Rating: R | Runtime: 113 minutes
Release Date: September 18th, 2026 (USA)
Studio: Vertical Entertainment
Director(s): Padraic McKinley
Writer(s): Matthew Booi and Shelby Gaines / Matthew Booi & Leo Scherman and Matthew Chapman (story)

Don’t ever be scared.

Desperate to return to his young daughter before she becomes a ward of the state, inmate Samuel Murphy (Ethan Hawke) is given a proposition by the man in charge of his work release program breaking rocks to pave new roads circa 1930s America. J.J. Clancy (Russell Crowe spitting tobacco for a few days on set) says he’ll sign his release papers if he assists a friend by smuggling gold through mine country wilderness.

The historical context is that a series of thefts erupted to steal the precious metal before FDR seizes it for government use during the Great Depression. So, Taggert (Alec Newman) seeks to move his to a safe area under all their noses. His men (Sam Hazeldine’s Amis and George Burgess’ Letender) will run the operation with convicts Murphy, Singh (Avi Nash), Olson (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen), and Rankin (Austin Amelio) doing the heavy lifting,

Written by Matthew Booi and Shelby Gaines, the bulk of director Padraic McKinley’s feature debut The Weight follows this sextet sneaking the gold out via a bloody five-day journey with anyone crossing their path posing a critical threat to survival. Letender welcomes the potential violence of a stranger (Cameron Brady) casing their campsite, but Murphy can’t risk anything derailing his one shot at reclaiming his daughter before it’s too late.

It’s a suspenseful adventure chock full of potential ambushes, betrayals, and unknown variables. That’s why you keep an incorruptible figure like Murphy at its center to play Taggert’s game only as long as his goal remains intact. Then, once things start going awry, he’ll hatch a plan to turn the tables and take control. Because his fellow convicts and their stowaway (Julia Jones’ Anna) have his back knowing they can’t trust anyone else.

These supporting characters also have more complex backstories than you might expect with Nash’s socialist, Tønnesen’s family man, and Anna’s residential school survivor. We don’t learn much about Amelio, but his incessant talking to air everyone else’s laundry is how we learn about them. It provides an effective political backdrop to color the genre trappings. Each one is battling his/her oppressors—namely, men with badges.

Hawke is fantastic. We see him having a ton of fun driving way too fast with his excited daughter in the backseat. He shoves his pride down to do what must be done to get back to her. And he rides the impulsive wave of justice (to varying success) whenever someone goes too far and harms another. Give Con Air writer Scott Rosenberg a “special thanks” because I saw a lot of Cameron Poe in the character. Stuffed animal and all.

---

Julia Jones, Austin Amelio, and Ethan Hawke in THE WEIGHT; courtesy of Vertical Entertainment.