Jake Gyllenhaal’s ‘Heat meets Speed’ action movie is on TV tonight

With an 87% Rotten Tomatoes score, this film is truly non-stop action.

Directed by legend of the genre Michael Bay (Bad Boys, The Rock, Transformers), the film remakes the 2005 Danish thriller of the same name. The story follows Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Wonder Man), a former U.S. Marine living in Los Angeles.

He desperately needs thousands of dollars to pay for surgery for his sick wife, Amy (Moses Ingram, A House of Dynamite). As such, he goes to his adoptive brother and career criminal, Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal, In the Grey), to ask for a loan.

The sibling, however, winds up recruiting Will into taking part in a massive bank heist. The resulting robbery winds up going sideways, and the brothers get caught in a shootout with police.

To flee from the scene, the pair hijack an ambulance, holding a young EMT paramedic (recent JOE interviewee Eiza González, I Love Boosters) and an injured cop (Jackson White, Tell Me Lies) hostage.

Check out JOE's recent interview with Eiza González:

The majority of the movie is the resulting car chase, with Danny and Will trying desperately to evade the LAPD (fronted by Garret Dillahunt, No Country for Old Men) and the FBI (led by Keir O'Donnell, The Dry) on their tail.

Ambulance was released in cinemas back in 2022 to surprisingly glowing reviews. With a 68% critics score and an 87% audience score, the movie ranks as one of Michael Bay's best-received narrative films on Rotten Tomatoes.

Watch the trailer for Ambulance right here:

The action flick is a cross between Heat and Speed. Ambulance is essentially what would have happened if, after the big central heist sequence in Heat, the rest of the running time was just Al Pacino's cop pursuing Robert De Niro's bank robber in a high-speed chase.

We love the movie's high-concept premise, its non-stop action, its frenetic and stylish direction (accomplished through the use of inventive drone photography), its charismatic performances, and its underlying sense of humour.

Ambulance is airing on TV tonight on Channel 4 at the very reasonable time of 10.55pm. It is also available to rent on Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video, Rakuten TV, and the Sky Store.

Here are the other movies on TV tonight (Saturday, 14 November):

For more recommendations like Ambulance, check out this JOE list of all the movies on TV for each night of the week.