In the near future, a detective stands on trial, accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge before it determines his fate. A film by Timur Bekmambetov, starring Chris Pratt, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers, Kenneth Choi, Rafi Gavron, Jeff Pierre, Jamie McBride, Ross John Gosla, Mark Daneri, Noah Fearnley, John Bubniak, and Rebecca Ferguson.

In a future America crippled by crime, civil unrest has reached a boiling point. Mass unemployment and homelessness have plunged Los Angeles into an unprecedented epidemic of violence. Prisons are overflowing, and even after citywide “Red Zones” were established to contain violent offenders, hundreds of police officers are still killed in the line of duty. Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. Mercy Court is born.

Two years after its implementation, the program has proven ruthlessly effective. Crime in the city has plummeted by 68%, saving billions of tax dollars through the system’s terrifying efficiency.

Mercy operates on hard facts, drawing from a vast range of data including evidence gathered by the LAPD and its quadcopter fleet, analyzing every detail with pinpoint accuracy to ensure justice is served within hours of a murder being committed.

Violent capital offenders are no longer given lengthy trials; instead, they are evaluated by a fully autonomous AI that acts as judge, jury, and executioner. Since its inception, Mercy has impartially judged, sentenced, and executed 18 individuals.

LAPD Detective Christopher Raven (Chris Pratt) wakes up disoriented, only to find himself tightly strapped to a chair inside Mercy Capitol Court. Before he can fully process his surroundings, AI Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) explains his situation. He is on trial today for the brutal murder of his wife, Nicole Raven (Annabelle Wallis).

Chris reels in shock as a massive screen illuminates the room with footage of the crime scene. He is forced to watch as Nicole lies bleeding from a fatal stab wound inflicted by a kitchen knife while first responders fight to stabilize her. A paramedic leans in close to ask who attacked her. With her agonizing breath, Nicole whispers a single word: “Chris.”

Despite Chris’s desperate pleas of innocence, insisting he could never harm his wife, Maddox remains coldly impartial. She reveals that based on the available evidence, she has assessed his probability of guilt at 97.5%, sitting 17.5% above the 80% threshold required to trigger a Mercy trial.

Maddox explains that for the duration of the trial, Chris will be granted full access to the Los Angeles Municipal Cloud, the massive data network that every private citizen and organization is mandated by law to sync their devices with.

He has exactly 90 minutes to use any and all resources available to the court to uncover evidence of his innocence. If he fails to provide data that drops his probability of guilt below the 92% execution threshold, or is definitively found guilty, the chair he is strapped to will deliver a fatal sonic pulse, ending his life.

Directed by Kazakh-Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov from a screenplay by Marco van Belle, MERCY is a tense science fiction thriller centered on an LAPD detective fighting for his life. Charged with a brutal murder, he must find the evidence to prove his innocence within 90 minutes, all while strapped to a chair during his own lethal trial.

The narrative strongly evokes Steven Spielberg’s MINORITY REPORT, as the protagonist is presumed guilty of a brutal crime until he can prove his innocence. It also channels Aneesh Chaganty’s SEARCHING, with the desperate detective combing through a massive trove of video surveillance, social media profiles, and connections between friends and colleagues to uncover the real killer.

Rebecca Ferguson delivers a chilling performance as the Artificial Intelligence Judge. However, her character is ultimately relegated to the role of a glorified virtual assistant rather than a true judicial authority.

There is not much Chris Pratt can do when his character, an accused homicide detective, is physically restrained to a chair for roughly 90% of the runtime. Pratt’s acting range feels limited here, much like his performance in Morten Tyldum’s PASSENGERS.

When a film demands this much sustained dramatic presence from a single actor, the performance eventually begins to feel repetitive and exhausting.

Pratt is arguably best suited to roles that lean into his natural charm and comedic instincts, characters who are goofy at heart but capable of the occasional serious moment, rather than carrying the full emotional weight of a dramatic thriller.

MERCY was theatrically released in the United States on 23 January 2026.