--- title: "Beast" year: 2026 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/beast" fi1m_id: "beast" imdb_id: "tt7708226" tmdb_id: 1292415 wikidata_id: "Q132322744" fi1m_score: 66 critics_reviews: 1 published: "2026-09-24T22:55:34.434615+00:00" updated: "2026-09-24T22:55:42.426333+00:00" region: "IT" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Beast (2026) Directed by Tyler Atkins · 1h 55m · Action, Drama ## Identity Beast - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/beast - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** beast - **IMDb ID:** tt7708226 - **TMDB ID:** 1292415 - **Wikidata ID:** Q132322744 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7708226/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1292415, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q132322744 **Fi1m score: 66** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Every comeback film you have seen, wearing a fresh set of bruises and a straight face > Tyler Atkins’s cage-fighting drama does nothing the genre has not done before, and it does most of it properly. Daniel MacPherson holds it together with a stillness the script rarely earns, and the fights can be followed. We knew every beat before it landed. ## Synopsis Patton (Daniel MacPherson) is a mixed martial arts fighter whose best years are supposed to be behind him. He wants back into the cage, and he wants a title fight, and almost nobody in the sport thinks he should have either. Around him are Gabriel (Luke Hemsworth), Sammy (Russell Crowe), a man who has been near this game long enough to be tired of it, Malon James (Mojean Aria), Luciana (Kelly Gale) and Neal (George Burgess). A podcaster (Josh McKenzie) keeps the sport’s opinion of Patton running in the background. The first act follows him through the gym, the bruised mornings after, the arguments about whether anyone will put him on a card at all, and the slow build towards the title match that the second half is organised around. ## Review *Beast* is the fighter’s comeback story, told again. David Frigerio’s script gives us Patton (Daniel MacPherson), a mixed martial artist the sport has written off, and a title match he has no business being anywhere near, and then it walks the road between the two in the order you would expect. Tyler Atkins directs without apology for any of this. The film is decent, it is careful, and it has not had a single idea that Rocky Balboa did not have first. Whether that bothers you will decide the evening. MacPherson is the reason it works as well as it does. He plays Patton with his mouth shut and his shoulders down, a man who has learned that talking about a fight is a way of losing it early, and the film is at its best when the camera simply waits for him to do something. He does not sell the training scenes as triumph; he sells them as a job. When he is hit he takes it like a man who has been hit a great deal and has stopped finding it interesting. It is a quiet performance in a loud genre, and we warmed to it. Russell Crowe, as Sammy, brings the film its ballast. He is slower than everyone else on screen, heavier in the chair, and he says his lines as if each one cost him something, which makes the few scenes he shares with MacPherson the ones with any weight. Luke Hemsworth’s Gabriel is the opposite register, bigger and louder and easier to read. Mojean Aria has presence as Malon James and not enough script. Kelly Gale’s Luciana is given the job most women in fight films are given, which is to stand in doorways and be worried about, and she does what can be done with it. Thomaz Labanca shoots the cage from above and hard, so the canvas goes bright and the crowd drops into black behind the fence, and between rounds he lets the camera go handheld and close, catching the sweat and the cornermen’s hands. The fights themselves are legible, which is rarer than it should be: we always knew who was winning and why, and when a round turned we saw the moment it turned. Brian Cachia’s score keeps to low drums and held notes in the gym, then swells at the walkouts, and if it tells us what to feel it at least waits until we were going to feel it anyway. The cutting lets the rounds run rather than chopping them into flashes. The trouble is that nothing surprises. Frigerio’s script arrives at each station on time: the doubt, the setback, the man who believes, the man who does not, the long run through the dark before the bell. The podcaster (Josh McKenzie) exists to tell us what the sport thinks of Patton, which is the kind of thing a film ought to be able to show. Conversations happen because the plot needs them to have happened, and characters leave rooms the moment their scene is done. It is not lazy; it is a film that has decided the shape is the point and the shape is enough. Here is what we felt. Around the seventy-minute mark, knowing precisely what was coming and by what route, we found we had leant forward anyway, and we were faintly annoyed with ourselves about it. That is the old machinery working. The title match is properly staged and properly exhausting, and MacPherson’s face in the last round, blank with effort, did more than any of the speeches around it. We were never bored. We were never once caught out either. Set against the genre’s own high marks, [*Warrior*](https://film.one/film/warrior) (2011) or [*The Wrestler*](https://film.one/film/the-wrestler) (2008), *Beast* lacks the thing those films had, which was a private wound underneath the public one. Patton wants the belt. What else he wants, or is running from, the film gestures at and never sits with. That is the difference between a good fight film and one we would still be talking about in a year. It runs 115 minutes and carries a 15. It is a sofa film in the honest sense: it asks nothing of the big screen, it plays well with the lights down and a drink in hand, and we would not be embarrassed to put it on for company who like this sort of thing. Go in for MacPherson and the fights, and do not expect to be surprised, because it has no intention of surprising you. *Fi1m score 66, published 24 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Beast worth watching?** *Beast* is worth watching if you like fight films and do not mind knowing every beat before it lands; we scored it 66. Daniel MacPherson's quiet, unshowy Patton and fights that can actually be followed carry it, but the script never once surprises. Put it on with the lights down and a drink, not with high hopes. **How long is Beast, and what is it rated?** *Beast* runs 1h 55m. It is an action and drama film. **Where can I watch Beast in Italy?** *Beast* is not on any streaming or rental service in Italy at the moment. It is available in 8 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Beast, and is it suitable for children?** *Beast* carries a UK 15 certificate and is a cage-fighting drama, so it contains sustained, exhausting mixed martial arts violence: hits, blood and sweat filmed close and hard. It is not frightening in a horror sense, and there is nothing the review flags beyond the fighting itself. Not for younger children; older teenagers who follow the sport should be fine. **How does Beast compare to Warrior?** [*Warrior*](https://film.one/film/warrior) is the better film, and *Beast* is the one measured against it. Both are MMA comeback stories, but *Warrior* has a private wound underneath the public one, two brothers and a family to fight for, where *Beast* gives Patton the belt to want and little else. Choose *Warrior* for drama that moves you; *Beast* for a well-staged, undemanding evening. **What should I watch after Beast?** After *Beast*, try [*Warrior*](https://film.one/film/warrior) (2011, Fi1m 80): The MMA film this one is measured against, with two brothers and a real wound. Then [*The Wrestler*](https://film.one/film/the-wrestler) (2008, Fi1m 85): Mickey Rourke as a man whose body is the only thing that ever listened to him; and [*Creed*](https://film.one/film/creed) (2015, Fi1m 85): The formula run again with wit, patience and a fight shot in one take. ### Reviews we read (1) - **The Guardian**, Luke Buckmaster (70/100, inferred): Buckmaster finds the familiar MMA comeback story surprisingly engaging despite its predictability. He praises Daniel MacPherson’s strong, stoic central performance and the film’s polished look. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/01/beast-mma-fighter-film-review-tyler-atkins-russell-crowe) ## Details - **Director:** Tyler Atkins - **Director:** Tyler Atkins - **Writer:** David Frigerio - **Cinematography:** Thomaz Labanca - **Music:** Brian Cachia - **Producer:** Shane Abbess, Brett Thornquest, David Frigerio - **Cast:** Daniel MacPherson as Patton; Luke Hemsworth as Gabriel; Russell Crowe as Sammy; Mojean Aria as Malon James; Kelly Gale as Luciana; George Burgess as Neal; Nathan Phillips as Skipper; Sol Nc Carrico as Maddie - **Runtime:** 1h 55m - **Release (Italy):** 1 October 2026 - **Genres:** Action, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJN2mJ4uOas ## Where to watch in Italy Not streaming, renting or buying in Italy at the last check. Also available in: AT, AU, CA, CH, DE, GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Warrior* (2011), Fi1m 80: The MMA film this one is measured against, with two brothers and a real wound — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/warrior.md) - *Fat City* (1972): John Huston’s washed-up boxers, no comeback, no belt, and all the truer for it - *The Wrestler* (2008), Fi1m 85: Mickey Rourke as a man whose body is the only thing that ever listened to him — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-wrestler.md) - *Crying Fist* (2005): Korean boxing drama that follows both men to the ring and lets you pick neither - *Creed* (2015), Fi1m 85: The formula run again with wit, patience and a fight shot in one take — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/creed.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/beast