Fuze review (2026)

July 2, 2026 Jeffrey Lyles Aaron Taylor-Johnson, David Mackenzie, Elham Ehsas, Fuze, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Worthington, Theo James

Fuze starts off sizzling with an intense high-stakes issue before fizzling out over a series of convoluted betrayals and double crosses.

The biggest disappointment is that Fuze feels on the verge of delivering on its unique premise.

A construction crew in downtown London makes a startling discovery while excavating — a bomb from World War II was buried deep underground. Fearful of triggering the device and the potential cataclysmic loss of life, police and a military bomb defusing unit are called in.

Chief Superintendent Zuzana Greenfield (Gugu Mbatha Raw, The Woman in Cabin 10) heads up the police effort directing an evacuation to ensure that no residents or workers are caught in the blast.

Among those residents being evacuated is Rahim (Elham Ehsas). Director David Mackenzie focuses on Rahim and his family a bit too long for him to be a random character inserted into the mix. This raises questions if Rahim is just a red herring intended to arouse suspicion or if he somehow has some connections to the bomb’s discovery.

On the military front, Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bullet Train) brings his squad — including sapper commander Dootsie (Saffron Hocking) and bomb expert Martin (Alexander Arnold) — to the site. Martin starts questioning if the bomb is the relic that it appears as some inconsistencies pop up during his initial inspection.

In the evacuation confusion, four thieves led by Karalis (Theo James) and X (Sam Worthington, the Avatar franchise) take advantage of the distraction to pull off a complex heist. The heist segment is some of the best moments in Fuze as it’s always fun watching a competent group of thieves in action especially when they don’t have to fire a shot.

Screenwriter Ben Hopkins does a commendable job of making the three subplots engaging, which isn’t easy for a heist film. Typically, the thieves have to be smart in order to carry out their plan. In Fuze, Hopkins makes them work for it. Characters don’t suddenly start acting stupid in order to move the plot along.

Mackenzie paces the film well for the first hour crafting a tense atmosphere as Tranter and his team carefully go about the nerve-wracking bomb defusing process; Karalis and his team trying to stay ahead of Zuzana’s police forces even as they start realizing something else is amiss.

Fuze starts to unravel by its midway point when Hopkins begins introducing a series of swerves and double-crosses. This affects some of the character decisions and logistics causing questions that wouldn’t have been raised without the twists. Fuze initially works because the characters don’t have to rely on conveniences to keep their subplots rolling.

In the back end of the film, things have to line up far too smoothly for the characters who assume that there would be no unexpected variables messing up the works.

One character betrays their allies only to get betrayed by another group, who easily should have killed them if they didn’t have to get to another location for the sake of the story. Eventually, they’re explained but that relies on the viewer not checking out before that point.

Script issues aside, Mackenzie delivers on the smaller stage action sequences. Elaborate layered shootouts wouldn’t fit the tone of Fuze and Mackenzie wisely keeps them small scale yet efficiently executed.

The ensemble is particularly solid making the second act shift more frustrating since it sidelines so many of the more engaging cast members like Mbatha-Raw, Hocking and Arnold.

Taylor-Johnson continues his knack for taking on roles featuring complex characters. He could easily parlay his talents into easy, mindless leading man roles but his preference to take on more challenging roles makes him a more interesting performer than the latest flavor of the month star. Taylor-Johnson provides Fuze with a stable presence of which the other performers can play off against.

James has seemed like a star waiting for that freak showcase project. It’s not Fuze, but he’s solid as the unpredictable man with the plan. Worthington is the most familiar performer with a sizable amount of screen time yet ultimately isn’t that major a player. He’s even got a generic name.

Fuze has a very enjoyable first act, but the shaky second half stalls out the fun to nearly make this a misfire.