Heart of Stone 2024 | Gal Gadot

Gal Gadot stars in this Netflix action thriller, a big-budget spy film aiming for Mission: Impossible heights. Gadot plays Rachel Stone, a CIA agent protecting “The Heart,” a powerful AI. Also starring Jamie Dornan and Alia Bhatt (in her Hollywood debut), the film boasts international locations and complex action. Did it live up to expectations?

The film received mixed reviews, with some praising the action and others the plot. Still, Heart of Stone became a hit on Netflix, racking up over 109 million views in its first month. Was it star power, female-led action, or something more? Find out what sparked this global phenomenon.

Every superspy needs a super team, and Rachel Stone is no exception. Played by Gal Gadot, the unassuming computer tech is actually an undercover operative for the Charter — a global spy network that’s kept secret even from other spy networks. Using high-tech artificial intelligence that keeps them a step ahead of their enemies, the Charter is seemingly unstoppable.

But when Stone infiltrates an MI6 team that’s being taunted by mysterious ace hacker Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt), she’ll need all of her skills to navigate the deadly world of espionage that’s about to confront her. Stone is as cool and canny as they come, but even she needs a little help from her friends. “She really enjoys working with them,” Gadot told Netflix in June. “They are almost family.”

The Israeli actor already played a superhero in Wonder Woman. For Heart of Stone, Gadot wanted to bring herself back down to Earth. “It was really important to me that Rachel be a character who can fight, but I also wanted her to be able to use her brain, intuition and emotions,” she told Netflix in June. “She doesn’t just run in, guns blazing. She thinks about how she is affecting people and situations.”

For director Tom Harper, that more thoughtful quality distinguishes Stone from your Bonds or Bournes. “There is a deep care and compassion for people as the driving force of her actions,” Harper said last month. “It often feels that there’s one character acting in an almost God-like way, saving the world but yet disregarding the humans around them. This is a bit different, it has a bit more of a humanistic approach.”