Joel Kinnaman has quietly built one of the strongest action résumés of his generation. Between RoboCop, Suicide Squad, Altered Carbon and Silent Night, he’s become exceptionally good at playing men who look like they’ve been punched by life several times before the movie’s even started properly, but this one might be one of the best examples of this particular trope.
The Informer, which has recently been charting globally, was released internationally in 2019 before reaching American audiences the following year, but it largely disappeared without making much noise theatrically. Streaming has given it a much better second life, as it’s done to so many underappreciated movies. The Kin (okay, that’s not his nickname) plays Pete Koslow, a former Special Operations soldier and convicted criminal who becomes an informant for the FBI in an attempt to infiltrate the Polish mafia’s drug operation in New York City.
But when an undercover cop gets killed during a botched operation, Pete ends up trapped between federal agents, organized crime and the NYPD, so he puts himself back in prison to try and infiltrate the cartel from the inside. Seems like a perfectly safe idea that couldn’t possibly go wrong in any way, right?
The movie also stars Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) as Erica Wilcox, Common (Silo) as Edward Grens, Ana de Armas (Ballerina) as Sofia Koslow, Clive Owen (Children of Men) as Keith Montgomery, Mateusz Kościukiewicz as Staszek Cusik, and Sam Spruell (Fargo) as Slewitt.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
Was ‘The Informer’ a Success?
The Informer suffered badly at the box office. The film reportedly carried a substantial $60 million production budget but earned only around $2.9 million worldwide, making it a major commercial disappointment. The film had something of a fractured international release and then a limited roll-out in the United States, which obviously didn’t help matters. After all, how can you gain an audience when you’ve probably got about 40 screenings across an entire country. Critical reception was mixed, with 62% of Rotten Tomatoes critics giving the film a positive review, while audience response was almost identical at 63%.
The Informer is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the United States, including Prime Video with Ads. It is also available through Starz, YouTube TV, and select Amazon channels, while digital rentals and purchases are available through Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
Release Date
August 30, 2019
Runtime
109 minutes
Producers
Basil Iwanyk, Gabriel Napora, Yas Taalat, Andrea Scarso, Anders Erdén, Vishal Rungta, Simon Williams, Niclas Salomonsson, Lee Broda, Mark Lane, Jeff Rice, Shelley Browning, Wayne Marc Godfrey, Shaun S. Sanghani, Jonathan Fuhrman, James Harris, Erica Lee, Ollie Madden, Robert Jones
