Mercy (2026): The Inevitability of Imperfection

Mercy (2026) is a Hollywood sci-fi thriller that was released to cinemas across the world on January 23^rd, 2026. The film was directed by Timur Bekmambetov, and written by Marco van Belle, with a runtime of 1 hour, 40 minutes. It highlights a detective’s desperate quest to prove his innocence to a court of law presided by an A.I. judge after being accused of murdering his wife.

Premise

In the city of Los Angeles, far into the future, crime rates are at an all time high, leaving prisons and detention centers increasingly overpopulated. To manage the sheer workload and numbers, scientists introduce “Mercy”, an automated court of law presided over by A.I. systems that function as prosecutor, judge, and jury for suspects of violent crimes. Due to its A.I. nature, Mercy is hailed as being 100% foolproof and free of human bias and partial treatment, using only the available facts to make its case and offering full intelligence resources to the defendants to provide evidence of their innocence within the allotted time. Failure to do so results in fatality, as the only sentence that Mercy gives is death by sonic blast.

LAPD detective Chris Raven wakes up in the Mercy court as a defendant, roughed up with seemingly no recollection of how he got there. He is greeted by A.I. judge Maddox, who explains that he is currently on trial for the stabbing murder of his wife, Nicole ‘Nic’ Raven. His probability of guilt is 97.5% based on the following evidence

Traces of her blood was found on his clothing, and his fingerprints are on the weapon
Doorbell camera footage reveals that he was alone with the victim at the crime scene (their home), in an aggressive interaction merely minutes before she was found by their daughter.
As paramedics attempted to save Nic’s life, her last words were “Christopher”, when asked who the culprit was.

Horrified, Chris claims he has no memory of any of this, or even his arrest, and pleads ‘not guilty’, to which Maddox then gives him an hour and a half and all the digital intelligence resources to reduce his guilt probability rate to 92% at most or he will be sentenced to death.

Via Maddox, we are given a look into Chris’s background; He had been one of the main proponents of the Mercy court during its initiations and had even arraigned the first criminal to processed through it: David Webb. Chris lived a blissful family life with his wife, his daughter, his friend and work partner, Ray. However, after an incident on the job that gets Ray killed, Chris’s PTSD results in an alcohol addiction that leads him to be increasingly aggressive and abusive towards his family. This is proven by multiple video footage (accessed by Maddox through the mandatory city cloud), and even social media posts from Britt’s private Instagram account. He eventually sought rehabilitation and as at the time of the murder was presumably over a year sober. Unknown to his family, however, Chris had relapsed a short while ago. It is this discovery that had prompted Nic to proceed with the divorce she’d been considering. And Chris reluctantly admits that it also led to their final confrontation before her death, despite previously claiming that he had no recollection.

With the help of Maddox, and Chris’ colleague Jacqueline, who is now the main detective in his case, Chris discovers and tracks down Patrick Burke, the man whom Nic was cheating on him with. Despite a heated virtual interrogation, Chris exonerates Burke, deeming the latter’s alibi solid with proof. Chris then makes a few phonecalls. First, to his daughter Britt, who is devastated and horrified that he could be the culprit. Chris tries to reassure her, but is interrupted by Nic’s parents, whom he bitterly recalls never liked him. Second call is to Rob, Nic’s co-worker and Chris rehab sponsor and sobriety handler. Rob is seemingly heartbroken at Nic’s death and upset with Chris for breaking his sobriety. Third call is to Jaq, whom after revisiting the crime scene and putting together a rough reenactment, describes the murder as a “typical crime of passion”, to which Chris raises flags. Despite their stability after his sobriety, he knew that his marriage was failing. Their final confrontation had been less about the divorce and more about her discarding his alcohol stash, to which he’d thrown a tantrum by intentionally breaking her favorite vase (a shard had cut her and that’s how her blood ended up on his clothes, and prior to the murder, he’d been the sole user of the kitchen knife, that’s why his prints are the only one on it). But most importantly, Chris knew that he and Nic had long fallen out of love so…

“Tell me, Maddox. How can it be a crime of passion if there wasn’t any…?”

Despite all of this, his guilt probability rate doesn’t reduce by much. So, after some reprimanding from Maddox, he decides to investigate Nic’s life outside their family: work, friends, etc. After another reluctant interrogation with Burke, Nic’s conflicts were narrowed down to her work life: she’d been immensely stressed because she’d been asked by her boss to crack down on her colleagues about a chemical product that had been steadily going missing from their inventory for the past 6 months. After further investigation, Chris pinpoints the culprit to be Holt Charles, Nic’s colleague. But during an accidental phone call, Holt admits to Chris that he’d merely taken the fall for it because he was covering for another coworker whom he owed a favor: Rob.

The rest of the movie picks up quickly, because when Chris does find out the true murderer, it might’ve already been too late. But the killer’s actions and motives reveal a much, much bigger problem, while also unveiling the true faces of those Chris considers his closest.

Cast and Performances

Chris Pratt as Christopher “Chris” Raven
Rebecca Ferguson as A.I. Judge Maddox
Kali Reis as Jaqqueline “Jaq” Diallo
Chris Sullivan as Robert “Rob” Nelson
Annabelle Wallis as Nicole Raven
Kylie Rogers as Britt Raven

Say what you want about Chris Pratt, but his acting skills are really not up for question. He carried this entire film on his back despite sitting in a chair and talking to a robot for like 90% of it. Truly immaculate work. That’s not to say that the other actors are subpar, or mediocre, absolutely not. Every single actor took that script on such an amazing run, so its definitely saying something that Pratt was still such an iconic pillar in terms of the acting. A lot of people who are more used to his more dynamic projects might be disappointed by the lack of action on his part here. But, in my opinion, that was the right move as it allowed his other talents as an actor to shine through.

I also love the overarching message that this film tries to convey: the inevitability of imperfection. Every single thing that exists on this earth is flawed. No one (and nothing) is above mistakes, and there is no 100% foolproof probability of anything, and there is no such thing as the perfect. The film even foreshadows this during one of the first few lines.

The character work too is impressive, especially when you observe how each of them tie into the main theme of this film: imperfection. There is no perfect character, not even the victim. And this consistency is such a breath of fresh air in a world where writers would rather lump in either incredibly unique or incredibly stereotypical characters for the sake of sensationalism with little to no thought on how these characters tie into the main story they are trying to tell. The characters here execute that flawlessly. The message of the movie is made incredibly clear by simply observing them: there is no such thing as perfection, not from the main falsely accused character, not from the victim, not from the ‘nice guy’ that everyone loves, not from the grieving child, not from the law, and not even from the A.I. that has been programmed to be ‘100% without bias’.

What I Liked

I fell in love with this film within the first 15 minutes. Why? Because I was immediately intrigued by the setting and the concept. Everyone wants to talk about or make creative hypotheticals about A.I. and technology “taking over” things in a future, but I’ve never seen this particular angle explored creatively. The only media that could even be placed on par with this is the Black Mirror Series. The immediate lock in I underwent when I heard the concept of ‘A.I. impartial court’ was crazy. This was a really unique and interesting angle to explore, and to THEN include some fantastic storytelling that works great into an actual real life lesson? Beautiful. Just beautiful.

“Everyone lies…”

And like I said before, it is also depicted in the characters. Britt keeps up this image of perfect daughter, even on her socials, but is then revealed to be a vulgar drinker and smoker. Chris is probably the most unreliable narrator/main character you’ll ever see. Even Nic, the victim, is revealed to be constantly cheating on her husband (albeit for good reason). And even Maddox, the literal A.I., is made to understand that facts (or lack thereof) can, in fact, lie to you as much as people do.

I also love how interactive the movie is, but not in the traditional sense. 4^th wall breaks are prevalent (and some might even say overdone) in media. But in this film, the viewers only know what the main character knows, practically immersing us into the screen, allowing us to create our own theories and solve the mystery together.

What I Didn’t Like

I love this concept and cinematic world so much that it’s a quite a bummer that we didn’t get to explore it more. I would’ve loved to see the Mercy court system at its prime with other crimes within the same level. I would’ve loved to understand the concept behind ‘red zones’ (is it the slum? Or the prison?). I really wished they truly sank their teeth in the dystopia of it all. Instead, they make it look like the regular world with some tweaks involved.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to just casually say “Nobody’s Perfect”, but this movie goes above and beyond to show us exactly what that means. This film was everything. Acting? Check. Concept? Check. Characters? Check. Overarching story with a satisfying outcome? Check, check, check. It was an absolute delight to watch and I really hope it gets thee recognition it deserves.

I rate Mercy (2026): 4.5 out of 5

Our Rating of This Book

Have you seen this film? What did you think of the plot twists and reveals? I’d love to read your thoughts below!

Author

Winifred Eze

Winnie is a business student by day and a writer by night, with a passion for movies and the art of storytelling. Whether it’s dissecting a film’s themes, exploring character arcs, or celebrating cinematic masterpieces, she loves diving deep into the magic of the big screen. She also strives to bring fresh perspectives and engaging discussions to fellow writers and readers.