Cinemark Mystery Movie: The Weight ⛏️🪙

A film I wouldn’t have chosen for myself

Introduction

Before we dive in, I want to provide some context. Cinemark has mystery movies where they provide solely the MPA rating of the film. The tickets are $5 which is a pretty good deal IMO. It’s one of those things where you try not to have expectations of what you are going to see (even though let’s be honest, you most certainly will). For me, I had some ideas of what the film can be as it is typically something coming out soon usually in that same month. Since these film had a rating of R, I was honestly expecting a horror movie. I had taken a look at what is coming out and thought it could be Resident Evil or The Uprising.

I think part of it is to encourage you to see a film you wouldn’t necessarily watch which it achieved for me. I can definitely say I would not have personally sought out to watch this film in theaters had I seen the trailer. I think there is a slight possibility that I may have watched this film when it came to streaming, but I honestly can’t say that for sure.

The movie that played was entitled The Weight. I honestly hadn’t heard much about this movie, and I had no clue what it was when I saw the opening credits. I knew it wasn’t something as mainstream because it opened about with a Sundance films screen as well as a bunch of other independent companies.

I did watch this movie last night, September 07, 2026, so it is fresh on my mind!

Enough about that, let’s actually talk about the film!

🚨Spoilers Ahead🚨

The Film

My Rating: 3.5 ⭐
Release Date: September 18
MPA Rating: R
Genre: Thriller, Action, Crime, Drama
Duration: 112 Minutes
IMDB Description: Desperate to save what is left of his family, during the height of the Great Depression a battle-scarred veteran is hired to help smuggle a fortune in gold across 100 miles of impenetrable wilderness. See Full IMDB Page
Cinemark Description: When Samuel (Ethan Hawke) is torn from his daughter and sent to a brutal prison, Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe) offers a high-stakes proposition: smuggle gold out of a remote mine with a dangerous crew of prisoners and he’ll win his freedom. But as the group journeys into the unforgiving wilderness, the real threat isn’t the terrain — it’s the betrayal and violence festering within their ranks. Surrounded by greed, suspicion, and danger, Samuel must risk everything to reunite with his child. See Full Cinemark Page
Movie in 5 Emojis: 🚗🚓⛏️💰🔫

Synopsis + My Thoughts 🧠:

🚨One more time: Spoilers Ahead🚨

This film is set in 1933, four years into the Great Depression. It opens with Murphy (Ethan Hawke) and his daughter Penny (Avy Berry) driving in their car. We eventually learn that Murphy is a single-dad after presuming that his wife passed away as he still wears his wedding band. Murphy and Penny get evicted from their current apartment. They go to one they find in the newspaper, but after knocking no one answers. Murphy and Penny go around and Murphy looks in the windows. Three men approach and one of them starts talking to Penny and the others accuse Murphy of being a peeping tom. He tries to explain, but the situation escalates and Murphy ends up getting in the fight with the men.

Come to find out the men are police, and Murphy is arrested. We don’t know how much time he gets, but he does go to jail. Penny is separated from him and put into a home (which we learn later on about the home). One note is that in the film we don’t see that much screen time between Murphy and Penny, but I do like their dynamic. I wish we saw a little more of their relationship. The actress who plays Penny is adorable.

We flash forward to four months later, some location in Oregon (I don’t remember and it’s not that important), to see Murphy working at a labor camp. Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe) who runs the camp is explaining how it works. The men get so much time off their sentences based on how much they work. During this time, we learn that Murphy keeps to himself mostly. He does have some interaction with three other men: Rankin (Austin Amelio), Singh (Avi Nash), and Olson (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen).

There is a little bit more of a time jump (I think). The men are tasked with moving a giant boulder and after watching them struggle Clancy talks to Murphy who has been hanging back. Murphy he explains that one more day worked is a one day closer to seeing his daughter again, but Clancy makes a few comments to Murphy about how he does not want to work tomorrow as he will make it unpleasant for the men. Murphy springs into action, and he uses his knowledge of working on cars to move the rock. Clancy is impressed, and he invites Murphy to his cabin.

While at the cabin, Murphy and Clancy shoot birds and Clancy is highly impressed. They have dinner, cand they go into Clancy’s garage where Murphy sees his car. Eventually we learn it has some issues, and Murphy offers to fix it as that is what he used to do. He talks about his time serving the country, and he is able to fix Clancy’s car.

The next day we see Clancy drive up to the mining site, and he calls Murphy over. He asks Murphy how long he has left. Murphy explains his predicament that regardless of how much he works in a month or so time Penny becomes a ward of the state and up for adoption. Clancy explains that he is in control of signing people’s papers. He tells Murphy he has a job for him and to get 3 other strong men that he trusts for a job. Clancy promises that when the job is done, the men will have their freedom.

We next see the men meeting a man and traveling by plane and then truck to another place in Oregon which turns out to be a mine location. The men then meet Clancy’s contact, Taggert (Alec Newman), who provides them the instructions of the arduous journey these men are about to go on. I think the character of Taggert is pretty well done although again we don’t see much of him in the movie.

The men’s task is to carry out all the gold from the mine in rucksacks to a point 50 miles away over the course of 5 days. FDR is closing all the mines in a few weeks time and a few of them had recently been looted, and Taggert has intel that his mine is next. Murphy, Rankin, Singh, and Olson will be accompanied by Taggert’s two most-trusted men: Amis (Sam Hazeldine) and Letender (George Burgess).

On their way out of the camp, Murphy hears something and says someone is in the woods. On their way in to the camp we see a woman. This woman, Anna (Julia Jones), has snuck out and tells the men she’s coming with them. I realized that she looked familiar and for my Twilight fans she plays Leah in Eclipse.

The group begins their journey. They have to cross this very sketchy rope bridge and to do so they are literally tossing the bricks one by one to Murphy who stands on the middle. They almost fuck up and drop a brick which they were already warned would result in them being killed. Thankfully they don’t and are able to continue on. On the first night they have a fire and a man named in the credits as The Man (Cameron Brady) appears in the dark. He tells them it is customary to offer a man a meal, and he tells him that he’s no the only one who lives in the woods. They eventually tell him to leave after he makes some racist and sexist comments to both Singh and June.

The next morning Murphy is feeling uneasy and tells them they should cross the river. Amis and Letender don’t want too, but they do listen to Murphy. During their journey of crossing the river, they see logs coming down. As Murphy and Rankin are about to untie from the packs they had on some branches a log hits Rankin before he can untie. He gets swept away, and Murphy borrows a knife from one of the guards since I forgot to mention they (anyone but Letender and Amis) aren’t allowed to carry any weapons. Murphy is able to cut Rankin free from the gold bag (which tbh I am not sure if they ever got, I assume so but I couldn’t really tell), but his foot gets trapped. In Rankin’s struggle to get out he closes the logs above Murphy, and Murphy tries his best to get his foot dislodged. We see that he is drowning, but suddenly June and the others appear. June kisses Murphy and gives him air, and he eventually gets his foot unstuck. As soon as he gets out, he punches Rankin who just takes it. Rankin quickly moves to the side and Murphy punches the ground, hard. The other guys pull him off. Rankin makes some comments, and we learn that he was in juvy.

Eventually the men move on and when they rest, we see that Murphy’s hand (or at least some fingers) are broken. His ring finger is mega swollen, and he tries to use pliers to get his ring off. June and him have a very intimate moment when she uses her thread and needle to get Murphy’s ring off, so he doesn’t have to break it. Murphy tells them they shouldn’t set a fire, but the men don’t listen.

I forgot to mention that during this time we learn more about each of the men. Olson is a farmer, and there was a judge who was prejudiced against some of the Europeans. The European families were losing their farms and home. He and some other men put a noose around the judge’s neck and dragged him out. That was his crime. We learn that Singh is a socialist, and he was arrested for resisting arrest during a protest.

In my opinion, I wish there was a little more backstory for Rankin. We don’t learn too much about him in my opinion. I liked his character for the most part. He played the assholey dude that is still loyal to his friends. He does make some comments to both Singh and June, but he does redeem himself and prove his loyalty to them later on.

Now we are two days out and we see Singh by the river. He spots two boats and rushes back to camp. Everyone hurriedly packs up, and Murphy instructs everyone that they’re going to take their boats. As they are getting into the boats they are ambushed. A shootout ensues, and there is chaos. Amidst the chaos, Olson gets shot in the leg. Eventually they make it out, and we have a scene where Murphy is putting a tourniquet on Olson’s leg. Olson reveals he has a wife and two sons. We also see that June’s back is bleeding. Murphy, in talking with Olson, reveals to the others that he has a daughter. His also reveals she’s living in a home because he doesn’t have any family to take care of her. A little later we see them dock the boats. Murphy tells Olson to stay put but for some stupid reason (the plot) he stands up and loses his balance. He falls perfectly and hits his head on a rock which paralyzes him. This moment was pretty tragic in my opinion as we just learned more about his family and now this happens. We later see them giving Olson water at camp which shows his condition. He looks lethargic.

June and Murphy share another intimate moment where she gives him salve to put on her back. She suffered from shotgun shell debris. She also tells Murphy about how she went to a school where they were trying to “kill the Indian and save the man.” Murphy asked if they were successful, and June is very obviously (and rightfully) offended. She tells Murphy that they didn’t kill anything or save anything in her.

During the night, there is a bad thunderstorm. We do get some cool cinematic shots. In this they opted to use the lightning to show what is occurring which I thought was really cool. I will say the main score of the film was phenomenal. It was haunting, and it did a great job of setting the mood of the film. It reminds me of another film’s score, but I have not been able to figure out what film. Anyway, during this time we see Olson sleeping then two figures loom over him then those figures hold a rag over Olson’s nose and mouth. He struggles to fight back, and unfortunately he is unsuccessful.

The next morning (one day out) we see everyone but Amis and Letender gathered around a mound of dirt that is clearly Olson’s buried body. Renkin informs them that he thinks he saw something last night. This was another scene that was shot super well as we get a look at everyone’s face as they learn what Renkin saw. Renkin says they need to kill Letender and Amis before they themselves get killed. Murphy says that if anyone harms Letender or Amis he will kill them himself. This makes sense because Murphy is concerned about getting his freedom. Murphy does question Amis about what happened, and Amis plays it off that they were just checking on Olson. They have no clue what happened to him.

They make it to their location of the pickup. They again have a fire and Letender has some alcohol. He makes suggestive comments to June who tells him he has no chance. We then have a dream sequence where Murphy is in jail, and he sees Penny who keeps saying “daddy” louder and louder which does wake Murphy up. He realizes he hears screams, and he runs toward the sound. Here we see June being thrown around by Letender. Murphy starts fighting Letender and June helps as well. They are getting pretty beat down until Renkin shows up to help and starts choking Letender with his belt while June hits Letender with a rock. Murphy is still down because he got beat pretty hard in the face. His entire eye is bloodshot, and he looks rough. They are able to kill Letender though which presents a problem as they need to be alive. Oh I forgot to mention that Letender says he should just kill them now since they’ll be killed anyway.

At the same time, Taggert shows up with the truck to take the gold. He forces Singh at gunpoint to load the gold up into the truck. Murphy tells Renkin and June to run into the woods and hide until sunset. He takes Letender’s gun, and he goes up to the other men. They (Amis and Taggert) realize Murphy is all bloody and bruised, and they don’t believe his story about Letender taking a shit. Murphy grabs Singh, and they run behind the car. Murphy instructs Singh to run into the woods when he runs the other way. Murphy is able to shoot and kill Amis, but Taggert gets away with the gold.

Murphy chases after him via foot, and luckily a car approaches and Murphy waves his gun which unbeknownst to the occupant is empty. He’s in the car and tries driving after Taggert, but the vehicle won’t accelerate. He realizes that there is a sign that says “government owned vehicle. will not exceed 35 mph.” Don’t worry Murphy is a mechanic, and he’s able to use his wedding band to maneuver the vehicle to allow him to exceed the 35 mph limit. He uses a pit maneuver and knocks Taggert’s vehicle off the side of the mountain. We see the vehicle roll multiple times.

We then cut to see Murphy sitting on Clancy’s cabin porch drinking a soda. Clancy is shocked to see him (obvi bc he didn’t think he’d survive). Murphy informs him that Taggert and the others won’t be coming. They go inside to see Renkin, June, and Singh. Here they confront Clancy who tries to bargain with them. They aren’t having any of that. Murphy tells Clancy they are going to split the money with Murphy, June, Renkin, Singh, Olson’s family, and Clancy all getting equal shares. He leverages this because why would Clancy do anything to implicate himself. Murphy also has Clancy sign their release papers. He also has Clancy give him his vehicle, and we see the four of them drive away from Clancy’s cabin.

A little bit later we see June and Murphy dressed up at the same restaurant/bar(?) from the beginning of the film. We get these shots of a black door, and someone saying “Mr. Murphy, what are you doing here?” Well something along those lines, I can’t remember the exact words. We then see Murphy in the car saying how he ain’t ever been caught and he’ll never be caught which he repeats from the beginning of the film. He turns the mirror, and we see Penny in the back with her bear. The bear is significant because when they got evicted Penny sold her beloved bear, but Murphy was able to get it (and her) back in the end.

The film ends almost the same way it started - with Murphy and Penny in the car driving. We then have the credits where it shows who the characters are and who played them. I feel like this isn’t something we see as much now-a-days.

Overall Thoughts

Overall the film was gritty and real. I don’t think it was anything that was crazy new, but I did appreciate it for what it was. The actors did an amazing job, and I really liked all the characters. I do feel we didn’t connect super deeply with anyone as in the end not much was learned about each character truly. Murphy we get a little deeper than surface level but not by much. I think if you’re someone who is into action/thriller movies set in certain time periods then you would like this film. I can’t say that it would be one I’d rewatch though.

The movie was predictable in terms of the plot. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing as it did work. There was nothing in the movie that didn’t seem to fit with what was happening. I was surprised that The Man and his people didn’t come back later on in the film.

I think there was some stylistic choices that I did not necessarily care for. There were quite a few black screen scenes. There was enough that I am calling it out. It felt a little overused. The film itself was also very dark in terms of brightness that even in a movie theater it was hard to make out some of what was happening on the screen.

The score was very well-done which I touched on above. I think that really helped the movie out. Overall it was good. I don’t think the film was super action heavy. There were a few fight scenes, but beyond that it was more about the drama and grit of the journey.

No gifs from the movie since it isn’t technically out yet, and I can’t find any 😔

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Thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new film!

Happy watching! 🍿

Until next time,

(This gif is NOT from this movie)

XOXO 💗 Joe