Posted 9/18/2026
Directed by Padraic McKinley in his feature directorial debut, The Weight is a gritty, atmospheric Depression-era survival thriller. Set in 1933 Oregon, the film follows Samuel Murphy, a resourceful mechanic, WWI veteran, and devoted single father. He is portrayed with quiet, muscular intensity by Ethan Hawke.
After Murphy is unjustly ripped away from his seven-year-old daughter, Penny, and thrown into a brutal labor camp, he is approached by the duplicitous Warden Clancy. Clancy is played by Russell Crowe with a quietly menacing, tobacco-spitting edge. With the federal government moving to seize privately held gold, Clancy and a group of corrupt authorities plan to steal a shipment and need it smuggled out of a remote mine.
In exchange for early freedom, Murphy and a high-stakes crew of fellow inmates—including the abrasive Rankin (Austin Amelio), the idealistic Singh (Avi Nash), and the naive Olson (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen)—are tasked with carrying heavy backpacks of gold across 100 miles of unforgiving Pacific Northwest wilderness.
Along the treacherous journey, they are joined by Anna, an Indigenous runaway seeking freedom from servitude, portrayed with raw emotion by Julia Jones. Drawing comparisons to classic suspense cinema like Sorcerer, the film evolves into a tense physical and psychological gauntlet. As natural hazards, suspicion, and deep-seated paranoia fracture the group from within, Murphy must risk everything against the elements and his fellow convicts simply to survive and reunite with his child.
Movie descriptions were generated by Google Gemini.
