Mercy
An alcoholic cop with a bad temper wakes up to find himself accused of the murder of his wife – and he has ninety minutes to prove his innocence.
An electric state: Chris Pratt
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
In the very near future, a human jury will no longer be necessary in a court of law. With the welter of available online data, CCTV and dashcam footage and cell phone tracking, an AI court can reach a verdict in just ninety minutes, along with an execution (via a fatal sonic pulse) – if a guilty ruling is reached. In the very near future, there will no longer be room for prejudice or human error. And since the introduction of the AI ‘Mercy Court’, crime has plummeted by 68%, according to the dystopian vision doled out by this sci-fi time-against-the-clock thriller.
Chris Raven (Chris Pratt), an LA cop, was partly responsible for implementing the programme. Then he wakes up from a drunken stupor to find himself strapped into an electric chair and accused of the murder of his wife. Even as he’s processing the loss of his other half, he realises he has less than ninety minutes to prove his innocence. And with the wealth of damning evidence stacked against him, even Raven is not sure of his blamelessness. But he knows that he loved his wife and that the clock is ticking…
The dubious benefits of AI have virtually established a sub-genre in the cinema, a suitable starting point being Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence way back in 2001. Even so, an AI court has a certain novelty factor, as does its split-second reach over Raven’s recent life. For most of us, secrecy is a thing of the past. What makes the questions raised by Mercy interesting is the validity of data as an accusatory tool, even in the case of a crime of passion. But do cold hard facts really have judicial supremacy?
As the implacable face of digital justice, Rebecca Ferguson strikes a compelling balance between unswervable authority and pre-programmed courtesy (a less human arbitrator would have been altogether more sinister). As the defendant, Chris Pratt has to draw on a considerable palette of emotion as a protagonist pretty much sedentary throughout, but Chris Pratt can do empathy in a trance – even if Raven is not sure of his own culpability, we want to believe his innocence. Often cast in heroic roles, Pratt perhaps brings the wrong kind of baggage with him – a more ambivalent presence might have made the journey more interesting. In spite of the film’s unusual premise, there is a formula to the proceedings that denies the viewer any real emotional investment. And with the constant bombardment of video clips, Mercy becomes like a late-night doom-scrolling session in which we are strapped to our phone with a no get-out clause. Of course, this brings with it its own brand of dramatic tension and it’s a worry that AI is already armed with such access to our very human activity. Discuss.
Cast: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers, Kenneth Choi, Rafi Gavron, Jeff Pierre, Jamie McBride.
Dir Timur Bekmambetov, Pro Charles Roven, Robert Amidon, Timur Bekmambetov and Majd Nassif, Screenplay Marco van Belle, Ph Khalid Mohtaseb, Pro Des Alex McDowell, Ed Austin Keeling, Lam T. Nguyen and Dody Dorn, Music Ramin Djawadi, Costumes Anthony Franco, Sound Robert Mackenzie, Dialect coach Carla Meyer.
Atlas Entertainment/Bazelevs Company-Sony Pictures.
99 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 23 January 2026. Cert. 15.
