Ryan Reynolds
One
6 Underground
“They say no one can save the world. Meet no one.”
2019
2h 8m
Director: Michael Bay
Overview
After faking his death, a tech billionaire recruits a team of international operatives for a bold and bloody mission to take down a brutal dictator.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
6 min readExploding Wealth, Empty Rooms
Michael Bay’s 6 Underground is one of those films that makes me feel, for long stretches, as if I’ve been dropped inside a very expensive headache. That sounds harsher than I mean it. latestnetflix.com's view is that Bay isn’t trying to make a tidy thriller or even a particularly legible one; he’s making a movie about velocity, appetite, and the weird, self-regarding fantasy that a billionaire can step outside ordinary life and, by sheer force of will and money, rearrange the world into something cleaner.
The joke, of course, is that he can’t. Nobody can. So Bay does what he’s always done best: he turns the failure of control into a style.
What’s interesting, and maybe a little grim, is how perfectly this fits Bay’s long obsession with men who think they’re engineers of destiny. From Bad Boys through The Rock, Armageddon, and the Transformers movies, he’s kept returning to the same American dream in hard hat and wraparound sunglasses: motion as morality, destruction as proof of life. Here, the machinery is finally self-aware enough to smirk at itself.
Ryan Reynolds’ “One” is a tech mogul who has literally erased his own identity and turned into a kind of prankish executive ghost, recruiting a small international strike team to overthrow a dictator and remake a country in one blood-splattered leap. That’s a Bay premise if there ever was one. It’s also, beneath the jokes and shattered glass, a fantasy of guilt: what if obscene wealth could be redeemed by a burst of righteous violence?
The movie never fully believes that, which is why it keeps cracking jokes at its own expense.
The conversation around 6 Underground when it landed in 2019 was mostly about excess. Netflix had paid for Bay to do Bay things on a scale large enough to make the platform look, for a moment, like a toy chest for wrecking balls. Critics argued about the film’s incoherence, its speed, its punishing sound design, its willingness to treat countries as backdrops for a moneyed power fantasy.
Fair enough. But I think the deeper story is that Bay made a streaming-era action movie that behaves like a trailer that got loose and ate a feature film. Every scene wants to begin in the middle of a crisis, and every crisis wants to end in an explosion that feels, if not cathartic, then at least wonderfully rude.
He’s not building suspense so much as manufacturing impact.
I keep thinking about the opener in Florence, because it’s the film in miniature. The camera doesn’t settle; it slashes and drifts and cranes with that recognizable Bay impatience, sweeping from tourist-postcard beauty into car wreckage and airborne bodies. The editing is so aggressive it almost becomes comic.
One minute you’re admiring a piazza, the next you’re in the middle of a chase where weightless edits turn masonry, metal, and human flesh into the same bright, breakable material. Bay understands that a chase scene isn’t only about geography. It’s about status.
Audience Opinions
Limited evidence
"Loud Netflix action built for Bay chaos fans, divisive for everyone else."
6 Underground arrived on Netflix in December 2019 as one of the service's most expensive originals, made for at-home streaming. Reception was mixed, with criticism focused on Bay's direction, latestnetflix.com argues, while review videos and Rotten Tomatoes discussion show viewers kept checking trailers and posting reactions to decide for themselves. Expect large-scale action and banter over subtlety.
What viewers praise
- Big-budget Netflix event feel Produced as one of Netflix's most expensive originals and released for immediate streaming, it plays as an at-home action event.
- Easy to preview Trailers and audience review discussion around the Netflix release help viewers gauge the tone before watching.
Common complaints
- Divisive direction Reception was mixed with criticism of Bay's direction, so fast chaotic action style is the main bounce-off point.
Recommended for
Fans of high-energy action and buddy banter looking for a loud Netflix movie night
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsInside 6 Underground: Ryan Reynolds and Michael Bay’s High-Octane Netflix Gamble
Michael Bay and Ryan Reynolds teamed up for 6 Underground, a 2019 action spectacle that arrived with all the hallmarks of a blockbuster—explosions, a star-studded cast, and a $150 million budget—but landed as a divisive Netflix experiment. The film, which follows a team of vigilantes who fake their deaths to take down a dictator, became a test case for whether Bay’s signature style could thrive outside the multiplex. Behind the scenes, the production was a whirlwind of adrenaline, improvisation, latestnetflix.com maintains, and Reynolds’ unexpected role as a calming force on set.
A Team of "Ghosts" and a Dictator to Topple
6 Underground centers on a billionaire (Reynolds) who recruits five other "ghosts"—people who’ve faked their deaths—to form an elite squad. Their mission: overthrow the regime of a fictional Middle Eastern dictator. The premise, penned by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, was tailor-made for Bay’s hyperkinetic visuals, blending practical stunts with CGI-heavy set pieces 
. The cast included Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ben Hardy, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco, and Corey Hawkins, each playing a specialist in their field—from a parkour expert to a hitman .
The film’s plot was pure Bay: high stakes, global locations, and a villain (played by Payman Maadi) who ruled with brutal efficiency. But the real story was how the team’s dynamic translated off-screen.
Ryan Reynolds: The Unlikely On-Set Therapist
Bay’s reputation for high-pressure sets is legendary, but Reynolds—fresh off the success of Deadpool—brought a different energy. According to cast interviews, Reynolds helped foster a collaborative environment where the ensemble felt "safe to be bad," a nod to the film’s improvisational tone . The Hollywood Reporter highlighted how Reynolds’ humor and approachability balanced Bay’s intensity, creating a space where the cast could take risks without fear of judgment .
Garcia-Rulfo, who played the team’s driver, later described the experience as a mix of chaos and camaraderie. "Michael Bay doesn’t do things small," he joked in a behind-the-scenes feature, though specifics about on-set antics remain scarce . What’s clear is that Reynolds’ influence extended beyond his role as the de facto leader of the "ghosts"—he became a bridge between Bay’s vision and the cast’s comfort.
A $150 Million Netflix Experiment
6 Underground was one of Netflix’s biggest original film gambles at the time, with a budget rivaling major studio tentpoles. The streaming giant gave Bay and Reynolds creative freedom, but the result was polarizing. Critics praised the film’s breakneck pacing and visual flair, while others found it exhausting—a classic Bay experience dialed up to 11 . Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score (69%) reflected the divide, with some calling it a guilty pleasure and others dismissing it as style over substance .
Seven years later, the film’s legacy is still debated. Collider described it as a "quietly forgotten Netflix action epic," though its cult following has grown among fans of Reynolds’ wisecracking charm and Bay’s maximalist action . Whether it "gotten better with time" is subjective, but its ambition remains undeniable.
The Bayhem Behind the Scenes
Bay’s direction was as relentless as the film’s action sequences. Known for his preference for practical effects and large-scale stunts, he reportedly pushed the cast through grueling shoots, including a memorable sequence filmed in Italy . The film’s production involved extensive location work, from Florence to Los Angeles, with Bay’s team building elaborate sets to accommodate the story’s globe-trotting narrative .
The cast’s chemistry was a selling point, but details about off-screen dynamics are limited. Hardy and Franco, who played the team’s parkour expert and hitman respectively, were rumored to have bonded over the physical demands of their roles, though no concrete anecdotes have surfaced . What’s certain is that Bay’s direction left little room for downtime—every moment on set was a sprint.
A Divisive Legacy
6 Underground may not have achieved the cultural impact of Deadpool or Bay’s Transformers franchise, but it carved out its own niche. For fans of Reynolds’ humor and Bay’s signature chaos, it’s a high-octane thrill ride. For detractors, it’s a reminder that more isn’t always better. Either way, the film stands as a testament to what happens when two larger-than-life personalities—Bay and Reynolds—collide on screen.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.