Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 2025, and was theatrically released in United States by 20th Century Studios on October 24, 2025. The film received mixed reviews from critics, though the performances of White and Strong have received praise.
Bruce's friend and mechanic Matt drives him to the house in Colts Neck, and Bruce buys his first new car, a Chevrolet Camaro. Playing with local bands at the Stone Pony, he meets Faye Romano, an old classmate's younger sister. On the heels of his first top-ten song "Hungry Heart", his record label expects another hit album, and Bruce suggests trimming studio costs by preparing a demo himself.
Bruce has a troubled relationship with his father Douglas, an alcoholic battling mental health issues, which drove a young Bruce to defend his mother Adele with a baseball bat. Reading the works of Flannery O'Connor, Bruce catches the film Badlands on TV and is drawn to research the crime spree of Charles Starkweather. Inspired, he writes a song in the killer's own voice, and takes Faye on a date to Asbury Park.
At the house, Bruce enlists his guitar technician Mike Batlan to turn the bedroom into a makeshift studio, with a four-track recorder to arrange the demo themselves. Growing close to Faye and her young daughter Haley, Bruce writes a collection of stark, somber songs with a blue-collar perspective, influenced by his childhood memories, especially of his father. Jon informs Bruce of other opportunities piling up, including a possible movie role, but Bruce is committed to his new music. Recording his new tracks unaccompanied, he makes the risky choice to embrace an imperfect, unvarnished sound quality.
Mike brings Jon the only copy of the completed demo, a single cassette tape, and Jon confides in his wife about the unexpectedly darker, deeply personal songs. Living in California, Adele calls Bruce for help with an increasingly erratic Douglas. After visiting his father, Bruce arrives in New York City to record the new album, reuniting with the E Street Band. They lay down several successful tracks, including "Born in the U.S.A.", but Bruce is unhappy with the overall full-band studio sound of the record.
After two weeks of recording, Bruce has not recaptured his acoustic vision for the album. Abandoning Faye, he insists on shelving the potential hits until he is satisfied. Jon agrees to use Bruce's raw demo, unchanged, as the new record, suspecting Bruce fears losing himself in the face of success. Using older equipment to recreate the demo tape as a vinyl master recording, Bruce's original sound is successfully preserved for the new album, Nebraska.
Record executive Al Teller is dismayed by the stylistic departure, and the absence of the prospective hits, but Jon defends Bruce's artistic vision and decision to let the album speak for itself — no singles, tours, or press appearances, not even his face on the cover. Bruce tells Faye that he is moving to Los Angeles alone, and she tearfully accuses him of refusing to face his fears. He suffers a mental breakdown as Matt drives him across the country, but they reach his new home in LA. Contemplating suicide, Bruce reaches out to Jon, who urges him to seek professional help, and an emotional Bruce visits a therapist.
Ten months later, Bruce is back on tour with Jon's support, and is visited by his proud parents. Douglas asks the 32-year-old Bruce to sit on his lap for the first time, reconnecting with his son. An epilogue reveals that Nebraska reached number three on the charts, while the hits included on Bruce's following album, Born in the U.S.A., launched him to global superstardom, as he continued to seek treatment for depression.
In March 2024, the project was first announced, with Bruce Springsteen and his manager Jon Landau said to be actively involved with it. Producers are Scott Stuber, his first project since leaving as Chief of Film at Netflix, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Scott Cooper, and Eric Robinson (who first identified the story and, together with Goldsmith-Vein, brought the project to Cooper), with Cooper writing and directing the adaptation of Zanes' non-fiction book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (2023). Zanes was also named an Executive Producer. Jeremy Allen White was reported to be in talks to portray Springsteen and A24 was expected to acquire the distribution rights.[7][8]
In April 2024, it was revealed that 20th Century Studios had acquired the film in a heated bidding war with A24, joining the project as financier and distributor.[9][10]
On November 1 and 4, 2024, Springsteen made special visits to the sets in Rockaway and Bayonne, New Jersey, respectively, where he met with White.[21] The following month, on December 10 and 11, 2024, Springsteen also visited the sets in Asbury Park. This was followed by visits to the sets in the Meadowlands, on January 8 and 9, and then those in Freehold Borough, on January 10, 2025.[citation needed]
On January 11, 2025, filming wrapped, in Asbury Park.[citation needed]
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 2025, and was released theatrically by 20th Century Studios on October 24, 2025.[19][22]
Reception
Box office
As of October28,2025[update], Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere has grossed $11 million in the United States and Canada, and $7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18 million.[5]
In the United States and Canada, Deliver Me from Nowhere was released alongside Regretting You, Shelby Oaks and Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc, and was projected to gross $9–11 million from 3,460 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $9.1 million, finishing in fourth.[23][24]
Critical response
Deliver Me from Nowhere divided film critics, although White's and Strong's performances received praise, but was criticized for the repetitive plot points and tropes of the musician biopics.[25]On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 59% of 195 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Focusing on Bruce Springsteen's lowest emotional ebb, this brooding biopic too often feels like the B-sides from an extraordinary career but benefits from Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong's stellar performances."[26]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[23]
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