Scott Eastwood & Sylvester Stallone’s 95-Minute Action Thriller Flop Finds Redemption on Streaming

October 20, 2026

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In 2025, action star Scott Eastwood paired with the legendary Sylvester Stallone for a white-knuckle thriller that was heavily panned by critics. Despite the presence of two major performers, the 95-minute feature was quickly forgotten by audiences and faded into obscurity. More than a year later, it has resurfaced to become one of the biggest movies on streaming, ranking alongside huge recent hits such as the biopic Michael and Jason Statham’s Shelter.

Despite the Clichés, Stallone and Eastwood Deliver What Audiences Want

Alarum follows CIA agent Joe (Eastwood) as he falls in love with enemy spy Lara (Willa Fitzgerald), and they decide to get together and attempt to leave their lives as spies behind. However, Lara remains involved with the secret organization Alarum years later, and when a plane crashes near their location, Joe retrieves a flash drive containing information that could compromise government operatives.

Chester (Stallone) and Orlin (Mike Colter) are sent from different organizations to retrieve the drive and eliminate Joe and Lara, but the couple’s skills and complicated past make them far more difficult targets than expected. As several mercenaries join the hunt, Joe realizes that teaming up with his enemies may be their only chance of survival, but the battlefield is far from an ideal place to forge unlikely alliances.

Alarum was written by Alexander Vesha (Alert) and directed by Michael Polish (The Astronaut Farmer, Force of Nature). Aside from its four leads, Alarum also stars Ísis Valverde, Joel Cohen, D. W. Moffett, and Mark Polish. The film was released by Lionsgate, and though it had a limited run in theaters, it only grossed a little over $250,000 at the box office.

More Than a Year Later, ‘Alarum’ Finds Redemption on Streaming

Alarum received a limited theatrical release in January 2025, with a simultaneous VOD release. Even with the presence of an action legend like Sylvester Stallone and rising star Scott Eastwood (Clint Eastwood’s son), audiences didn’t exactly flock to catch it on the big or small screen. From the outset, the reception was very, very poor, with both critics and audiences agreeing that it was a “lazy” and “forgettable” action movie.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 0% critics’ score – a rare rating that Stallone also received with his 2024 action film Armor. Writing for MovieWeb, critic Will Sayre highlights Fitzgerald’s performance. However, he notes that, like the other three leads, Fitzgerald seems trapped in a movie that deserved a better script:

“Then there’s Fitzgerald, fresh off her incredible turn in the recent gem Strange Darling. Fans of that excellent thriller will be disappointed by her lack of screentime here. Sure, she and Eastwood are certainly on-screen whizzes at wielding any number of sexy, high-powered weaponry across the tight duration of Alarum, but by the time the credits roll, you might find yourself trying to shake the feeling that these four talented stars deserved a juicier and more upbeat script for the next go around.”

The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is slightly higher at 14%. However, its recent streaming success tells a different story. At the time of writing, Alarum sits at No. 2 on Starz‘s U.S. charts, ranking above action hits like Shelter and The Furious. Once dismissed by critics, Eastwood and Stallone’s action thriller is getting a second chance on streaming, prompting the question of whether its negative reception was exaggerated.