The Weight (2026)
Directed by Padraic McKinley
When Samuel is torn from his daughter and sent to a brutal prison, Warden Clancy offers him a high-stakes proposition: smuggle gold out of a remote mine with a dangerous crew of prisoners and he’ll win his freedom.
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31 films that influenced The Weight
What critics say influenced The Weight
The Weight has this cool old-school 70s period thriller vibes, such as Deliverance (1972) and Sorcerer (1977), that somehow comes across quite fresh.
Deliverance, Sorcerer, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are clear inspirations, with tales of treachery, peril, and survival.
Director Padraic McKinley is in 1970s thriller territory, with Friedkin’s Sorcerer a clear influence.
…it is pit-in-your-stomach, inventive filmmaking that calls to mind William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, but without resorting to uninspired imitation…
…a direct homage to a similar scene in Sorcerer, albeit done on foot…
Somewhere in the overlap between William Friedkin’s 1977 action thriller “Sorcerer” and Kelly Reichardt’s 2020 Pacific Northwest pioneer indie “First Cow” lies Padraic McKinley’s directorial debut “The Weight.”
The effects of avarice on the bullish mindsets of those in pursuit of wealth—intermingled with rousing adventure sequences—should spur comparisons to John Huston’s masterpiece, “The Treasure of Sierra Madre,” which is essential viewing, of course.
…is a lean and mean throwback to films such as Wages of Fear and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre…
It would have been conveniently cliché to have his lead descend into The Treasure of the Sierra Madre territory of greed and madness.
Deliverance, Sorcerer, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are clear inspirations, with tales of treachery, peril, and survival.
There’s a touch of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre…
…and some of John Huston’s “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” (1948)…
While the gold bars may not be as dangerous as the nitroglycerin found in The Wages of Fear (1953) or Sorcerer (1977), losing one could mean Murphy’s deal with Clancy is void.
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “The Wages of Fear”…
…think Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “The Wages of Fear”…
…and a whole lot of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “The Wages of Fear” (1953)…
A sturdy and altogether reliable riff on “The Wages of Fear” in the age of “Train Dreams,”…
…a quest as gruelling as anything experienced in such classics as The Wages Of Fear…
The Weight has this cool old-school 70s period thriller vibes, such as Deliverance (1972) and Sorcerer (1977), that somehow comes across quite fresh.
Deliverance, Sorcerer, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are clear inspirations, with tales of treachery, peril, and survival.
Evoking the spirit of ’70s classics such as William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977), John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972), and Sydney Pollack’s Jeremiah Johnson (1972)…
You can pick out a host of Seventies cinematic signposts along the way — a bit of Hard Times here, a smidge of Deliverance there, a whole lotta William Friedkin’s Sorcerer…
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The result is a movie geared more toward fans of “Train Dreams” than aficionados of more bombastic fare that values physical altercations over clashing personalities.
A sturdy and altogether reliable riff on “The Wages of Fear” in the age of “Train Dreams,”…
…reminiscent of the world of Train Dreams but following a less isolated character on a far more treacherous path…
Imagine Train Dreams if it were an action movie, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what The Weight is like.
Hawke name-checked Paul Newman and Cool Hand Luke in the press shortly after this rough nugget of a film premiered at Sundance…
…a work camp that looks like something out of “Cool Hand Luke,” when guards torment prisoner Paul Newman for a reported “failure to communicate.”
A scene where Murphy has to survive floating timbered logs recalls the tragic scene from Sometimes a Great Notion (1971).
Another seventies flick, Sometimes a Great Notion (a movie Hawke praised to me when I interviewed him a few years ago), gets referenced in a harrowing scene involving water logs…
It’s a cutesy ’70s nod that feels more “Smokey and the Bandit” than “Sorcerer.”
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That’s Michael Bay in “Transformers” mode.
…unafraid to dangle on the rickety rope bridge between John Wayne and John Wick…