Mercy (2026)

Having a narrative unfold on screen in real time takes a lot of planning and coordination to pull off properly, which may be why it’s rare enough to be notable. Even more difficult is carrying that through an entire film or TV episode, with notable early examples being Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller Rope and Robert Wise’s 1949 boxing drama The Set-Up. When I first heard about the recent 2026 film named Mercy, the premise sounded vaguely interesting, but I wasn’t sure about seeing it until confirming that it unfolds in real time, which made me thinks of the aforementioned films that I had been exposed to when I was younger. Though I missed the theatrical window, it being an Amazon MGM distribution meant I was able to watch it for free on Amazon Prime Video (now with ads after the introduction of Prime Video Ultra). While I enjoyed it and thought critic reviews were a little harsh, I feel like I might have felt differently had I watched it outside of a streaming platform.

In the year 2029, LAPD Detective Christopher Raven (Chris Pratt) is accused of his wife’s murder and is put on trial against an AI Judge named Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) while strapped to a chair. Maddox is part of the Mercy program, which has access to all devices on the municipal cloud, as required by law, to allow defendants to gather all the evidence they need to prove their innocence. If Chris cannot prove his innocence within 90 minutes, he will be executed on the spot.
 

Christopher Raven (Chris Pratt) has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to an AI
Judge or face immediate execution.

On the surface, the premise seems a little far-fetched, since the Mercy program requires mass invasion of privacy for it to work, not to mention operating on the exact opposite of the how the judicial system normally works, though an AI Judge might not be too far off from reality with how the technology has been used in recent years, to mixed results. Once you can move past this, however, things actually do get pretty tense pretty quickly, mainly due to the constantly ticking clock providing much of the film’s suspense. Even though there is a clock periodically visible on-screen, I still checked another clock early on to prove that it was in real time, and it was. As Chris uses all of his available resources and connections to investigate his supposed crime further, there are plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing even as my early suspicions about plot developments proved correct.

Aside from a pretty accurate depiction of the layout of Los Angeles, one thing I will give the film credit for is that Maddox’s UI, although subject to the modern trends of minimalism, is still visually appealing. Additionally, security camera footage actually looks like what you’d see on a security camera, and the film manages to largely or completely avoid technological tropes involving unrealistic footage/image manipulations. The visuals involved in investigating a crime scene by recreating events also reminded me of a similar game mechanic from Batman: Arkham Origins, which was incidentally one of the strongest points of said game. Overall, the acting is also pretty good, though Chris Pratt still manages a strong performance in the lead role, as does Rebecca Ferguson in portraying the straight-faced and emotionless AI Maddox.

Rebecca Ferguson does a masterful job as AI Judge Maddox.

Mercy (2026) is a solid and well-executed real-time narrative, but I'm not sure how well it will stick with me in the long run. If nothing else, it’s not a bad option if you’re looking for something decent to stream.