A star-studded cast, an intriguing premise and the promise of striking visuals all play in the favor of this brand-new acquisition (out in the USA and France only). But does this new high-concept dark comedy deliver the goods?
Romain Gavras is certainly one of the most high-profile directors working today. Having made waves in the music video scene, the French director also released three movies, with varying degrees of success, including one on Netflix, 2022’s Athena. Premiering in the fall of 2025 at the Toronto Film Festival, his latest was also his most high-profile project, with an all-star cast composed of Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, Salma Hayek-Pinault and John Malkovich. But, as the movie is set to have a theatrical release in multiple territories; it has also been released direct to Netflix in the United States, and in France. A move that recalls the multiple deals made during/after COVID when global theaters were not reopening; but what exactly is Sacrifice?
As the tagline states, “change requires sacrifice”. And no one needs change more than Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), an actor making his first return to the public eye during a charity gala on a magnificent Greek island, set to raise funds to counter climate change. Tyler had a widely shared meltdown on the set of his previous peplum, and his agent (Sam Richardson) also doubles as his handler. The ceremony is attended by a tech billionaire, Ben Bracken (Cassel), and his wife, pop star Gloria (Salma Hayek-Pinault): the former has an axe to grind with Mike, while the latter openly empathizes with his plight and recovering mental health. What nobody knows is that the event will soon become a hostage crisis from a group of terrorists led by Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy). Their plan: sacrifice three people into the nearby volcano before it erupts and dooms the world.
Sacrifice wastes no time in laying its satire on thick: mainly, it targets the self-absorbed 1% who give money and pretend to care about causes like global warming, while all of it being a phony, performative charade (Gloria, the singer, has just released an album “told from the perspective of a flood”). Meanwhile, itchy and outspoken Mike sees through it and just takes it upon himself to rant and chastise the crowd, all to mockery. The cringe aspects are told very broadly, but lack bite: it all feels like a very Saturday Night Live level of satire, which is not helped by easy laughs.
The arrival of Joan and their radical group, which was triggered by the death of their mother in the first sequence of the film, infuses more energy into the proceedings. But it defuses expectations from there: after a rite of humiliation, the group successfully escapes the premises after choosing three victims for their sacrifice. One would think the situation would evolve into a hostage crisis, where some of the kidnapped will eventually get into the radical views of their kidnappers; but Gavras has no interest in echoing actual environmental groups or militant factions.
Copyright 2026 Netflix, Inc.
Sacrifice plays like a meeting of the minds, and a frustrating character study: Tyler is conflicted between his newfound role as a mouthpiece for the group and his obvious empathy for the principles edicted by Joan, he who yearns for something “real”, and Evans plays the pompous, self-absorbed thespian entertainingly enough that we don’t mind. But Joan, as played by Taylor-Joy, is given an absurd background storyline for her existence and small group, which gives her all the poise of a rebellious teenager, as opposed to the determined figure we saw earlier in the movie.
Gavras relies on his strengths: alarming, choir music and fire-and-brimstone colors (some of which were shot in Iceland) to heighten the gloom-and-doom of the situation. But, as the tiresome “dream sequences” and even more outlandish plot points pile on, the so-called political points of the movie become muddled, and the gap between satire and apocalyptic dread becomes even wider. Even worse, the entire project plays like an “inside joke” played by indie “enfants terribles” without us joining in on the fun.
MVP
Cr: Copyright 2026 Netflix.
Anya Taylor-Joy
The star of The Queen’s Gambit, Mad Max: Furiosa and next for Netflix,How To Kill Your Family has no trouble giving this movie a confident, commanding performance as Joan. Even as the script remains too broad to properly flesh out her character, Anya Taylor-Joy may be the only saving grace of a forgettable movie.
If you like Sacrifice, watch
Don’t Look Up
Athena
The Queen’s Gambit
Verdict
After a snarky yet hollow start, Sacrifice devolves into a mess, accumulating plot holes and forgetting about most of its characters. The undercooked script is unforgiving to a game cast, mostly Evans and Taylor-Joy.
Note: Sacrifice is only streaming on Netflix in select regions.
