Matchbox The Movie

Mattel and Skydance

Matchbox cars are miniature die-cast cars that first hit the toy shelves way back in 1953. What made these unique was the size of these cars and their boxes, the size of a matchbox, of course! The toy line has gone on to become one of Mattel's most iconic ones, with collectible cars even now being released.

Matchbox The Movie, produced by Mattel Studios and Skydance Media, is an Apple Original. The Apple TV streamer (the service has been rebranded as Apple TV dropping the plus since late 2025), is known for releasing slick actioners, notably Skydance-produced The Family Plan and Ghosted. So, it should come as little surprise that Matchbox The Movie promises plenty of action amid the laughs.

Old Friends, Big Trouble

Matchbox The Movie follows childhood friends who reunite only to be swept into a nefarious international plot. Of course, they have to stop this plot. The tagline says it best, "Save the world, bring your friends."

The Man Who Made Extraction

Matchbox The Movie is directed by Sam Hargrave. Best known for directing the Netflix actioners Extraction and Extraction 2, Hargrave made his directorial debut with the former. Interestingly though, before he broke into direction Hargrave made a name for himself in the industry as a stuntman and stunt coordinator, even doubling for Chris Evans as he donned the Captain America suit. He helmed the sequel Extraction 2 that received plaudits for one particular action set-piece. It involved a jail break, a vehicle chase and action aboard a moving train and lasted around twenty-one minutes and was shot to look like one long take with no visible cuts! If you haven't seen it yet we'd highly recommend checking Extraction 2 out to witness this actioner for yourself.

Cena and His Crew

Cena, who starred in Heads of State, Peacemaker and lent his voice and physique as Jakob Toretto in two Fast and Furious movies, plays Sean in Matchbox The Movie. Biel plays Aimee, Arturo Castro plays Ted, Sam Richardson plays Crosby, Teyonah Parris plays Charmaine, Hooda plays Mustafa and Danai Gurira plays Helen.

Having played Saju in Extraction, Hooda reunites with Hargrave. He starred last year in actioner Jaat alongside Sunny Deol.

Golshifteh Farahani (Robbie) too will be a familiar sight to Extraction fans as she featured in the two actioners and reunites with the film's core team with Matchbox The Movie. Also part of the ensemble are Corey Stoll, Bill Camp, Daniel Bernhardt and Kristofer Hivju.

The Extraction Sound

David Coggeshall has written Matchbox The Movie, the Apple action comedy The Family Plan being among his screenwriting credits. Alex Belcher has scored the film, having lent his musical talents to both installments of Extraction. Cinematographer is Pedro Luque and Editor is Dirk Westervelt.

A Streaming Release

Matchbox The Movie began streaming on 9 October 2026, globally, on Apple TV. The film premiered in New York a few days before its streaming premiere. In India it is available to stream on Apple TV as well as on Prime Video through the Apple TV channel.

David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Robbie Brenner, Ynon Kreiz and Jules Daly produced Matchbox The Movie. It follows Skydance's collaborations with Apple on The Family Plan, Ghosted and The Gorge.

Matchbox The Movie runs to 127 minutes, i.e. 2 hours and 7 minutes.

Official Trailer

On 25 July 2026 Apple TV released Matchbox The Movie's 2-minute 56-second-long official trailer. You can watch it below.

More to Watch

• Ben Affleck-starrer Animals released on Netflix on 9 October.
• Nani-starrer The Paradise is playing in theatres now.

Who It's For

Fans of John Cena, especially from his action days, should enjoy Matchbox The Movie. Fans of action comedies should enjoy the film too. Randeep Hooda fans may want to give the film a watch too. All things considered the lack of an IP-adapted story to hang Matchbox The Movie's plot on (it's difficult to imagine a story coming organically out of matchbox-sized toy cars) will be the film's strength. It allowed its makers to go wherever its plot takes them without running afoul of source material. Hargrave's background in action will no doubt bring gravitas to the action comedy too.

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