'Shelter’ review: Jason Statham is a killer with a conscience in muscular UK-set actioner

Dir: Ric Roman Waugh. US/UK. 2026. 107mins

Heavy on action, light on plot, Shelter is no more or less than you would expect from a Jason Statham movie – and that is enough to make this an entertaining crowd-pleaser. Statham has carved out a niche playing grizzled yet sympathetic tough guys and does so again here, as an ex-military loner forced to face his past when he saves a young girl from drowning. The narrative is often nonsensical, and the dialogue can lean towards the risible, but the action is kinetic and Statham as watchable as ever.

The action is kinetic and Statham as watchable as ever

Bankable action star Statham is obviously the biggest draw for the film, which is directed by stunt master-turned-director Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen Greenland). Opening in the US, UK/Ireland and multiple territories on January 30, it may not reach the heights of Statham’s 2018 shark thriller The Meg ($529m worldwide) and its 2023 sequel ($399m), but should follow in the footsteps of last year’s The Beekeeper ($169m). A strong supporting cast including Bill Nighy, Naomi Ackie and Daniel Mays, together with slick production values, could also help draw crowds looking for some big dumb fun during awards season, although buzzy creature feature Primate could pose some competition in the UK.

Michael Mason (Statham) lives alone on a weather-beaten, isolated island in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides with just his dog for company. His only contact with the outside world is a weekly supply drop by a local fisherman (Michael Shaeffer) and his adolescent niece Jesse (Hamnet star Bodhi Rae Breathnach). This is a man who seriously wants to be left alone, although his vodka addiction, nightmares and faraway stare tell us this is more than just run-of-the-mill misanthropy.

When bad weather sinks the small supply boat, Mason rescues Jesse from the water and tends to her injured ankle. But he refuses to take her to the mainland, or even radio for help. His reasons slowly become clear when the film cuts to MI6 headquarters in London – and, particularly, clandestine AI-driven surveillance network THEA (‘Total Human Engagement Analytics’). There are strong hints Mason has gone off-grid for very particular reasons involving Manafort, the slippery former head of MI6 (a serpentine Nighy).

While on a reluctant supply run to the mainland, Mason triggers THEA when he is caught in the background of a video call, and ends up having to take out an entire team of operatives who descend on the island looking for him. With Jesse in tow – she is now a loose end and in danger, he reasons – Mason leaves the island in search of safe haven, pursued by various shadowy figures, including psychotic assassin Workman (Brian Vigier). Meanwhile, new MI6 boss Roberta (Ackie) has to figure out who Mason really is, and why he’s on the run.

A convoluted and overstuffed screenplay from Ward Parry also gives Jesse a tragic backstory and takes in Iranian nuclear secrets, human traffickers and top-secret black ops missions. Ultimately, however, these are all just convenient hooks on which to hang multiple kinetic fight sequences, which see Mason take out all manner of bad guys using booby traps, guns, workshop tools and his fists. At 58 years old, former mixed martial artist Statham has still got the action chops, and is a whirling dervish of testosterone – although there is one lovely moment when he has a little sit-down in the middle of a tussle with the equally exhausted Workman.

There’s not much to Shelter aside from these muscular moments, the narrative just paper-thin connective tissue, but the cast know exactly what they are dealing with and play their parts well. Ackie’s buttoned-up, by-the-books practicality is at odds with Nighy’s seen-it-all duplicity and cynicism, while Mays has a small but enjoyable role as Mason’s helpful, tech-savvy mate – and gets some of the chewiest dialogue. “How the hell did they find you after I buried you?” he growls.

Breathnach is great as Jessie, balancing the character’s youthful vulnerability with plenty of endearing pluck, and she breathes some emotion into this outlandish scenario. It’s not the first time Statham has been tasked with looking after a young girl on screen – see Safe (2012) and Homefront (2013) – and the odd-couple dynamic again works to highlight the heart of gold that lurks inside Statham’s precision killing machine.

It all looks great, production design from Tim Blake moving from the ramshackle yet cosy interior of Mason’s lighthouse home to the cold, impersonal sterility of MI6, and the neon anonymity of a London club. Waugh makes the most of his Scottish locations, car chases and gun fights given a pleasing incongruity as they play out on woodland tracks and in rural farmsteads, while David Buckley’s pulsing score keeps things moving along at a clip. Indeed, one of the reasons Shelter works as well as it does is because Waugh and editor Matthew Newman are savvy enough not to let the film slow down, or allow any space for viewers to question its logic.