"Fuze," directed by David Mackenzie and written by Ben Hopkins, comes to theaters after premiering at the 2025 Toronto international Film Festival. The festival, which is held every September, is considered the unofficial kick off to the Oscar season of any given year. The TIFF seal of approval that "Fuze" arrives with might give the movie a haughty sheen it doesn't exactly earn - and that's okay. Sometimes a lean, junky action picture is what the mind needs. "Fuze" satisfies that craving.
The movie, with its generic one-word title and even more generic-looking poster, looks like something that would be lost in the bowels of Netflix and only get played after 30 minutes of scrolling has worn a viewer down. Mackenzie, who directed last year's 1970s-inspired paranoia thriller "Relay," is comfortable in the action-thriller genre and has explored it thoughtfully with movies like 2016's Oscar-nominated "Hell or High Water." His latest has no higher ambitions but provides just enough action and thrills to sustain 90 minutes at the movies.
"Fuze" is built under a ticking clock construct, when an undetonated World War II bomb is discovered at a London construction site. Just minutes into the movie authorities are swarming the site, including Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who is called upon to help with defusing the bomb before it explodes and wipes out everyone in the surrounding area. Gugu Mbatha-Raw co-stars as Zuzana, the officer on the phone trying to keep everyone safe.
There's another plot happening concurrently involving Karalis (Theo James) and X (Sam Worthington), who are trying to break into a bank's vault while London's law enforcement is busy tending to the unearthed bomb. What a conveniently perfect time to try and crack a vault, isn't it? It shouldn't be a surprise that these storylines eventually become entangled, and "Fuze" becomes a less interesting movie when they do. As an action-thriller, twists are part of the movie's make-up, but as the screenplay expands, "Fuze" becomes much more conventional.
Mackenzie moves "Fuze" along at a good pace, but the movie's back half can't stand up against the exciting opening. In the early moments of the movie, Mackenzie wastes no time getting into the action and putting each character on the clock. As the predictable twists begin to pile on, everything about "Fuze" starts to get muddled, and the movie loses its footing. Even so, there's enough action and tension to fulfill an action craving.
| Movie title | Fuze |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2026 |
| MPAA Rating | R |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | With its generic one-word title and even more generic-looking poster this 2025 TIFF entry comes across like something that's doomed to the bowels of Netflix, but it's an actioner with enough tension to fulfill a craving. |
