The Smashing Machine

The Smashing Machine (2025) — watch online on iFILM: an A24 biographical drama about the real rise and unraveling of Mark Kerr, the ground-and-pound heavyweight who ruled early mixed martial arts. Director Benny Safdie cast Dwayne Johnson as Kerr and Emily Blunt as his girlfriend Dawn Staples in a 123-minute film produced alongside Seven Bucks Productions.

Late 1990s. Kerr tears through PRIDE and UFC events with a kind of cold efficiency that earns him the nickname "The Smashing Machine." Off the mat, opioid painkillers have quietly become as essential as his training routine. Dawn watches the man she loves disappear into a cycle of injury, pills and obsession — while Kerr keeps telling himself one more win will fix everything.

Safdie frames the story less as a sports film and more as a portrait of self-destruction at full speed, with Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman and real-life fighters Bas Rutten and Oleksandr Usyk appearing on screen. Stream The Smashing Machine (2025) online on iFILM.