Him was first released in Mexico on September 18, 2025, and was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on September 19, 2025. The film received generally negative reviews from critics.
Plot
Young Cameron "Cam" Cade watches his favorite team, the San Antonio Saviors, win the league championship. His joy turns to distress when his idol, quarterback Isaiah White, suffers a violent, possibly career-ending injury while scoring the winning touchdown. Cam's father tells him that real men are willing to make sacrifices.
Years later, Cam's father has died and Cam is now a rising football star. Encouraged by his family and girlfriend, he trains for the league combine. While practicing late on an empty field, Cam is attacked by someone in a goat costume, causing a head injury that endangers his career. Motivated by his agent, Tom, Cam plans to attend the combine to pursue the Saviors' quarterback role, despite risking permanent brain damage should he sustain another injury. While overstimulated due to his concussion, Cam lashes out at his brother and Tom, ultimately refusing to participate in the combine. Tom later reveals that Isaiah is considering retirement and has offered to train Cam for a week at a remote desert compound to prove himself a worthy successor. Cam accepts and travels there, encountering crazed Isaiah fans who try to intimidate him out of replacing their hero.
At the compound, Isaiah puts Cam through disturbing challenges, including a practice drill where a football machine repeatedly hits a player in the head. Cam secretly receives shots of Isaiah's blood, which he is led to believe is an energy booster, and experiences frequent hallucinations of masked figures, which he attributes to the concussion. While in a sauna, Cam is attacked by a crazed fan but overpowers her. Isaiah arrives and emotionlessly kills her, to Cam's consternation. As Cam tries to leave, Elsie, Isaiah's wife, apologizes and seduces him. Cam wakes the next morning to Isaiah holding him at gunpoint, demanding to know if Cam and Elsie slept together. Isaiah ridicules Cam for feeling guilty, saying killers are remorseless.
Elsie invites Cam to a secret party to meet the Saviors' owners. Upon arrival, Marco, the team doctor, whispers to Cam to "run" before leaving. The owners offer Cam a strange red liquid, which he drinks, unaware that it is Isaiah's blood. A disoriented Cam finds Marco's severed head in a plastic-lined room. Elsie comforts him as he loses consciousness. Cam later wakes up in an ice bath at Isaiah's compound, connected to an IV of Isaiah's blood. He rips out the IV and grabs a jagged trophy, aiming to kill Isaiah and escape. Cam finds Isaiah watching a video of cheering fans. Isaiah reveals he is part of a line of manufactured "Greatest of all Time" (G.O.A.T.) players who gain enhanced powers from ritual blood transfusions. After Isaiah tells Cam they must fight to the death for the title, the two brawl, culminating in Cam bludgeoning Isaiah to death with a helmet.
Cam leaves the room and enters a football field where Tom, Elsie, and the Saviors' owners, wearing animal masks, present a contract for him to sign. They reveal that Cam's father arranged for him to be the next G.O.A.T., having been manipulated by the elites, and that the masked attack was orchestrated to lead Cam to the Saviors. Cam refuses to sign the contract; he kills the masked attacker (who had been silently approaching him from behind) with a hammer, then the owners and Elsie with a sword, but spares Tom, who is then dragged into a pentagram and destroyed by an unseen force. Outside the compound, a half-bloodied Cam walks past masked cheerleaders and into the desert.
Cast
Marlon Wayans plays Isaiah White.
Marlon Wayans as Isaiah White, a legendary quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors.
Tyriq Withers as Cameron "Cam" Cade, a young football player who is mentored by Isaiah.
Julia Fox as Elsie White, a social media influencer and Isaiah's wife.
Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie wrote a spec script initially titled Goat—in reference to the sports term "greatest of all time" (GOAT)—and took it out for sale with WME in April 2022.[7][8] In June 2022, Monkeypaw Productions, in a deal with Universal Pictures, bought the script.[9] At the end of the year, the script was voted onto the Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2022.[10] In January 2024, Justin Tipping was announced as the director with Marlon Wayans starring,[11] and later Tyriq Withers joined the cast.[12] In February, Julia Fox joined the cast.[13] The film was retitled Him with the setting of its release date in September 2025.[14]Principal photography was completed by November 2024.[15] The production budget had a net cost of $27 million.[16] It was filmed on location in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico. Spaceport America was used as an exterior location.[17]
Music
Bobby Krlic had composed the score for the film by April 2025.[18] The film's soundtrack was released on September 19, 2025.[19][20] On September 4, 2025, "Swim" by Guapdad 4000 and Mavi, and "Tip Toe" by Tierra Whack were released as singles from the soundtrack.[20] "Blitz" was released by Jean Dawson as the soundtrack's third single on September 10, 2025.[21] The soundtrack's fourth single, "Him" by Denzel Curry, was released on September 18, 2025.[22] The soundtrack released on September 19, 2025, alongside the film.[22]
Him (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) track listing
Him was first released in Mexico on September 18, 2025, and was theatrically released on September 19, 2025, by Universal Pictures.[14]
Reception
Box office
As of September21,2025[update], Him has grossed $13.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $362,000 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $13.9 million.[4][5]
In the United States and Canada, Him was released alongside A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and was projected to gross $15–18 million from 3,100 theaters in its opening weekend.[3] The film made $6.5 million on its first day, including $2 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $13.5 million, finishing second behind holdover Demon Slayer.[2]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 28% of 126 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Fumbling the ball well before the red zone, Him has style to spare but botches its promising concept with rookie execution."[23]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 38 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale.[2]
Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Amid the thrills, Him gets you thinking about the sport and all that it demands, potentially making monsters of our heroes in the process. But as the saying goes: Don’t hate the player, hate the game."[25]
IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a C-, stating, "Him knows that it’s silly as hell, but it has no idea how to balance that against the ostensible seriousness of its social critique, which is how you wind up with leaden dialogue sandwiched between moments of broad satire."[26] In a negative review for RogerEbert.com, Robert Daniel gave the film a 0.5 out of 4 rating, and wrote, "HIM wants to deliver psychic shocks, but the film doesn’t know what approach to take. The demonic scenes that seem to be inside Cam’s head—a glittering mascot wielding a sledgehammer often lurks in the shadows—oscillate between being internalized and externalized with no real logic backing up the switches. We see medicines injected by Isaiah’s personal trainer that are meant to increase Cam’s performance, but the body horror of watching the needle pierce Cam’s skin falls flat because we don’t know what’s in the vials or their actual effect. The film, for good measure, even tries to insert a Jesus motif whose religious importance is ham-fisted, rushed, and not all that original."[27]
Speaking about the negative reviews, Marlon Waynes said: "I respect critics. Their job is to Critique. I respect their work. It shapes our industry. But an opinion does not always mean it’s everyone’s opinion. Some movies are ahead of the curve. Innovation is not always embraced and art is to be interpreted and it’s subjective. I’ve had a career of making classic movies that weren’t critically recieved [sic] and those movies went on to be CLASSICS. So don’t take anyone’s opinion just go see for yourself."[28]
References
↑ "Him (18)". BBFC. September 9, 2025. Archived from the original on May 6, 2025. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
↑ "Him". Deadline Hollywood. September 19, 2025. Archived from the original on September 18, 2025. Retrieved September 20, 2025. Him was made for a net $27M.
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