Review: Dailywire’s New Movie Announcement…

I have not been nice to Dailywire recently.

The last major Dailywire project I reviewed was The Pendragon Cycle, their much-anticipated fantasy series that was supposed to be released in the fall of 2024, then got pushed out to 2026, and turned out to be a terrible T.V. show that wasn’t worth the wait. That’s also not mentioning their other projects, which have been mediocre at best, such as Lady Ballers.

But apparently, the Dailywire hasn’t learned its lesson that they aren’t suited for making movies, and so, they are now releasing a sort of sequel to their first ever movie – Run, Hide, Fight – called Run, Hide, Fight: Infidels.

As someone who does Christian polemics against Islam and has been studying that religion for the past year or two, the trailer and description of this movie already raise a lot of red flags for me. According to Matt Walsh, the plot is:

When radical Islamic terrorists hijack a liberal college’s pro-Palestine encampment to enforce barbaric Sharia law on students and execute infidels in a makeshift caliphate, a ragtag band of red-blooded students, a security guard tired of ‘Uncle Tom’ smears, and a Delta Force vet must arm up to save their clueless peers and keep America from surrendering to the enemy on its own soil.

While this plot has a lot of potential and could be effective at spreading the word about what will happen if Islam takes over the U.S., if done poorly, it could end up looking like an anti-Muslim propaganda piece.

#1: The Execution

The first thing that worries me is how this movie is executed. As I said earlier, all of Dailywire’s movies, with the exception of What is a Woman, Am I Racist, and the movies they have that weren’t produced by Dailywire, have been mediocre at best. Though it could be an interesting story, if it’s poorly done, it’s not going to be as effective at getting the message across as it needs to be.

Additionally, Dailywire seems to be terrible at promoting their major projects and advertising them to anyone outside of their already dedicated fanbase, and even then, their attempts have been cringe. We have no further to look than the marketing stunt they pulled for the release of The Pendragon Cycle to see this. While I’m sure plenty of Dailywire subscribers will watch this movie, I doubt anyone else will see it for that reason.

Another issue with this movie is that it will be starring Jonathan Majors, who you may remember from Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania. If you didn’t see that movie though, you’re more likely to remember him from the domestic abuse allegations leveled at him by his girlfriend, and his later conviction of assault and harassment. Why he’s being hired by Dailywire for a starring role, I don’t know, but it’s something probably won’t work in their favor given his past.

#2: Stereotyping

This rolls into my concern with the overall execution of the movie. Already, from the trailer, it looks like this movie may stereotype all Muslims as being terrorists.

If that happens, it will be to the detriment of the film since if you want people to take it seriously, stereotyping is not the way to go. By stereotyping, you just make the movie look like anti-Muslim propaganda. While Muslims are responsible for the majority of terror attacks, many Western Muslims have no idea what the Quran says about things such as jihad or sharia, and are peaceful, which leads me to my next concern…

#3: Attack the Religion, Not the People

My biggest concern with this movie is that instead of attacking Islam as a religion, it will attack Muslims as people.

To avoid this, what this movie needs to do is include verses of the Quran and various hadiths, to show how the Islamic texts, scriptures, and Muhammad himself all praise jihad (warfare). They could throw these in through dialogue, an opening monologue, flash it on the screen at the start of the movie, whatever. Combined with showing how many Muslims are ignorant about what the Quran and hadiths actually say, it would add a level of nuance and realism to the movie that’s necessary for it to communicate the message of “Islam is bad.” Some good verses to include would be Surah 9:5, 9:29, 98:6, etc. or the hadith Musnad Ahmad 10786, which says:

Do not do it, for one of you to stand in the cause of Allah is better than sixty years of salah alone. Would you not like that Allah should forgive you and admit you to Paradise? Then fight in the cause of Allah, for whoever fights in the cause of Allah for the length of time of two milkings of a she-camel, Paradise is guaranteed for him.

Once again, attack the religion and Muhammad and show what the teachings logically lead to. Don’t attack the people.

Until next time,

M.J.