Spoilers for The Beekeeper are ahead. If you haven’t seen Jason Statham’s buzzworthy project, you can catch it in theaters now.
Sometimes, it’s important to ask questions that may seem dumb, because most of the time they aren’t. Case and point: When I saw The Beekeeper I was left wondering if all the agents who call themselves Beekeepers also actually keep bees, like Jason Statham’s character does in the film. It turns out, the director, David Ayer, has an answer to this seemingly silly question, and it provides fantastic insight into the people who make up this elite agency and how it relates to the actual profession of beekeeping.
For some context, in this action flick on the 2024 movie schedule, Jason Statham’s character Adam Clay is both a legitimate beekeeper, who takes care of bees on a lovely lady’s land, as well as a retired secret agent who worked for a group called The Beekeepers. So, when I got the chance to speak with The Beekeeper’s director David Ayer about the film, I had to ask if it was common for these agents to take up beekeeping as a second interest. Let me tell you, his answer did not disappoint as he told me this during our interview for CinemaBlend:
It is kind of funny because you start driving around, and then you see beekeepers in the real world. And then you start wondering, like, ‘OK, what's really going on here?’ But, the metaphor of the beekeeper is this idea that there's this sort of invisible hand that can come in and fix the hive, that can fix society when it can't fix itself. And it just kind of plays amazingly well. And you do wonder what are real beekeepers up to? And then what are the secret society beekeepers up to? And I always figure that all of them did keep bees, that's probably the first thing they learn.
As critics of The Beekeeper pointed out, in both positive and negative lights, this film leans into the bees. There are many comparisons to them and hives, especially when it comes to Jason Statham’s character, who is referred to as a “queen slayer” at one point, which yes, is a real kind of bee, and he works tirelessly to protect the hive (by hive I mean humanity) from evil. So, it seems logical that in the universe of the movie, the agents of this covert group would actually keep bees and learn from them.
The Beekeeper Review: Too Stupid To Be Great, Too Grim To Be Properly Entertaining
Jason Statham obviously did, as he took down the queen – who in this film was an evil tech mogul played by Josh Hutcherson. So, as Ayer explained, it made sense for beekeepers to literally keep bees because they could learn valuable lessons from them.
Also, considering the nature of their day job, I’d imagine that literal beekeeping would provide these agents with an outlet that lets them move a bit slower and live in a less intense environment. However, there are still stakes because the keepers need to keep the hive alive and protect it…and, you know, they can still get stung.
In all seriousness, this idea of these agents also being beekeepers plays into the greater mission of the agency Statham is a part of. As the Fury director noted, both kinds of beekeepers are out to keep their world safe, and they step in and help fix the hive when they aren’t capable of repairing it themselves. So, it makes sense that all beekeepers also keep bees.
Overall, this idea that Statham’s character plays both kinds of beekeepers is super fun, and now knowing that all these agents also keep bees makes me even more interested in this bee-filled world.
If you want to learn more about this buzzworthy flick from David Ayer, be sure to check out our coverage of the movie, which includes Josh Hutcherson explaining why he went blonde for it. And to see this unique project in Jason Statham’s catalog of epic action films, that features him both as a lethal beekeeper agent and a man who keeps actual bees, you can catch The Beekeeper in theaters now.
