The Modern Thriller That Elevates David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water Legacy

Relay’s unique edges make it the ideal follow-up for David Mackenzie, eight years after he found massive success with Hell or High Water. Starring Riz Ahmed as a “courier” with a very specific type of clientele, Relay takes many of the surface-level aspects of a classic thriller and throws them for a morally tricky loop.

It succeeds in much the same way Hell or High Water did when it explored the western genre from a painfully modern perspective, with David Mackenzie’s new movie working on a lot of the same levels. What makes Relay such an entertaining movie is the way it never loses sight of the humanity of its flawed central character, even as it pushes them down a morally questionable path.

While Relay doesn’t have as wide of a supporting cast or as harsh of a view of its main characters as Hell or High Water did, it does bring a level of complexity to the thriller genre while still retaining the tense beats and sudden action that elevate the best of them. Here’s how Relay replicates some of the best aspects of Hell or High Water.

Relay Is A Modern Thriller In The Same Way Hell Or High Water Is A Western

Relay updates the corporate espionage thriller in the same way Hell or High Water modernized the western genre, highlighting David Mackenzie’s talent for bringing classic genres to modern audiences. Initially, Relay sets off by being a subversion of something like The Insider or The Firm, bringing a tense tone to a fairly basic corporate narrative.

Riz Ahmed’s “Tom” seems like a fixer in a classical sense, someone who is able to procure what his clients need to ensure their safety and their wealth. However, Relay complicates the character in some clever ways, including how he does his work and why he does it.

Instead of revealing the corporate secrets he’s been recruited to deal with, he helps keep the secrets — all in the name of protecting whistleblowers from backlash, intimidation, and threats from major companies. It has all the ingredients of a Michael Clayton, but tweaked so that Tom remains sympathetic even when playing a secretly perfect part in a corrupt system.

The result is a thriller that pulls from the history of the genre while still feeling unique and thoroughly modern. Much in the same way Hell or High Water had familiar tropes of the western genre, but updated it with modern politics, understandable motivations, and compromised morality, Relay brings some deceptively complex edge to the corporate thriller.

Relay Has The Same Complex Core That Made Hell Or High Water So Good

Both Relay and Hell or High Water rely on that modern touch to make something fresh out of a classic genre. Similar to how Chris Pine’s Toby felt like a modern riff on the complicated cowboy, Relay gives “Tom” a level of disconnect that’s necessary for his line of work without forgetting his humanity.

“Tom” wants to help people, but is open about his willingness to turn away from a situation or even leave someone to their fate. He’s efficient and skilled, but also removed from much of the world and struggling with his place in it. Relay never tries to make Tom come across as a villain, but it never feels all that focused on portraying him as a hero.

The result is a movie that, like Hell or High Water before it, works better because of its moral complexity. Without those touches, Relay would risk being a run-of-the-mill thriller story. It has good tension, and the action gets entertaining when it blows up, but those unique edges are what make the film stand out from other entries in the genre.

While Justin Piasecki’s script for Relay might not be as morally tricky as Taylor Sheridan’s screenplay for Hell or High Water, it does find that moral gray area that makes for a compelling protagonist. Those are the elements that David Mackenzie lingers on to great effect in Relay, replicating the tension and character drama of Hell or High Water in a new setting and style.

Relay may be a very different kind of movie than Hell or High Water, given its setting and style. However, Relay carries the same complex DNA that helped make Hell or High Water so good. The end result is that Relay is a thriller that feels like a fitting continuation of the style and themes Mackenzie played with in Hell or High Water.