That's the kind of blunt, dangerous promise you make to yourself in a moment of desperation. It's what you say when the odds are stacked against you, and you've got nowhere left to go but forward. It's also the first line out of Orlando Bloom's mouth in the new trailer for Sean Ellis's intense boxing film, The Cut. From the looks of it, a brutal comeback is on the cards—and not just in the ring.
First impressions? This is not your grandfather's boxing flick. Forget the triumphant training montage and the soaring score of a Rocky sequel. The poster itself—a close-up of a battered, haunted Bloom, his face a canvas of swelling and scar tissue—tells you everything you need to know. The title isn't just about a wound that stops a fight; it's a deliberate, gruesome double-entendre for the intensive, illegal weight-cutting program at the heart of this story. This is about physical pain as a form of self-flagellation, and a psychological cut that never healed.
We're told Bloom's character, known only as “The Boxer,” was forced out of the ring a decade ago by a particularly nasty gash. Now, with a title shot suddenly on the table, he needs to drop a “precipitous number of pounds in just six days.” That's a death march, not a training regimen. And to get there, he teams up with a shady trainer, played with a brash, gravelly menace by John Turturro. The visual cues in the trailer are all about claustrophobia and decay—sweat dripping in a grimy Las Vegas room, the frantic panic of a body pushed beyond its limits. It's a psychological thriller as much as it is a sports drama, maybe more so.
Director Sean Ellis, the British filmmaker behind the bleakly beautiful Metro Manila and the acclaimed WWII thriller Anthropoid, has always had an eye for the harsh realities beneath the surface. He doesn't shy away from the brutal, and TIFF's early review confirms it: “Many scenes are brutal, yet you cannot look away… The Cut is about wounds that will not heal.” This isn't just about winning a title; it's about a man trying to exorcise old ghosts through violence, to punish himself for a past he can't escape. It reminds me of the raw, unflinching look at male rage in a film like Raging Bull—less about the sport, more about the broken man inside the athlete. And that, frankly, is far more compelling than another feel-good story.
After premiering at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival last year, Ellis's film has been quietly building buzz. Now, Voltage Pictures is set to debut The Cut in select US theaters on September 5th, 2025, with a UK and Ireland release also slated for early September. A year is a long time to wait, but if the final product lives up to this trailer's intensity, it might just be worth it.
Five Things to Know About Orlando Bloom's ‘The Cut'
A Brutal Physical and Psychological Transformation Orlando Bloom delivers a career-defining performance as “The Boxer,” undergoing an intense physical transformation for a role that delves into the psychological toll of obsession and past trauma.
A Director with a Gritty Vision Filmmaker Sean Ellis, known for his work on Anthropoid and The Cursed, brings his signature raw, uncompromising style to the boxing genre, focusing on the dark underbelly of a comeback story.
A Dangerous Path to Redemption The plot centers on a former champion's desperate attempt to cut a dangerous amount of weight in just six days, pushing his body to the brink with the help of a morally ambiguous trainer played by John Turturro.
A Winding Road Since TIFF The film made its initial debut at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival to critical buzz, and is now finally making its way to audiences one year later.
A September Release in the US and UK The Cut is set for release in select US theaters starting on September 5th, 2025, with a theatrical release in UK and Ireland cinemas scheduled for early September 2025.
What do you think? Does this look like a knockout, or just another punch thrown in the dark? Tell us your thoughts on the trailer below.
