The first trailer for The Weight has just dropped, showing Ethan Hawke forced to strike a risky deal with Russell Crowe.
The historical thriller The Weight had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2026, and the reception was mixed. Attendees described it as unpretentious, spare, a touch slow, yet peppered with moments of excitement, sometimes intense, thrilling, and featuring narration with a disconcerting fluency. That said, it was foremost the performances that drew attention, particularly those of Ethan Hawke and Julia Jones (Dexter: New Blood).
With reviews like these, it’s hard to tell whether to brace for a big catch or approach with tempered expectations for The Weight, the directorial debut of Padraic McKinley. Fortunately, audiences will soon be able to form their own opinions in theaters, and, ahead of that, get a first sense by watching the trailer.
The Weight of Gold
This first trailer lays bare the tension in the grim, fraught life of a prisoner in 1933 during the Great Depression. In fact, Samuel Murphy (Ethan Hawke) is forced to strike a deal with the prison director, Clancy (Russell Crowe), in order to locate his daughter before she’s placed elsewhere. Alongside other inmates, he’s tasked with taking part in a very risky gold-smuggling operation—the road ahead is littered with hazards (like a bridge that inspires zero confidence), and betrayals run rampant in this rugged crew that reluctantly welcomes a woman as formidable as any man, Anna (Julia Jones).
And you want to believe it after these first glimpses where danger seems to come from anywhere. Ethan Hawke appears exhausted and teetering on the edge (sometimes literally), creating a sense of constant distress that rarely lets up. If this isn’t the film that redefines the historical thriller, it does seem capable of pulling audiences into a taut, breathless adventure.
The Weight will hit French theaters starting September 16.
It will be an opportunity to discover what Padraic McKinley, who has already directed a handful of episodes of Kingdom (not Netflix’s zombie series, but a MMA-focused drama), FightWorld (a documentary series also centered on combat sports with Frank Grillo), or Debris, a thriller revolving around a crashed UFO, is capable of as a filmmaker.
That said, more than his directorial track record, Padraic McKinley should be able to bank on his editing know-how (his original trade in the industry) to drive The Weight forward with real momentum. He previously cut the 2023 Western series The Good Lord Bird, headlined by a certain… Ethan Hawke.
