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R | 1h 38m | Action | 2026
In the military, new recruits are taught to keep moving during times of crisis, rather than standing around. Captain Ryan Flanagan (call sign: “Fang”) learned that lesson well. When facing unjust arrest, he leads the highway patrol on a high-speed chase from Arkansas, deep into the heart of Texas.
With each narrow escape, Flanagan increasingly gains a folk hero following from fellow veterans and their supporters in Mark Vanselow’s “The Mongoose.”
Flanagan (Liam Neeson) is still haunted by memories of his service in Afghanistan, particularly when he and his Special Forces buddies Tanker (Ving Rhames), Munch (Marcus Thomas), and Wiz (Ryan Morgan) were captured by the Taliban. Flanagan found an opportunity to escape when their captors forced him to fight a cobra like a mongoose, as the animal is notable for doing; Wiz died during the ensuing chaos.
For years, Flanagan struggled with the resulting guilt. It even cost him his marriage to Tara (Marisa Tomei), but they still remained close. Consequently, he agrees to collect Tara’s clothes from her rich but abusive fiancé, Todd Ferris (Brett Tucker), after she breaks off their engagement.
Speedy Getaway
Ferris takes his anger out on Flanagan, forcing the vet to kill the abuser in self-defense. Given the deceased’s political connections, Flanagan doubts he would receive fair treatment, so he jumps into Ferris’s Mustang, hoping to make a speedy getaway.
Maj. James Tilton (Maurice Marvel Meredith), the Arkansas State Patrol officer overseeing the initial chase, happens to be a former Marine, so he is not unsympathetic to Flanagan and is skeptical of his guilt.
However, his counterpart in Texas, Maj. Walter Pope (Michael Chiklis), is an entirely different case. Pope cares only about winning, preferably in a way that will not require time in court later.
“The Mongoose” is a fusion of “Smokey and the Bandit” (1977) and “First Blood,”, the original, more serious “Rambo” (1982) film. There are ample car chases, all of which are slickly executed. However, Thompson Evans’s screenplay also addresses the experiences of Global-War-on-Terror veterans with the respect and sensitivity they merit.
Evans and company expect the film’s target audience will readily agree that vets like Flanagan deserve better from society. They clearly hope most viewers will identify with the scores of average citizens they depict flocking to the highways to cheer Flanagan on as he escapes and warn him of looming roadblocks.
Frankly, Flanagan’s sudden celebrity status is believable. Instead, the film’s greatest credibility issue lies with Pope’s increasingly unhinged behavior. After all, you would expect a Texas law enforcement official to be more sympathetically inclined toward veterans.
Some of the film’s best moments capture Flanagan’s fleeting encounters with his veteran supporters. There’s Ernie the mechanic (Geoff Morrell) and Roy the truck driver (Charles Allen), both of whom served in Vietnam. The brotherhood-through-service sentiment is surprisingly touching, even though “The Mongoose” was unabashedly conceived as a tire-squealing action movie.
Directorial Debut
Although “The Mongoose” represents Vanselow’s feature directorial debut, it is not his first collaboration with Neeson. The filmmaker served as the actor’s stunt double or the stunt coordinator on over a dozen productions, including the original “Taken” trilogy. Without question, Vanselow knows how to crash cars for maximum on-screen impact.
As was the case with several of Neeson’s recent releases, his performance in “The Mongoose” is better than he will probably get credit for. It is an aptly grizzled, age-appropriate role. His character must come to terms with the violence of his past, somewhat like “Absolution” (2024) and “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” (2023). But in this case, Flanagan is a much more sympathetic and honorable figure.
To a large extent, Rhames and Thomas supply comic relief as Tanker and Munch, while providing Flanagan air support during pivotal junctures of the chase. Tomei has some nice moments as Flanagan’s ex, but the role amounts to little more than a handful of supportive cellphone conversations. Chiklis indulges in wildly over-the-top, eyeball-bulging histrionics as the nearly deranged Maj. Pope.
Yet the film’s veteran characters consistently offer small moments of redemption, including Meredith, who humanizes Maj. Tilton, providing a more edifying law enforcement counterpoint to Chiklis’s Pope. Similarly, the brief veteran encounters featuring Morrell and Allen truly standout.
For many potential viewers, the most important character in “The Mongoose” is the Ford Mustang Shelby Super Snake GT350 that Flanagan liberates from Ferris’s garage. The film can’t compete with “The Fast and the Furious” franchise, but it far outshines the recent “Matchbox: The Movie” (2026).
Neeson largely keeps the drama grounded, while Vanselow stages multiple stunt sequences that are anything but. That combination works pretty consistently.
Recommended for viewers who enjoy high-octane auto mayhem and appreciate the message regarding the treatment of our veterans.
“The Mongoose” releases in theaters Oct. 30.
‘The Mongoose’
Director: Mark Vanselow
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ving Rhames, Marcus Thomas, Marisa Tomei, Michael Chiklis
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 30, 2026
Rated: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
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