AI is presented as a force for good in new thriller Mercy – until it suddenly isn’t. The real-time film presents a world in which advanced technology handles justice by strapping the accused to a chair and giving them 90 minutes to prove their innocence. If they don’t? Their chair becomes an electric one.
In a twist, Chris Pratt’s LAPD officer, who helped create the robot judge (an AI RoboCop, if you will) finds himself on the opposite side of proceedings, and at the mercy of AI Judge Madox (Rebecca Ferguson). But as the clock ticks down, he realises that her lack of sentience might have helped reduce crime rates, but is actually an obstruction to justice. Who’d have thought?
“It’s appalling, it’s horrendous, it’s scary,” Ferguson tells The Independent when asked about her views on the rise of AI. “It’s also something that we don’t understand: I haven’t made the technology. I don’t know how quickly it grows. I don’t know how quickly it learns.”
Addressing the concerns surrounding AI’s Hollywood takeover, Ferguson added: “Things that are written should be written by people with experience, so when you read it, you know you can relate to the experience because you know the person who wrote it actually has experience.”
Pratt acknowledged he has more fears of AI than he lets on.“I’d like to say that I’m not scared of it, but I also say please and thank you, knowing that one day it’ll be like: ‘Spare him; he was polite.’ So I must be kind of scared.”
There is nuance to the debate, said Ferguson, who levelled that AI can also be “very helpful”. For example: “People who can’t afford therapy can do AI and they can still get help.”
In 2025, a New England Journal of Medicine study suggested that AI therapy could be effective for people with major depressive disorder, with chatbot therapy platforms using data to alleviate symptoms. However, there is increasing debate over its usefulness, with many believing humans and humans alone should treat those with emotional disorders.
But Ferguson said “as someone who can afford things”, it should be remembered that “life isn’t like that for the rest of the people, so you have to be very careful with your opinions when it can help in so many ways”.
Watch the full interview below:
Mercy, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, is released in cinemas now.
