Mercy

A 2026 science fiction thriller directed by Timur Bekmambetov from a screenplay by Marco van Belle. In the near future a court case is conducted by an artificial intelligence system, and the accused — a policeman charged with the murder of his own wife — is given a strictly limited span of time in which to prove his innocence. The speculative premise of automated justice serves as the frame for a courtroom story on a hard clock: the argument is not with a prosecutor but with a procedure that has no doubt, no mercy and no way of changing its mind. The space of the film is confined and subordinated to the course of that procedure. For Bekmambetov, who previously made Night Watch, Wanted and Ben-Hur, the work continues his occupation with enclosed, technologically defined space: he is known for the device he calls screenlife, a manner of telling in which the action takes place entirely on computer and telephone screens, used in Unfriended and Profile, both of which he produced. Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson take the leading parts, with Annabelle Wallis, Kali Reis, Rafi Gavron, Chris Sullivan, Kenneth Choi, Kylie Rogers and Jeff Pierre alongside them. Atlas Entertainment and Bazelevs produced the film, with Charles Roven as producer. The score is by Ramin Djawadi. The film opened in cinemas on 22 January 2026 and reached other territories a day later. Critics savaged it and audiences took to it far more warmly; both sides praised the work of Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, while reviewers refused its plot conveniences and holes in the logic. It failed to recoup in cinemas and became one of the most watched titles at home within weeks.