“Final Score”

Movie Review

The 2018 action-thriller movie Final Score, starring Dave Bautista, Ray Stevenson, and Pierce Brosnan, was directed by Scott Mann and written by David T. Lynch and Keith Lynch. In the story, a former American soldier battles separatists from a fictitious Russian country who threaten to blow up a packed soccer stadium and execute his young protegee if they don't get their hands on an elusive spectator before the game is done.

In the Russian state of Sakovya, brothers Dimitri and Arkady Belav oversaw the independence movement. The revolt is ultimately put to end when Arkady is caught and Dimitri is killed in an airstrike. After a while, Arkady and his guys come to the conclusion that Dimitri faked his demise. As a result, they torture a man in order to learn where Dimitri is hiding in London.

Michael Knox, a former US soldier, travels to London to see a West Ham United football game with his niece Danni. He stops by the home of his late closest buddy. He had previously been in Afghanistan with his best friend, who he describes as "being like a brother" and who was the sole survivor of their most recent mission. They had been in an attack squad. Due to her misbehavior, Danni's mother gives her a grounding, but Knox is able to make things right, and she agrees to let Michael accompany Danni to the football game.

As she enters Upton Park, the home of West Ham, Danni vents her anger over her father's passing. Danni receives a text from a boy she likes and chooses to join him at his seat as Michael goes to grab them both hot dogs. Arkady and his mercenaries sneak into the stadium, seize control of the control room, and start a lockdown of the entire stadium in the meantime. Arkady holds Superintendent Steve Thompson captive and uses his family as leverage to coerce cooperation. To ensure that no communications would be made outside the stadium, Arkady then orders his troops to detonate all transmission towers throughout the city. When Knox notices Danni is gone from her seat, he goes to the sly stadium security man Faisal Khan for assistance. Reluctantly helping Knox to the control room, Faisal. As they proceed, they come upon one of Arkady's men who is acting as a guard near the lift. He then attacks them, and Michael kills him. In Andrei's jacket, Knox discovers C-4 explosives. He subsequently calls the police to report the incident using the only functional walkie-talkie, but Chief Commander Daniel Steed doesn't believe him and hangs up. Knox kills two more guys, Vlad and Anton, then drags Anton's body to a balcony and throws it down, crashing through the concession stands and calling the police in the process.

Upon observing this, Arkady and the other mercenaries break into the newsroom and murder the staff. At gunpoint, Arkady commands a reporter to read a statement that threatens to blow up the stadium unless Dimitri is found. Arkady murders the reporter and two other people as he concludes his speech, and Danni's mother witnesses it, sending her daughter to the stadium. Agent Cho approaches Steed and informs him that Dimitri left Russia covertly, got cosmetic surgery, and received amnesty in England. Cho claims he is unable to comply with the requests because giving Dimitri to Arkady will cause unrest throughout the entire Russian territory, harming millions of people. After learning more about Knox and Danni, Arkady's crew decides to kidnap Danni. With the aid of Faisal, Knox saves Danni after overhearing them calling her over the speaker.

Danni is put to death by Arkady after Thompson's crew was unable to apprehend him. In the end, Knox, Faisal, and Danni find the C4 explosives hidden beneath the control room, and Knox informs Steed of the discovery. Given the urgency of the circumstance, Knox requests information from Cho regarding Dimitri's location within the stadium so he can personally transport him to an extraction site. In return, he requests that Danni and Dimitri be exfiltrated. On his journey, Knox runs into Tatiana and battles her before escaping and locating Dimitri. Tatiana also takes Danni hostage while Faisal is unconscious. Knox defeats additional adversaries and arrives at the extraction spot, but he is hesitant to release Dimitri because the latter is his only negotiating tool to win Danni's return. Cho responds by ordering his soldiers to shoot Dimitri in order to prevent Arkady from capturing him. But the approaching mercenaries stop the aircraft. Knox decides to turn over Dimitri in return for Danni after they threaten her. Cho is chastised by Steed for endangering the lives of innocent bystanders, and he takes charge of the situation. While Dimitri and Danni are being held captive, a chopper returns and kills the majority of the other mercenaries. Tatiana is fatally impaled by a pipe after a battle between Knox and Tatiana causes them to both fall from a higher location in the stadium. Tatiana informs that the bomb would detonate 90 minutes into the match no matter what before she dies. Knox had managed to gain and maintain control of the kill switch, but he discovers it is a fake.

As Dimitri and Arkady reconcile, Arkady threatens to start the revolution all over again unless Dimitri shoots Danni to show his allegiance. Dimitri shoots himself because he doesn't want to allow Arkady's lunacy start another revolution that will ruin the area. Faisal manages to evacuate the crowd that is close to the stadium's control room with just a few minutes left. As Knox approaches the control room from across the field, Arkady takes over the live broadcast while holding onto Danni. But, Knox is too late as the control room is destroyed as the bomb detonates.