Mercy (2026, United States)
science fictioncourtroom dramas
Running time: 100 minutes
Language: English
Mercy 2026 American mystery drama review
In a futuristic Los Angeles, the Mercy Court mechanism was developed, in which AI judge determined the guilt or innocence of a defendant in criminal cases. The suspect have 90 minutes to prove his or hers innocence and avoid the capital punishment. LAPD Detective Chris Raven is put on trial for the murder of his wife, Nicole. Currently, the AI Judge Maddox calculated his guilt probability at 97%, Chris is given 90 minutes to change that number to below 92% to avoid execution via sonic blast. Step by step the details of his life, his alcoholism, his separation from wife are being presented and Chris, strapped to the chair, has to answer to the facts put in front of him.
Mercy is another production by Timur Bekmambetov, who became infamous for the disastrous 2025 movie War of the Worlds starring Ice Cube and Mercy is very much kept in very similar style - just a single person put in front of monitors and watching the story unfolding in front of him. The style, however, is not the biggest problem of this production, that title goes to the script, which makes very little sense if you take a hard look at it. Even putting aside the fact that AI does not have the best press right now (and for good reasons), the rest of the story is at very least questionable. The main character was put to trial even before the evidence against him were put together, he has no legal advice whatsoever, he has to prove his innocence while... firmly strapped to the chair and unable to access any materials that would help his case, apart from those provided by the AI. And to make it worse, the whole plot is just simply mind-numbingly boring and pointless. Visually, Mercy is fine, the whole concept behind it was ridiculous and based solely on fleeting popularity of AI as a topic.
Do you have what it takes to solve a case like this?
Our rating |
2.8 / 10 |
Movie value |
3 / 10 |
Realism factor |
1 / 5 |
Adventure factor |
1 / 5 |
Story complexity |
2 / 5 |
1 |
Discover more
If you look for more similar dramas, you can check it on the mystery library, Mystery & True Crime Stories. more true crime
Watch Mercy
Cast of Mercy
 |
as Chris Raven | |
|
as Judge Maddox | |
|
as Nicole Raven | |
|
as Britt Raven | |
|
as Jacqueline Diallo | |
|
as Rob Nelson |
add comment