‘The Gunman’ Trailer: Sean Penn Is the New Liam Neeson

Sean Penn is taking a page out of Liam Neeson's playbook.more

The Gunman marks the 54-year-old Oscar-winning actor's first-ever straight action flick and tells the story of Jim Terrier, an ex-Special Forces operative who's taken up peaceful work in the Congo to atone for his violent past. Then, a bunch of bad stuff happens, and he winds up fighting for his life as his former partners look to bring him down.

The movie was directed by Pierre Morel, who helped remake Liam Neeson into a late-career action star with Taken, and that seems to be exactly what Penn is going for here. The Gunman also features the badass foursome of Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Mark Rylance, and Ray Winstone, which ensures the acting will be just as explosive as the um, explosions.

"We did some bad things," Penn says at one point, revealing his character's desire to take the moral highroad and set things right. "I did some bad things."

Bardem and company, meanwhile, want to keep the past in the past, and it seems they're willing to spend a lot of bullets in pursuit of that goal.