A bone-rattling espionage blockbuster that promised sequels it didn’t deliver tears down the streaming establishment

By the rule of Hollywood law, a blockbuster action movie that cost a pretty penny, boasts a bankable A-list superstar in the lead role, wins stellar reviews from critics and audiences, and turns a tidy profit at the box office is virtually guaranteed at least one sequel, especially if the door is left wide open for more by the time the credits come up. And yet, we still only got one sprinkling of Salt.

Phillip Noyce’s espionage adventure was designed with Tom Cruise in mind to play the lead role, but when the opportunity arises to have Angelina Jolie headline an ass-kicking action epic, then it’s hard to turn that chance down. Arriving at a time when James Bourne and Jason Bond were flying high, Salt fit in perfectly with the grittier and harder-hitting overhaul to sweep the genre as a whole, which ended up working a treat.

Ticket sales neared $300 million when all was said and done, leaving both the studio and director keen to get the band back together for more. It came close to happening a couple of times, but the closest we got to a continuation of the Salt mythos was the home video release of a superior extended edition that was at least one step up from its theatrical forebear, if not more.

You can set your watch to star-powered slabs of escapist entertainment always capturing attention on any notable streaming service, with Jolie’s rampage against the government that employed her and the secret society of spies who trained her taking that concept and running with it, after FlixPatrol revealed Salt to be one of the biggest hits on ViaPlay this week.