HIM (2025) Review

https://youtu.be/hpEy0iOixb4?is=HWcE8E09vA0HcCXB

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Sometimes, a man has to be more than great at a cost, he has to become HIM.


PLOT


The 2025 film follows Cameron Cade Junior who grew up watching football with his father Cam Sr (Don Benjamin) who told him real men are willing to make sacrifices. He tells him this after seeing his favorite player, quarterback Isaiah White of the San Antonio Saviors, suffer a violent injury that nearly ended his career. By the time of becoming a young adult, Cam still aspires to play for the Saviors and prepares to train at an NFL combine. That almost doesn’t happen when being attacked by a costumed figure. The injury puts his career at risk due to possible brain damage should he have another similar injury, but Cam is encouraged by his agent Tom to train with Isaiah himself at his desert compound for one week, as he wants to find a successor before potential retirement. Training is instantly uncomfortable after the first day because he is put through intense challenges such as a practice drill where he has to master his speed in passing/tossing the ball or players voluntarily get struck in the face via jug machine. He even severely headbutts another player which surprisingly doesn’t affect him. Afterwards, he’s given shots of Isaiah’s blood that he is mistaken to be booster shots. As that leads to him having hallucinations that he believes to contribute from a concussion, he gets attacked by an obsessive fan named Marjorie until Isaiah kills her. Despite being saved, he’s stunned to see how remorseless he acted. Wanting to leave, Isaiah’s wife Elsie apologizes for his past behavior, claiming what happens at the compound, and convinces him to stay by seducing him with models to sleep with. When he wakes up, Isaiah holds him at gunpoint trying to get him to admit he slept his wife, only for him to say he shouldn’t feel remorse if he did whether or not it would affect his girlfriend Jasmine. After having some target practice and a photo shoot, Elsie invites Cam to a party where he gets to meet the owners of the Saviors. There, he is told by the team doctor Marco (Jim Jeffries) to run before secretly giving him a serum ahead of departure. The owners then give Cam red liquid, not telling him he’s drinking Isaiah’s blood. The blood disorients him as he would find Marco’s head severed in another room, leading to Elsie to comfort him until he passes out. Waking up again, he finds himself in an ice bath back at the compound and removes the IV attached to him. He takes Marco’s serum and finds Isaiah in a room watching a video of cheering fans. He explains to he’s part of a lineage of manufactured players that gain enhanced abilities via blood transfusions. With them both having transfusions, they must fight to the death as there can be only one GOAT (Greatest of All Time). Ultimately, Cam bludgeons Isaiah with a football helmet to win. He then leaves the room and finds himself in a football stadium where Elsie, Tom and the Saviors’ owners wait for him to sign a contract where he’ll officially play for them. Tom tries encouraging Can when revealing his dad arranged for him to be the next GOAT knowing no one else would draft him, meaning his attack before joining the compound was orchestrated. When he refuses to sign, the owners threaten to kill his family. He then responds by attacking his masked assailant with a warhammer which turns out to be his trainer Malek (Maurice Greene). Elsie tries to intervene, only for her to fall into her own knife and die. Can then kills all the owners with a sword, while he allows Tom to die in a pentagram by an unseen force and the film ends with him walking into the desert. 


THOUGHTS


The best way to discuss this film is through Pros and Cons.


Pros: It’s been pretty hard to find the right words when it comes to discussing of a movie so bold at its time. That just comes to show how impressive it is deep down. Everyone wants to label this a Jordan Peele movie because his studio, Monkeypaw Productions, is behind it. At the end of the day however, this belongs to writer/director Justin Tipping. This is more psychedelic than psychological because at every passing moment, you’re just left thinking how the hell can this be possible. Bobby Krlic’s score is on point being unsettling and Kira Kelly’s cinematography is able to ante up the inner chaos that becomes outward. Front and center, this is a tale of exploitation and while the focus is a sports perspective, it can reflect any platform in the entertainment industry for those that are treated like product first and human later. When you make success a religion and pass on painful ambition, it’ll only be a new example of generational trauma you’ve been wanting to avoid. If you know the difference, stick the course and avoid repeating the same mistakes of predecessors you may deem idols. This is the dynamic between veteran actor Marlon Wayans & breakout Tyriq Withers who are of course on opposite sides of the coin in this debate. Wayans relishes in making Isaiah an ideal megalomaniac who isn’t yet ready to give up glory he didn’t really earn compared to one who had no idea he was groomed into the industry. As much as he trains him, he wants to scare him out of it but mostly molded a great enemy since the latter used his methods against him. Withers shines bright as Cam who genuinely loved football like any ideal kid that becomes fascinated with it at first. He shouts aloud he’ll sacrifice everything to succeed, but he only says that because he’s forced to feel that way since he never intends to hurt anyone until he has no choice to fight for himself for a change. It’s not exactly a happy ending for him to kill his way out for freedom, but it’s better than succumbing to a cycle he never asked to be part of. If he remained surrounded by other manipulators the way Tim Heidecker & Julia Fox portrayed Tom & Elsie or relish in having a fanatic the way Naomi Grossman depicted Marjorie, he was never gonna be happy nor have it both ways. At the very least, living freely matters most and it’ll up to him what he’ll do next after all that had transpired.


Cons: There is enough I can say left me impressed, but not enough to address the many confusing things to notice during a rewatch. Like for starters, I get that Cam needs to have a breakdown before getting to meet Isaiah, but it’s totally on his brother to cut his hair where the staples are when he specifically asked to not have a haircut during the combine conference event. It even felt so weird that in Cam’s first of many ice baths, that’s how long it takes for him to notice Isaiah’s transfusions when he should’ve noticed way before cooling down. And how did Marjorie even sneak into the compound? There’s gotta be cameras in the area considering how famous Isaiah is. Hell, I even wonder if she ever passed out prior considering she had to have hid in the sauna for a while. There’s even continuity errors involving Isaiah having a cigar during the target practice between takes and it’s weird. Elsie also shouldn’t even need to explain who the Saviors’ owners are since she had to have known Cam is a fan of the team and met one of them before. The worst part is that Cam says he earned his opportunity when that is actually not true as he later finds out. Maybe that’s part of the point since he didn’t know it yet, but then it feels problematic that the Saviors chose to attack him as that could’ve made him incapable of playing. Yes he gets the GOAT blood to make him stronger, but the headshot could’ve been fatal and it would’ve been all for nothing.


In conclusion, HIM is a thriller that tests enough boundaries even if it means being loud in getting the point across. If those are the kind of movies you like, check this out