Mercy

MERCY 🚨 (2026)

Last year, I made a conscious effort to filter movies out of my schedule if I had a sneaking suspicion, usually for good reason, that they wouldn’t be very good, even if the premise intrigued me. This year, I’m still doing that… just a little less.

And that starts with Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson’s upcoming action-thriller film, MERCY.

The premise had me sold from the moment I read it:
In the near future, a detective stands trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. judge he once championed before it determines his fate. It’s basically Minority Report (2002), except the person on trial gets to use the system to defend themselves instead of being steamrolled by it before the crime even happens.

MERCY dives headfirst into the ethical nightmare of making A.I. the judge, jury, and executioner, powered by omnipresent surveillance that casually tramples everyone’s privacy along the way. It’s timely, uncomfortable, and just smart enough to make you feel like you’re watching something smarter than it probably is.

And it’s also a subtle reminder that your digital footprint never really goes away, something MERCY treats as a plot device and the rest of us treat as a problem for Future Us.

I’m not sure how well this will do in theaters, but this thing will absolutely kill once it hits streaming. And fittingly, much like the trial at the center of the story, MERCY clocks in at a tight 90 minutes. No bloat, no wandering subplots, just a ticking clock and forward momentum.

This is peak “I have no idea what to watch, let’s just throw something on while we scroll our phones” energy right up until you realize you’ve stopped scrolling and are actually locked in.

Now, if you’re the type who loves pulling at narrative threads and interrogating every character decision, you can absolutely dismantle MERCY in about five minutes. This movie is not here for that. It’s for viewers willing to let the investigation’s illogical leaps slide and enjoy the ride for the murder mystery it wants to be.

That mystery grows more compelling as a system built to eliminate crime for the greater good proves it isn’t stopping wrongdoing, it’s quietly teaching it how to evolve.

Stylistically, it lives in this interesting middle ground between found footage and a livestreamed police raid. And despite the Rotten Tomatoes scores people have been DMing me about (literally while I’m writing this), that visual approach ends up being one of the film’s strongest assets.

I’m not a huge Chris Pratt fan, but to his credit, he stays in his lane and delivers exactly what the role requires, no overreaching, no weird swings, just a solid, functional performance.

MERCY is a hyper-engaging, edge-of-your-seat B-tier action thriller, the kind they don’t really make anymore, and the kind that will inevitably grab your attention.

Enjoy!

7/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1hr54mins

Where: In Theatres January 30th.

The Richmond Reviewer Mercy Review - January 21st, 2026.

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