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In the deeply goofy Christmas action comedy Red One, the holiday season comes to an emergency halt when Santa is kidnapped.

It's up to his head of security, played by

Dwayne Johnson, and a ne'er-do-well played by Chris Evans to save him. We'll get into the rest of it,

the polar bear, the witch, the slapping contest, the real way to end a snowman, but nothing is

as important as the fact that it's up to the rock and Captain America to save Christmas.

I'm Linda Holmes, and today we're talking about Red One on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

Joining me today is J.C. Howard. He's a producer on NPR's How I Built This. Hi, Jayce.

Hello, hello. Hello, hello. Merry Christmas. Yes. And also with us is culture writer Margaret H.

Willison. Hello, Margaret. Hi, Linda. Jingle, jingle. Okay. So, in Red One, J.K. Simmons plays Santa,

who is busy getting super jacked because Christmas takes a lot out of him. Also super jacked, his head of

security, Callum Drift, played by Dwayne Johnson.

Callum has lost the spirit of Christmas and is retiring after a career of several hundred

years. But wouldn't you know it on his last day on the job, everything goes haywire because

Santa is kidnapped. As it turns out, a very mortal low life who may not be quite as jacked,

but is named Jack, played by Chris Evans, is the accidental accomplice. He's sort of a hacker

and deeply indebted gambler who will do almost anything for money. And he inadvertently

helped some evil individual figure out exactly where Santa's North Pole compound was.

Why kidnap Santa? Ultimately, it's to be really mean, and that's all you need to know for now.

What's important is that Callum finds his way to Jack and the two of them team up to try to find Santa.

...