The first official trailer for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Mercy has now been released online, and it features Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson in what looks like an interesting riff on Minority Report. Pratt had previously taken to the stage at Cinema Con earlier this year to promote the movie, finding himself scrapped to a chair similar to his character in the movie. A first-look reel was shown to attendees, and now a full trailer has officially been released online along with the release date of January 23, 2026. With an exciting and unique premise, Mercy is poised to be one of the more interesting releases coming early next year.
Pratt plays Detective Chris Raven, and the trailer (which can be viewed below) depicts the character as he finds himself before an Artifical Intelligence Judge Maddox, brought to life by Rebecca Ferguson. Accused of murdering his wife, Raven has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to a certain percentile before Maddox sentences him to death. Essentially, the AI serves as judge, jury, and executioner. With a bevy of digital and electronic resources at Raven’s disposal, the detective has to try and race against the clock to find out who was really responsible for her death while also coming to grips with the morally ambiguous judicial system that he helped propagate.
While Raven seems to be restrained and under watch throughout the trailer, Mercy uses creative techniques of camera feeds, “archival” footage of Pratt’s character, and other methods to tell the story and make it entertaining despite restrictions placed at the beginning of the film. Moreover, Ferguson is channeling the eeriness of her performance in Dune: Part Two into Maddox, as the emotionless AI shows signs of corruption and hesitancy towards the end of the trailer.
‘Mercy’ is a Movie With Increasingly Relevant Themes
Per Deadline, Timur Bekmambetov, the director of the film, would say at a New York Comic Con panel that the movie’s story is told in real time because “we live in a world today where AI is knocking on the door, and we don’t have time to understand what happened. AI could be our enemy, our friend or our child. This ticking clock is metaphorical of the time we live in now.” Chris Pratt would also talk about the filming process for Mercy, saying that the 60-minute-long takes done during shooting would create a “natural claustrophobia” for the actor that also provided authenticity to the experience.
The Oscar-winning producer of Oppenheimer, Charles Roven, would also speak at the NYCC panel, discussing how the themes and story of the film continued to grow in relevance as time went on:
“We got a pitch from a writer, Marco [van Belle], who wrote the script. When we first got the script, people were talking about AI, and it wasn’t happening yet. When we started talking about the movie, all of a sudden companies were dealing with AI, and the future wasn’t definitely not far away. The fact that the movie takes place in 2029, I think every day, every week, every month that goes by, there’s something more that makes our movie true.”
Filled with both action and provacative themes, Mercy seems to be one of the first big standout releases of 2026.
- Release Date
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January 23, 2026
- Director
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Timur Bekmambetov
- Writers
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Marco van Belle
- Producers
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Charles Roven, Majd Nassif