3 min readJan 23, 2026 07:31 PM IST
Mercy movie review: It’s 2029, Los Angeles. A detective finds himself in the hot seat, accused of murdering his wife. He has only 90 minutes to prove his innocence: the catch is, that it is an AI-powered justice system which is judge, jury, executioner, and if he can’t lay out sufficient evidence to clear himself, he will be executed.
Blinking himself out of a stupor, Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) finds himself strapped to a chair, facing the beautiful Judge Maddox (Rebecca Fergusson). From all accounts in front of the judge, the detective was alone with his wife (Annabelle Wallis) for a length of time, during which she was stabbed with a sharp knife. Their daughter (Kylie Rogers) finds her mother lying in a pool of blood, and calls it in, and from then on, starts Chris’s ordeal.
He claims he is innocent, but then so does every criminal. It doesn’t look good for him: a secret he’s been hiding comes out, painting him even more guilty than he looks. Could it be jealousy over an affair he suspects his wife of? He’s been an enthusiastic supporter of the Mercy programme, and now it is coming for him, showing no signs of mercy, or allowance that he might be telling the truth.
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This could have been a gripping thriller, with a strong moral question tacked on to the plot. In just three years from where we are now, the film tells us, AI has taken over the world. Or, let’s just say, Los Angeles. The city is shown to be overloaded with criminal-minded individuals, the prisons are overflowing, and the cops are overburdened. The answer is Mercy, which, with the help of super-advanced technology, hoovers up data from the cloud, to which every device is mandatorily connected, sifts the bad guys from the good ones, and delivers speedy judgement.
The premise is interesting, and quite believable too: in the way AI is galloping along, keeping us gasping, it’s quite possible that it will be given these tasks. It also touches upon state control of our communication. What the film leaves us thinking, or at least wants to, is whether human intuition is always going to be more powerful than the most advanced bot, and whether it should ever be allowed to decide the fate of humans.
But the execution is so confused and dull that we lose interest in the human sitting in that deadly chair much too soon, and by the time the kicker kicks in, we are supremely unbothered by how things actually went down. Out rolls a massive chemical theft, a bomb, and a chase on the freeway, but there’s no tension despite the ticking clock. The story-telling is flat; so is everyone on screen.
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If it was down to me, I would say off with everyone’s heads.
Mercy movie cast: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Fergusson, Annabelle Wallis, Kylie Rogers, Kali Reis, Chris Sullivan
Mercy movie director: Timur Bekmambetov
Mercy movie rating: 1 star
Mercy movie review: The premise this Chris Pratt-starre is interesting, and quite believable too.