Let’s get something clear right up front: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, already a walking monument to homoerotic spectacle, has finally gone full method daddy in A24’s upcoming bruiser of a biopic, The Smashing Machine. And honey, he brought the wig.
In this sweaty, brooding fever dream directed by Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, a.k.a. “gay panic but with diamonds”), Johnson transforms into real-life UFC legend and sad boy supreme Mark Kerr. We’re talking full prosthetics, busted knuckles, and one extremely sentient elbow. If you’ve ever wondered what The Rock would look like as a tortured, emotionally repressed, cornrowed tank of man—this one’s for the history books.
The trailer kicks off in a place we all dread: a medical waiting room. But instead of a clipboard and quiet resentment, we’re served bloodied-up Johnson and a perfectly cast elderly woman who asks, “Do you hate each other when you fight?” To which Johnson replies, without missing a beat:
“Absolutely not.”
Cue: bone-crunching montage of punches, body slams, and masculinity cracking at the seams like a cheap jockstrap.
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We get a taste of the glitzy UFC stage (spoiler: sequins not included), but the core of the film is Kerr’s spiral—his addiction battles, his relationship with Emily Blunt’s Dawn Staples, and his increasingly frayed sense of identity. At one point, Johnson-as-Kerr punches a wooden door, and I can only assume it did something unforgivable, like ask him how his day was.
In a behind-the-scenes video posted to his socials, Johnson showed off a battle wound from filming:
“Look at that sucker right there,” he said, pointing to his swollen elbow. “It looks like I have a cantaloupe in the bottom of my elbow… That’s a lot of fluid. We’ll see. I gotta get it out of there first before I get any kind of MRI.”
Truly a modern-day Shakespearean monologue, if Shakespeare had a protein sponsorship and wore Under Armour.
There’s something undeniably queer about this whole endeavor—not just because of the sweaty men grappling and mutual combat-as-bonding (though, let’s be real, that’s always been part of MMA’s draw). It’s the intimacy beneath the bruises. The coded tenderness in scenes of pain. The vulnerability in power. And yes, the fact that Johnson is out here embodying a man who wore a mask in the ring but couldn’t quite keep one on in real life. Kerr’s story, famously told in a 2002 HBO documentary, is full of contradictions that any queer person who’s ever had to “perform” a self can feel deep in their bones.
Also: the reunion of Johnson and Emily Blunt, post-Jungle Cruise camp extravaganza? Consider us emotionally invested. (Give the gays their Bluntstone rom-com already, cowards.)
The Smashing Machine also stars Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, and Oleksandr Usyk, which is basically like saying, “this movie will smell like Axe body spray and suppressed tears.” The film is produced by Johnson, his long-time collaborators, and Benny Safdie—so yes, expect anxiety. Lots of it.
You can catch this homoerotic opus in theaters starting October 3, 2025. Bring tissues. Or maybe just your emotional support butch.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
I think it’s time for Dwayne Johnson to really challenge his acting chops and do a play. He’s a bit too old for it, but he could do Streetcar, but then, that’s too obvious a choice. How about Death of a Salesman or The Crucible? The Iceman Cometh or A Moon for the Misbegotten? The Little Foxes?
Think about it!