Affleck and Bernthal Compound Our Interest in This Timely Action Franchise
DIRECTOR: GAVIN O’CONNOR/2025
It’s been nearly a decade since we were first introduced to The Accountant, and it’s been almost as long since he and his brother have made time for a family reunion.
Then again, saying they’ve “made time” gives them too much credit. Though the events of 2016’s The Accountant brought Christian (Ben Affleck) and Braxton (Jon Bernthal) together for the first time as adults, they fell into the classic adult problem of not finding time to keep up with their relationships. But when the federal agent who reunited them, Ray King (J.K. Simmons), dies in a shootout, the final words he etched on his arm are the spark needed to reignite their friendship: “FIND THE ACCOUNTANT.” Ray’s protegé Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) recruits Christian to help her untangle the conspiracy board he left behind. Who was Ray meeting just before he died? Why did he request tax forms for a pizza company? And why is an anonymous family photograph at the center? For the first time in eight years, Christian knows he won’t be able to answer those questions without Braxton’s help.
Thank goodness for that—their relationship is what prevents this new franchise from becoming a rehash of the original. The Accountant’s fresh angle into the action thriller was to introduce a protagonist on the autism spectrum. In 2016, I wondered if a genre exercise in which neurodivergence is the key to solving a mystery was a net positive—was this reducing a real world issue to a party trick? But in 2025, this twist on an action hero is timelier than the creative minds behind this series could have anticipated. In the last month, the highest levels of government have insisted autism “destroys families,” is a “preventable disease” caused by vaccines, and that autistic people will “never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” No need to dig into the science debunking those claims—you only need to spend time with someone on the spectrum to realize how incorrect and dangerous that rhetoric is. (Heck, you could even just rewatch Rain Man to come to that conclusion.)
Antagonists may be more or less interchangeable in action franchises, but the heroes are the make-or-break, and Affleck and Bernthal are better together than they were apart in the original film.
Returning writer Bill Dubuque, director Gavin O’Connor, and producer/star Affleck have presented a most unexpected rebuke to the belief autism is an “epidemic” requiring holistic government data collection. In Christian, they have created a tax expert, assassin, and art-loving antihero whose unique skills inspire him to comically game modern dating algorithms. (Though we don’t see him playing baseball, his quick pickup of a line dancing routine suggests he’d enjoy a game of catch.) This character could feel like a mere genre gimmick, but in the hands of an actor at Affleck’s level, his autism informs not just his professional precision and social awkwardness but his ethics, compassion, and sense of humor. When Braxton asks about his “condition,” he reminds him, “I’m just me.”
But because The Accountant 2 is only political by accident, its highest priority involves blood and violence. As the second April 2025 action thriller to focus on bringing down a group of human traffickers (see also: Jason Statham’s latest, A Working Man), Christian and Braxton’s shooting and bone-breaking need not discriminate among their targets. (Dirty cops, the mob, terrorists, bank robbers, and drug lords will always be available, but traffickers are the villains du jour in this genre. If there’s an earlier instance of a big-budget action film focused on taking down a trafficking ring before 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4, I’ve yet to find it, but in a post-Taken world, it’s a big enough target for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Widow. Perhaps they’re filling the void left when Communist governments could no longer face off with Schwarzenegger and Stallone?) This is a less organic premise than the previous film when Christian just happened to stumble upon bad behavior while studying financial records, but it’s no less satisfying to watch these brothers take vigilante justice with technical support from a group of neurodivergent students.
Antagonists may be more or less interchangeable in action franchises, but the heroes are the make-or-break, and Affleck and Bernthal are better together than they were apart in the original film. Their easy chemistry feels believable for brothers and allows them to alternate between leading the action and playing comic relief. In his second April 2025 action thriller (see also: The Amateur), Bernthal is continuing to transcend the character actor/supporting action player persona. With a lollipop locked in his chiseled jaw—an upgrade from his Baby Driver bubble gum—he’s no longer the heavy but the heart. (His best moment? A tense staredown with a corgi breeder.) With these stars at the center, the increasingly implausible plot hardly matters. (Mild spoiler alert: And that’s something given it involves amnesia and facial reconstructive surgery.) The Accountant 2 hasn’t just found a way to keep this series fresh—it’s giving us a reason to schedule an appointment with The Accountant 3.
