Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Starts Slow and Builds to a Fury: Review

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man knows exactly what fans of the BBC/Netflix series want to see: Cillian Murphy as not-quite-reformed gangster Tommy Shelby, enforcing his particular brand of no-bullshit business on anyone who deserves it. The new movie, unfortunately, makes the audience wait for that. Set in 1940 England, as World War II rages in the skies above, The Immortal Man keeps its action intimate, focusing on Tommy grappling with the violent choices that have defined his life, and the regrets he’s been left with.

The Immortal Man, like so much of Peaky Blinders, draws its narrative inspiration directly from actual historical events. In this case, it begins by introducing the very real Operation Bernhard, a Nazi plan to destroy the British economy by flooding it with counterfeit banknotes, manufactured by concentration camp prisoners. Overseeing the campaign is Beckett (Tim Roth), a Nazi collaborator who needs local help in distributing the fake money — and accordingly hires Tommy’s older son Duke (now played by Barry Keoghan) to assist him.

Duke’s been running the Peaky Blinders gang for a while, because Tommy retreated from the world years ago. Holed up in the countryside to write a book about his life, Tommy tells his visiting sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) that while he knows he’s not being present for either of his sons, “I was never a father, Ada, I was a form of government. I no longer believe in government of any kind.”

Tommy is eventually dragged back into the world, though, thanks to the arrival of Kaulo Chirklo (Rebecca Ferguson), a Roma woman whose deceased twin sister was a past lover of Tommy’s — specifically, she was Duke’s mother. Kaulo claims to be able to channel spirits including her sister, bringing in a touch of the spiritualism that was always a part of the original series. (Do you have to believe that Kaulo can actually commune with the dead? Nah. That Tommy believes it is what really matters.)

The first half of the movie, which alternates between setting up Beckett’s evil scheme and Tommy’s countryside melancholy, does feature some engaging enough violence. However, once Tommy leaps back into action (even getting a suiting-up montage like he’s freaking Batman), The Immortal Man really starts to cook. This includes a bold (and hilarious) re-entry into society at the Garrison and Tommy grappling with Duke’s uncertain loyalties, especially as family gets involved. Cue Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand”…

Peaky Blinders was created by the wildly prolific Steven Knight, who in just the last five years has created and written eight other TV shows and four movies, including The Immortal Man. That’s in addition to writing the sixth season of Blinders. He’s currently writing the next James Bond movie for Denis Villeneuve and a Peaky Blinders spinoff series. His strengths as a writer include compelling plots, some great dialogue, and a fearlessness when it comes to twists; his weaknesses lie in storytelling that could always be a little tighter. All those qualities are present here.

The cast, while small, remains excellent. Despite being an in-demand actor for decades, Murphy has remained admirably dedicated to Peaky Blinders, regularly making time for the show, in between indie darlings and Christopher Nolan movies, during its original 2013-2022 run. To be clear about the timeline: Season 6 premiered just as Murphy was in production on Oppenheimer. And now, post-Oscar win, he dons the role of Tommy like it’s a suit that never goes out of style, not once struggling to capture Tommy’s inner turmoil or intense ruthlessness.

Meanwhile, Barry Keoghan, replacing Conrad Khan in the role of Duke, combines his now-signature fuckboi energy with a kind of ruthlessness. It indicates how far Duke has drifted from the principles Tommy once held, highlighting the fractured relationship between father and son. Rebecca Ferguson isn’t given much to do beyond offering her witchy wisdom, while Stephen Graham of recent Netflix hit Adolescence returns as his sixth season character Hayden Stagg, and Tim Roth plays the role of Nazi agent with the kind of unapologetic aplomb that wouldn’t feel out of place in an Indiana Jones movie.

While the ongoing war is always present in the background of The Immortal Man, the film’s scope feels a little small — in part because Tommy has little remaining family or alliances at this stage of the game. (If you need a recap of why that is, there is an official Netflix recap of the first six episodes, hosted by Rebecca Ferguson.) Still, Knight and director Tom Harper bring an epic feel to the movie’s ultimate climax, which benefits from a clear-eyed stance about who the bad guys are: The Nazis, always. The conclusion almost has an operatic feel, drawing out some top-tier acting from Murphy even as things get a little melodramatic in tone.

The ending of the movie is not the end of Peaky Blinders as a story — as mentioned above, Knight is currently working on a sequel series, already greenlit for two seasons by Netflix. But it is sweet to see the show reach the literal pinnacle a TV show can hope to achieve, as defined by NBC’s Community: #sixseasonsandamovie.

The Immortal Man is very much not a jumping-on point for newcomers to the Shelby gang. But it does capture what made the original series so watchable: The grand scope of history as seen from the ground, the daily grind of crime in sharp contrast to world events, and the everyday men and women just trying to survive it all. Also, yes, none of us live forever. But great characters like Tommy Shelby? They are truly immortal.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man arrives in select movie theaters on March 6th, then premieres on Netflix March 20th. Check out the most recent trailer below.