set, give Cleaner a personality that’s not pure cosplay. ScreenRant’s take—“Okay, it’s a Die Hard clone, but so what?”—lands because Campbell knows homage is safest when executed, not announced.
Craft notes: speed, clarity, and a dash of vertigo
At 1 hour 37 (call it a brisk 97), the movie rarely lingers, and Campbell’s editors understand how to cut for breathless comprehension rather than empty chaos. The geography holds; the skyline looks back; even the glass has texture. If the climactic boss fight feels a shade familiar, the lead‑up is more inventive than not, particularly in how it weaponizes reflections and refractions, forcing Joey (and us) to parse what’s inside the pane, what’s outside it, and what’s about to smash through.
So…is it a Hidden Gem?
For our purposes on Hidden Gems & Limelight, the answer is: yes, in the “Friday night, feet up, no multitasking” sense. Cleaner is a sturdy throwback built around a clear idea—an action movie that literally keeps its hero at arm’s length from the people she’s trying to save. It’s not profound, but it is effective, and its star knows exactly how to sell the premise. If you’ve ever wanted a movie to make your palms sweat while you shout “Don’t look down!” at your TV, consider this your vertigo fix.
Where to watch: In the U.S., Cleaner hit theaters in February via Quiver and began streaming on Max in June 2025; in the U.K., it premiered as a Sky Cinema Original in early May. Rated R in the U.S. and 15 by the BBFC.
The verdict (and a little guidance)
If your action appetite demands reinvention, Cleaner won’t satiate. If you’re content with a throwback polished to a modern sheen—one with a star who makes you believe in every clipped breath and knuckle‑whitening shuffle across a pane—then it’s time to queue it up. The story’s politics are shallow, the speeches are shiny, and you’ll guess most of the beats… and yet, for 97 minutes, Campbell and Ridley put you out on that glass with them. And that, in this genre, is the whole point.
Credits & context at a glance
Directed by Martin Campbell; starring Daisy Ridley, Taz Skylar, and Clive Owen. U.S. distributor: Quiver Distribution. Runtime: ~97 minutes. Worldwide box office: ≈$1.31M. Currently streaming on Max (U.S.) and Sky Cinema (U.K.). Critical reception: mixed overall—roughly low‑50s Tomatometer, mid‑60s audience score at time of writing.
