Why David Mason From The November Man Looks So Familiar
Streaming pioneer Netflix has made quite a name for itself as one of the premiere content creators in the game, but it's also become a prime location for box office misfires from every era find fresh eyes and new fans. The latest flick to find second life on Netflix is a 2014 Pierce Brosnan flop, which is getting some serious love in streaming land almost eight years after turning off critics and fans alike.
If you're unfamiliar with "The November Man," it sees Brosnan playing retired former CIA agent Peter Deveraux who, five years after inadvertently killing a child on a job, finds himself tasked with a new mission and engaged in a perilous battle of wits and wills against his former pupil David Mason. That battle gets more complicated than either could've anticipated as dodgy CIA types, nefarious Russian officials, and all manner of international baddies enter the fray.
It's likely you'll recognize more than a few of those faces when they start turning up, including that of the actor who plays David Mason in the film. It belongs to Luke Bracey, and it's been fronted in a handful of high-profile projects in recent years. Here's why David Mason from "The November Man" looks so familiar.
Luke Bracey brought some serious heat to Little Fires Everywhere
If Luke Bracey's face is familiar to you, odds are it's because you're a fan of Hulu's 2020 drama series "Little Fires Everywhere." If not, said series followed the fates of several industrious women whose lives eventually spin out of control in ways too intricate to detail here. Released on Hulu in March of 2020, "Little Fires Everywhere" proved both a critical hit, and a bingeworthy dose of drama that thankfully never quite gave over to its more melodramatic undertones.
That's largely thanks to the work of the series' all-star cast, including Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Joshua Jackson. As for Luke Bracey, he appeared in two of the eight episodes of "Little Fires Everywhere" as Jamie Caplan, the former beau of Witherspoon's Elena Richardson. We first see the pair as late '70s high schoolers who initially part ways seeking different things in life, only to reconnect for a clandestine encounter in the early '80s. While Bracey surprisingly portrayed both the younger and older versions of himself in "Little Fires Everywhere," Witherspoon's younger self was played by AnnaSophia Robb. As such, the only scenes Bracey shared with Witherspoon were those set in the late '90s, though their onscreen chemistry is more than palpable in those fiery moments.
Point Break found Bracey stepping into a role made famous by Keanu Reeves
Released in the summer of 1991, Kathryn Bigelow's "Point Break" — a pulse-pounding thriller about bank-robbing surfers led by a would-be shaman (Patrick Swayze), and the ambitious undercover FBI agent tasked with bring them down (Keanu Reeves) — was met with both solid critical notes and box office returns. While the film hardly screamed cinematic masterpiece to most moviegoers then, it's more popular than ever even decades after its release, and is generally regarded as a classic of the era these days.
The enduring legacy of the original "Point Break" made it the sort of film that hardly begged for a big budget Hollywood remake. Nonetheless, that remake hit theaters in the summer of 2015, with Edgar Ramírez stepping into the role made famous by Swayze, and Luke Bracey taking over for Reeves. The second time around "Point Break" found the stakes higher, the heists far more intricate, and the sports even more extreme. Unfortunately, 2015's "Point Break" didn't exactly set the box office ablaze, with neither critics nor fans finding much to love in the remake — save for a few spectacularly executed set pieces, and a better-than-solid performance from Bracey as the intensely conflicted young G-man.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation saw Bracey working largely behind a mask
You may not know it, but Luke Bracey is an Australian-born actor who'd made a decent name for himself before making his way to Hollywood, doing so with a notable stint on the long-running Aussie soap opera "Home and Away." Bracey landed his first big gig Stateside playing a hunky backpacker opposite Selena Gomez and Leighton Meester in the 2011 teen comedy "Monte Carlo." He quickly landed another posh Hollywood job in 2013, playing the big bad Cobra Commander in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation."
Bracey took over the role originated by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 2009's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra." It should be noted, however, that we don't actually see Bracey's face in the film, as he delivers the entire performance behind Cobra Commander's iconic mask. We don't hear Bracey's much either, with Robert Baker revealing he'd voiced the character in the film (per ScreenCrush). As far as blockbuster breakouts go, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" may not quite fit the bill for Luke Bracey, though one cannot underestimate the hardened physicality he brought to the role. Likewise, the film did give Bracey a chance to share the screen with the likes of Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis, Dwayne Johnson, and Jonathan Pryce, which had to be pretty cool for a then up-and-coming actor.