Chris Pratt Battles an AI Justice System in Chilling Trailer For MERCY
Chris Pratt has fought dinosaurs, defended the galaxy, and battled alien invaders, but in Mercy, his biggest threat might just be artificial intelligence.
The trailer for Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming sci-fi thriller just dropped at New York Comic Con, and it paints a crazy picture of a near-future world where AI serves as judge, jury, and executioner.
In Mercy, Pratt plays Detective Raven, an LAPD officer who helped design a new justice system that gives accused felons just 90 minutes to prove their innocence. The twist is that Raven now himself is on trial for the murder of his wife, and the AI court he helped build is ready to convict him.
The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov, known for his visually bold work on Wanted and Night Watch, and also stars Rebecca Ferguson as the cold, calculating AI judge, and Kali Reis as Raven’s loyal partner who helps him uncover the truth.
The trailer shows Raven trapped in a sterile interrogation chamber, strapped to a chair as Ferguson’s judge appears only on a monitor, a haunting symbol of the faceless power of AI.
Pratt revealed that the film’s production matched the intensity of its story. He explained, “The movie, which is set in the near future, was shot like a stage play with 60-minute full-length takes.
“Ferguson’s judge is on a monitor, as you can see in the trailer, with me buckled down in a chair. I literally was strapped in during the shoot, creating ‘a natural claustrophobia.’”
Bekmambetov described the movie’s real-time structure as both a creative and thematic choice, reflecting our world’s rapid AI evolution. “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.”
Producer Charles Roven, also said during the NYCC panel. “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 was 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.”
Bekmambetov shot Mercy in downtown Los Angeles, including a high-octane truck chase sequence that took six days to film. The director pushed boundaries by incorporating innovative tech such as body cams, drones, and even robo-dogs to capture crowd scenes and dynamic perspectives.
The film arrives in theaters on January 26, 2026.