After Santa Claus is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security must team up with the world’s most infamous tracker on a globe-trotting mission to save Christmas. A film by Jake Kasdan, starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Wesley Kimmel, and J.K. Simmons.

On Christmas Eve, young Jack O’Malley (Wyatt Hunt) shows his cousins a storage room full of wrapped presents to prove that their parents have prepared their gifts in advance and that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. This establishes that Jack possesses a unique gift: he can find anything or anyone.

Despite his uncle Rick (Marc Evan Jackson) telling him that Santa Claus is coming tonight, Jack doesn’t believe that Santa could possibly visit every house in the world in one night using flying reindeer.

Thirty years later, Jack (Chris Evans) is now an adult working as a notorious freelancer with gambling problems, hacking and tracing for whoever pays him. He has been hired by an anonymous individual to find someone conducting tests on weapon systems in the Arctic. Jack manages to tap into the Intercontinental Seismic Surveillance System and detects seismic activity. He completes his job by sending the coordinate information to his employer, unaware that the coordinates point to the location of Santa Claus’s elusive North Pole complex.

Later, a group of perpetrators arrives at the coordinates. They breach the barrier into the North Pole complex and successfully abduct Red One (J.K. Simmons), also known as Saint Nicholas of Myra or Santa Claus.

Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), the head of security who has just submitted his resignation, discovers that Red has been abducted and races after an armored snowcat, believed to be transporting Red out of the complex. However, when he manages to stop the vehicle, he discovers it’s empty, suggesting the snowcat was controlled remotely as a diversion. Suddenly, he sees a NORAD-blind cargo jet blast off and disappear into the night sky.

Zoe (Lucy Liu), the director of the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority (MORA), is notified of a breach at the North Pole complex and learns that Red has been taken. She then shares information about a recent hack into the Intercontinental Seismic Surveillance System, though she remains uncertain whether the two incidents are connected. The trolls trace the digital trail through the dark web and identify The Wolf as the hacker — a legendary tracker whom the FBI has been trying to recruit for years.

Zoe leads a MORA tactical team and apprehends Jack O’Malley, aka The Wolf, for questioning. Despite Jack’s insistence that he knows nothing about the abduction — claiming all communication is encrypted and completely untraceable, and that he merely provided information for which someone paid him — Zoe and her team take him to the North Pole complex.

During the interrogation, Jack reveals that while he doesn’t know exactly who his employers are, he can locate them using a digital tracking bug he secretly planted in their VPN — a technique he always uses as insurance in case of billing disputes. Zoe offers to pay Jack double what his anonymous employers paid him if he can pinpoint their location. She then puts Callum in charge of Jack and the mission to rescue Red.

Jack assists Callum in tracking down Ted (Nick Kroll), a broker to whom Jack previously sold coordinates. Ted eventually confesses that his client is Grýla, the Christmas Witch, who is responsible for Red’s abduction.

Grýla (Kiernan Shipka) has devised a sinister plan to harness Santa Claus’s magical power and use it to punish every human on the Naughty List.

Grýla is a figure in Icelandic folklore. Grýla’s earliest references date back to the 13th century, appearing in various sagas and poems. Initially, she was depicted as a troll-like figure associated with winter and darkness, representing the harsh conditions of Icelandic winters. Grýla is described as a giantess with a terrifying appearance, often portrayed with multiple tails and a monstrous demeanor. According to folklore, Grýla possesses the ability to hear whispers about children’s misbehavior throughout the year. This supernatural awareness allows her to track down naughty children during winter. She is notorious for her insatiable appetite for misbehaving children, whom she captures in a sack to cook in her cauldron for her stew. Over time, she evolved into a more defined character linked to Christmas traditions, particularly from the 17th century onward.

Directed by American filmmaker Jake Kasdan and written by Chris Morgan, RED ONE is an action-comedy that attempts to reinterpret the traditional myth of Santa Claus. While the premise is intriguing, the narrative is bogged down by excessive CGI, an uninspired storyline, and jokes that often miss the mark.

There are several flaws in the narrative. For example, Grýla, an Icelandic mythological witch who has lived for millennia, is unable to locate Santa Claus without the help of Jack O’Malley, despite the film’s backstory indicating that she once had a relationship with Santa’s brother Krampus (Kristofer Hivju). This inconsistency is quite puzzling.

Additionally, the film portrays Santa Claus as heavily reliant on gadgets and his muscular physique rather than showcasing his magical powers. I simply can’t comprehend why they chose to have Santa shrink and enlarge himself like Marvel’s Ant-Man as he moves through chimneys to deliver presents to children. This creative choice seems unnecessary and detracts from the character’s traditional magic.

It also doesn’t explain how Jack O’Malley is able to break Glaskäfig, a powerful ancient artifact capable of imprisoning a soul. The filmmaker focuses too much on Dwayne Johnson’s character and ultimately fails to capture the true spirit of Christmas.

RED ONE was theatrically released internationally on 6 November 2024, prior to the United States, which was released on 15 November.