John Wick followers must be on excessive alert. On September 19, 2025, the extremely expert and vastly underappreciated British motion star Scott Adkins dropped into choose theaters as Prisoner of Battle premiered. The ultra-violent WWII motion extravaganza finds Adkins as a Particular Air Service pilot who’s downed behind enemy traces in Japan and should battle his method out with ruthless guile, singlehandedly.
Though it has inferior manufacturing values attributable to its a lot smaller price range, Prisoner of Battle presents the relentlessly hardcore and brutally breathless motion John Wick followers have come to know and crave. Even higher, John Wick fanatics are certain to acknowledge Adkins from his position as Killa in John Wick: Chapter 4, a current franchise sequel that, thematically, shares a lot with Prisoner of Battle‘s Samurai and Bushido tradition.
Who Is Scott Adkins?
Earlier than propping up Prisoner of Battle‘s attraction to John Wick followers, unheralded British motion star Scott Adkins deserves a highlight of adoration. Arguably the preeminent low-budget motion star on the planet, Adkins is akin to the Jean-Claude Van Damme of small, impartial, throwback motion joints that enable him to showcase his huge array of martial artistry.
An actual-life Taekwondo pink belt, Kickboxing black belt, and proficient fighter in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Krav Maga, Wushu, Muay Thai, Kung Fu, Karate, Ninjitsu, Capoeira, Jeet Kune Do, Adkins does all of his personal stunts and performs his personal fights onscreen. With roughly 80 credit accrued since 1998, Adkins has devoted practically three a long time to the motion film style as soon as popularized by Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jackie Chan, and others who use their fists and full our bodies to interact in bodily fight (versus excessive artillery).
Whereas much less recognized to the general public, Adkins has gained the respect of his motion star colleagues all through his profession. Other than taking part in the lead in numerous low-budget and straight-to-video credit, Adkins raised his profile taking part in supporting elements in Weapon XI in X-Males Origins: Wolverine, Hector in The Expendables 2, Lucian in Physician Unusual, Barton in IP Man 4: The Finale, and Killa Harkan in John Wick: Chapter 4.
Further Adkins battle film credit price recommending embrace Common Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Undisputed 3: Redemption, Avengement, Accident Man, American Murderer, Diablo, and Unleashed. If it weren’t for Adkins and devoted motion performers like him, the mainstream and impartial motion film trade could be nowhere. In 2012, Adkins started producing his personal materials, and in 2018, he began writing scripts to star in. Prisoner of Battle is an instance of each.
‘Prisoner of Battle’ Is a New World Battle II Motion Flick
Co-written by Adkins and Marc Clebanoff, Prisoner of Battle is a traditional one-man-army motion blitz. Directed by Louis Mandylor (The Blackout), the story facilities on James Wright (Adkins), a embellished Particular Air Service soldier whose aircraft is downed in Japanese territory throughout WWII. Given a chance to free himself by combating for his life towards essentially the most expert and extremely skilled Japanese troopers, Prisoner of Battle turns into a full-fledged battle royale for James when he places his Hong Kong martial artistry to work.
Ferocious fisticuffs, scintillating swordplay, and garish gunbattles ensue as James takes on one soldier after one other in a Japanese army camp with few allies to depend on. Set nearly solely within the outside within the woods, there are shades of Commando and Predator as James evades his captors and brutally eviscerates his enemies. As for Adkins’s previous, Prisoner of Battle suits completely with Common Soldier: Day of Reckoning, one of the unrelentingly ugly motion movies on document that co-stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren.
Whereas gentle on plot, Prisoner of Battle is heavy on visceral bouts of intense one-on-one melees. But, for John Wick followers, essentially the most interesting side of watching Killa Harkan (Adkins) from Chapter 4 is the slick swordplay and the Samurai and Bushido honor code of conduct.
How ‘Prisoner of Battle’ Will Attraction to ‘John Wick’ Followers
Hardcore John Wick supporters will get a kick out of Prisoner of Battle, particularly for its parallels to the newest franchise installment, Chapter 4. Granted, your complete franchise has all the time adopted noticeable samurai film influences and Japanese traditions, however Chapter 4 goes a lot deeper. Between the Osaka Continental, its strict code of honor and conduct, the inclusion of expert fighter Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), and the significance of the Wakizashi sword to the plot, it is simple to see how the film pays homage to Far Jap tradition.
After all, with Scott Adkins stealing scenes because the German antagonist Killa Harkan in John Wick 4, Prisoner of Battle turns into all of the extra attractive. Killa was the chief of the Excessive Desk’s German department, who ran the Berlin nightclub Himmel und Holle, the place he and Wick received into an epic conflict below neon lights and rain sprinklers. An apt foil for Keanu Reeves, Adkins performs Killa, the person accountable for killing the daddy of John Wick’s de facto sister, below unrecognizable make-up and prosthetics that enable him to vanish into the character like by no means earlier than.
For John Wick lovers who loved the nightclub showdown between John Wick and Killa Harkan, Prisoner of Battle guarantees to ship the identical bruising punishment. Adkins performs a extra recognizable lead, as he is used to, in a film that compensates for its easy story with relentless sparring, explosions, gunfights, and hand-to-hand barbarity. Much more interesting, at 110 minutes, Prisoner of Battle is a far shorter affair to endure than the near-three-hour-long John Wick: Chapter 4.
One epic battle scene in Prisoner of Battle finds James going through an enemy, utilizing Kendo sticks (Shinai), conventional Japanese bamboo swords utilized in martial arts coaching. It is a bone-shaking melee that not solely displays Japanese tradition but in addition delivers one of the intense moments within the film. If nothing else, John Wick followers will come away with a a lot better appreciation for Scott Adkins, arguably essentially the most underrated motion star of the previous 20 years. Prisoner of Battle is in theaters now.