Ethan Hawke & Russell Crowe’s New R-Rated Thriller Gets Official Audience Verdict On Rotten Tomatoes

Published Sep 19, 2026, 10:16 AM EDT

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. 

The Rotten Tomatoes audience verdict is in for The Weight.

In this R-rated thriller set during the Great Depression, Ethan Hawke plays Samuel Murphy, a man trapped in a brutal work camp and desperate to reunite with his daughter. Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe) gives Murphy the opportunity to be released early, but only if he and a crew of fellow convicts can successfully smuggle gold through the wilderness, where they must survive the natural elements and potential betrayal.

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Weight has received an audience score of 80% based on more than 100 verified ratings. As more audience reviews are added to the aggregation site, the score may fluctuate. For now, it is lower than the critics' score, which is a "Certified Fresh" 93% based on 103 reviews.

Many of the audience reviews praised Hawke's lead performance, Crowe's portrayal of Warden Clancy, and the unrelenting tension throughout the entire runtime. As for where the movie struggles, several of the reviews take issue with the slower pacing and that the ending feels somewhat out of place with the rest of the film.

In ScreenRant's The Weight review, Alex Harrison gave the movie a rating of seven out of 10 stars. He was also impressed by the movie's tension, so much so that "I would rather watch these characters have a tense conversation than actually try to kill each other." In addition to praising Hawke, he highlights the casting of Austin Amelio, "who brilliantly plays Rankin as the one member of this crew who could believably derail this enterprise by accident or by choice."

Instead of criticizing the pacing, Harrison notes how the third act's escalation in violence feels "conventional" and doesn't "play into the emotional promise of the more grounded opening, even with Hawke there to string it all together." He also has a very different take on the story's conclusion compared to many of the audience reviews: "No one should worry they'll be let down by the ending – how The Weight chooses to finish this story, especially given where it started, is thoroughly entertaining."

After multiple decades of starring in Hollywood movies and receiving acclaim and award recognition for their performances, The Weight marks the first time that Hawke and Crowe have been in a movie together. Earlier this year, Hawke got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Blue Moon. Between The Weight, Blue Moon, She Dances, Black Phone 2, and Wildcat, this is now his fifth movie in a row with a "Fresh" audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ethan Hawke Movie	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
The Weight (2026)	80%
She Dances (2025)	86%
Blue Moon (2025)	76%
Black Phone 2 (2025)	82%
Wildcat (2023)	69%

Crowe's "Fresh" Rotten Tomatoes streak ended with The Get Out, a crime thriller that received a 45% score from critics and 52% from audiences. Prior to that, both Beast and Nuremberg landed "Fresh" Tomatometer and Popcornmeter scores, and Kraven the Hunter received a 72% score from audiences.

The Weight was directed by Padraic McKinley, with this being his feature film debut after previously directing episodes of the television series Kingdom, Fightworld, and Debris. Along with Hawke, Crowe, and Amelio, the cast features Avi Nash, Lucas Lynggaard Tonnesen, Julia Jones, Sam Hazeldine, George Burgess, Alec Newman, and Avy Berry. It originally debuted at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and is theatrically distributed by Vertical.

The Weight is now playing in theaters.