Watch “Warrior” Movie
Haunted by a tragic past, ex-Marine Tommy Conlon (Hardy) returns home for the first time in fourteen years to enlist the help of his father (Nick Nolte) to train for SPARTA, the biggest winner-takes-all event in mixed martial arts history. A former wrestling prodigy, Tommy blazes a path toward the championship while his brother, Brendan (Edgerton), an ex-fighter-turned teacher, returns to the ring in a desperate bid to save his family from financial ruin. But when Brendan’s unlikely, underdog rise sets him on a collision course with the unstoppable Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront each other and the forces that pulled them apart, facing off in the most soaring, soul stirring, and unforgettable climax that must be seen to be believed.
Shot on location in working-class Pittsburgh, the movie, with its gritty look and punchy editing, is an unapologetic powerhouse of emotional conflict.
While it doesn’t escape the standard fight-film tropes (such as the drive to rise above the milieu’s seediness and the explosion of testosterone that informs every decision), the movie is so skillfully made, and the performances are so convincingly real (Hardy is sensational), that, as it reaches its cathartic, winning finish, it achieves a surprising compassion and honesty.
Warrior takes the opposite approach in almost every respect. It’s a very small, very blunt, blue-collar Pittsburgh story with a lot on its mind about what working-class folks are up against these days. Its story centers on two estranged brothers, neither of whom can stand their alcoholic dad, who has growled into vibrant life by Nick Nolte. Iraq-war vet Tommy, as played by Tom Hardy, is damaged goods — angry, brutal, quite literally spoiling for a fight.