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Viola Davis’s new Amazon movie, G20, which began streaming yesterday, is, well, ridiculous. Sure, most Hollywood action movies—especially Hollywood action movies that turn U.S. presidents into action heroes—are ridiculous. But this one is especially ridiculous, especially when you start to pick apart the plot and realize that the movie makes even less sense than you thought.
Directed by Mexican filmmaker Patricia Riggen, with a screenplay written by Caitlin Parrish, Erica Weiss, and Logan & Noah Miller, G20 stars Davis (also an executive producer on the film) as the fictional President of the United States, who—along with 19 other world leaders—is attacked by a terrorist extremist group at the annual G20 summit. There’s no denying that Violas Davis looks great in that red dress with a gun over her shoulder, but if you actually watch this movie for the plot, you’re going to be, at best, confused.
Lucky for you, Decider is here to help. Read on for a breakdown of the G20 movie plot summary and the G20 movie ending explained.
G20 plot summary:
U.S. President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) travels with her husband Derek (Anthony Anderson) and two children, Serena (Marsai Martin) and Demetrius (Christopher Farrar), to South Africa for the annual G20 summit, a conference where leaders from the world’s wealthiest countries gather in a show of global economic cooperation. President Sutton has a plan she’s trying to pitch to her fellow world leaders: Solve world hunger by giving poor farmers in developing nations access to cryptocurrency. Sure!
U.S. Treasury Secretary Joanna Worth (Elizabeth Marvel) comes along too, and it’s revealed she has a close relationship with the president, even though she had previously been her opponent in the presidential primaries. It’s established that President Sutton and Secretary Worth have two main targets at the summit to win over for their crypto plan: The British Prime Minister (Douglas Hodge) and the Italian president of the International Monetary Fund (Sabrina Impacciatore). None of this matters, however, after an extremist group led by an Aussie crypto-bro terrorist named Rutledge (Antony Starr) hijacks the summit and takes the world leaders hostage.
President Sutton, an army veteran who saw combat, keeps her head. With the help of her most loyal Secret Service agent, Manny (Ramón Rodríguez), she manages to slip away from the attackers. They also save British Prime Minister, the Italian diplomat, and the First Lady of South Korea (MeeWha Alana Lee). The five of them most now find a way out of the hotel, or a way to stop Rutledge and his terrorists.
Rutledge has a huge team of accomplices, including a high-ranking Secret Service member for the U.S. President. Rutledge’s plan? Have each politician read out a phrase that will allow the bad guys to create a deep fake of said politician saying anything they want. Rutledge then releases fake videos of world leaders talking up a certain type of bitcoin, which will boost the bad guy’s stock, and make them rich. Again: Sure!
While President Sutton and Manny sneak around the hotel beating up bad guys, First Gentleman Derek Sutton rescues his kids. Derek and the kids manage to make it to the roof of the hotel. There, Serena—who is, conveniently, a genius computer hacker—is able to get a message to the White House that they’ve been betrayed by their own Secret Service agent, Darden (John Hoogenakker). Apparently, he’s mad that President Sutton is trying to help farmers in developing nations instead of focusing on Americans. It’s not clear how helping some Aussies terrorists get rich off bitcoin will help with that. When word of the betrayal reaches President Sutton, she knows someone else on her team must have helped Darden.
President Sutton and her daughter Serena come up with a new plan: Take out the terrorist’s big weapon and hack back into the hijacked hotel security system to unlock the doors. This will allow a team of good guy American soldiers to enter the hotel and rescue the hostages. And after some ass-kicking and gun-firing, that’s exactly what they do. But Rutledge has a plan of his own: Kidnap Derek and Treasury Secretary Joanna, and force President Sutton to read those magic words that will help him create a deep fake of her.
President Sutton reads the words to save her husband’s life. Rutledge uploads a deep fake video of her talking about the bitcoin, causing the stock to soar (or plummet? It’s not really clear). But we’re meant just accept that the video makes Rutledge very rich, and we’re also meant to accept that the only way he can access that digital money is via the physical “wallet” device, that looks like a page from the early aughts.
But at the same time, Serena successfully unlocks the hotel doors, allowing the American soldiers inside for the rescue. The soldiers kill the remaining terrorists and rescue the hostages, although they are too late to save the leaders of South Korea and Australia. But President Sutton and Rutledge are in a different room of the hotel. Serena, watching every thing play out on the security cameras, bravely volunteers to lead the soldiers to save her mother. Because, apparently, she has the ability to hack the computers to unlock the doors, but not the ability to hack into any of the many electronic communication devices at her disposal.
G20 ending explained:
In his final big villain speech, Rutledge reveals he has another motivation for his evil deeds, besides money. He reveals that he was also in Iraq when President Sutton was a soldier, when she was photographed rescuing a child—a photograph that helped her win the election. Rutledge says a bomb intended for the American soldiers killed his two best friends that day. He blames her/the Americans for starting the Iraq War, and then exploiting it for political gain.
It’s also revealed that Treasury Secretary Joanna was the insider who worked with the Secret Service to betray President Sutton, because she thought she deserved to be president, not Sutton. Holy motivations overload, Batman!
Serena gets kidnapped by Rutledge while she’s on her way to lead the soldiers to her mother. But Sutton has his digital wallet. She uses it to divert Rutledge and rescue her daughter, with a little help from those handy American soldiers. Rutledge hurls himself off a cliff chasing after his money and dies. The Americans save the day, and everything’s totally fine. Except for those two dead world leaders and the alarmingly large group of terrorists who briefly took over the conference.
During the movie’s credits, it’s revealed that Manny (who was gravely injured) survived, and that President Sutton is successful in passing her plan at the G20. Thank god! Those farmers in developing nations will now have access to cryptocurrency. World hunger is solved.
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