Relay Parent Guide

For every whistleblower who commits to exposing corporate secrets, there are some who wish they’d never seen any wrongdoing. Once they find themselves on the receiving end of focused corporate harassment, they learn that options are limited, and law firms have grown wary of taking the cases – but there are less legitimate options.

Ash (Riz Ahmed) specializes in helping regretful whistleblowers return their evidence to the companies pursuing them without getting killed for their troubles. He communicates exclusively through burner phones and a text-to-voice service designed for the deaf and hearing impaired, the Tri-County Relay. Nobody knows what he looks like, where he works, what he sounds like, or what his name is.

Sarah Grant (Lily James) is the most recent of his clients. She has a food safety report which could have damning consequences for her former employer, because it indicates significant risk of side effects from the company’s new genetically modified wheat. Since the corporation is currently involved in a multi-billion dollar merger, they’re highly motivated to suppress the report, and Sarah is looking for a way to get Dawson (Sam Worthington) and the other corporate goons to stop stalking her. But even with Ash’s involvement, Dawson is very persistent. And the company is very, very motivated…

Surprisingly, Relay is one of the highlights of the summer for me. The cast is great, the runtime is reasonable, and the plot is pleasantly twisty without being goofy, grotesque, and predictable. I should have known what to expect – I don’t think I’ve ever hated a movie starring Riz Ahmed and Relay is no exception. Lily James, Sam Worthington, and Willa Fitzgerald are likewise great throughout.

Thanks to the Restricted rating, this is a film for older teens and adults – but negative content is comparatively light. There’s very little violence on screen (not that it dampens the ominous and overtly threatening vibes), no sexual content, and very little drinking. The catch is the 19 f-bombs, which constitute almost all of the film’s profanity. What the cussing lacks in quantity, it makes up in intensity.

The ins and outs of witness protection, corporate espionage, and life off the grid keep the film moving, even when so many of the moving pieces are out of sight. On balance, the story lands somewhere between a chess match and a magic trick, and the results are a nicely convoluted thriller for a summer release schedule desperately lacking in anything this fun. Pass it on: Relay is a tight, twisty blast.