The Native American fighter-turned-actress plays the colleague of a cop accused of murder in Timur Bekmambetov’s sci-fi thriller.
When we last checked in with Kali Reis, the celebrated Native American fighter tuned actor, she was a state trooper helping the local police chief (Jodie Foster) stalk a killer through the extended winter darkness of a fictional Alaskan town in True Detective: Night Country.
She’s wearing a badge again in Mercy, an ingenious futuristic sci-fi thriller directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) that opens in theaters and drive-ins everywhere this weekend.
In the new film, however, she is the sometimes supportive, sometimes skeptical partner of an LAPD cop, played by Chris Pratt from the Guardians of the Universe franchise, who’s been accused of murdering his wife. Talk about your rough justice: In 2029, accused killers with a preponderance of evidence against them are forced to stand trial before an unforgiving A.I. judge, jury, and potential executioner (Rebecca Ferguson of Dune and A House of Dynamite) under a high-tech anti-crime program known as (yes, you guessed it) Mercy.
Even under the best of circumstances, this would be a stressful situation for Raven. But to make matters incalculably worse, he has just 90 minutes to prove his innocence, or at least generate some reasonable doubt. Otherwise, he’s a goner. He knows he can count on fellow cop Jacqueline “Jaq” Diallo (Reis) to help him clear his name. On the other hand, he also knows she is not just a tough customer — she’s also a true believer when it comes to Mercy.
When she isn’t re-examining crime scenes or zipping around L.A. in a mini-helicopter, Jac kicks an abundance of ass without working up a sweat. It’s quite a change from Reis’ most recent role in last year’s Rebuilding, the acclaimed indie drama directed by Max Walker-Silverman about a community picking up the pieces after a devastating wildfire. For her moving portrayal of Mali, a sweet-souled farmer’s wife, Reis has been nominated for an Film Independent Spirit Award in the Best Supporting Performance category.
(This isn’t Reis’ first rodeo: In 2022, she was nominated for a Spirit prize in the Best Lead Performance category for her acting debut in Catch the Fair One, which cast her as Kaylee “K.O.” Uppashaw, a former boxer who takes her fight beyond the ring when she discovers her missing sister might be circulating in a trafficking network.)
Reis recently joined us in the C&I Studio to talk about Mercy, Rebuilding, and — fleetingly — Wind River: The Next Chapter, the eagerly awaited sequel to Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River (2017), in which she’s carrying a badge yet again as an FBI agent investigating the murder of a Native woman. Let’s roll the video.
