Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy headline the thought-provoking Sacrifice, a satirical action-adventure that marks Romain Gavras’s English-language debut.

After the fiery death of their mother, Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her siblings, guided by a mysterious volcanic prophecy, believe it is their duty to cleanse the Earth. Their mission begins at a climate change gala, where they abduct three unlikely hostages: movie star Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), trapped in an existential crisis; billionaire donor Ben Bracken (Vincent Cassel), as pragmatic as he is cold; and Katie (Ambika Mod), a performer caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Taken from the glitz of the evening toward a nearby volcano, captors and captives alike are drawn into a journey where the boundary between performance and belief, salvation and sacrifice, grows dangerously thin.

The Poseidon Alliance couldn’t have chosen a worse venue for their climate change gala—it practically begged to be hijacked by eco-terrorists calling themselves the Warriors Defending the Ancient Yearning of the Earth. Or, as one character memorably quips, “Green ISIS.” The satire is thick: Ben Bracken comes across as a mash-up of every tech billionaire we love to hate, with his genius plan for saving a ravaged planet being… more mining, this time at the bottom of the ocean. Really, Ben? That’s your big idea? What’s next—launching rockets so we can mine the moon?

Meanwhile, movie star Mike Tyler is already on the edge, melting down on the red carpet for his latest Octavius movie. At the gala, he seizes the microphone for a fiery climate-change speech (“We got tired of raping the earth so now we’re raping the oceans.”) in response to other speeches, before leaving on a perfect mic-drop (“We need to do better.”). And then? He hides in the restroom while the hostages are rounded up. Oblivious, he mistakes the chaos for a publicity stunt—until he’s swept up himself. And when he does get taken? Let’s just say his Stockholm syndrome develops faster than Belle’s feelings for the Beast.

At its core, Sacrifice shows how everyone claims to want to change the world, but for vastly different reasons—some to signal virtue, some out of radical or enlightened conviction, and others purely for personal gain. While the story unfolds against the backdrop of climate change, the satire could just as easily apply to other urgent issues. By grounding the conflict in competing motives rather than policy specifics, the film underscores how ideals, self-interest, and extremism inevitably collide whenever humanity grapples with existential threats.

As far as satires go, Sacrifice hits squarely in the now. But then again, when isn’t this timely? Co-writers Romain Gavras and Will Arbery skewer celebrity activism, hostage melodrama, obsession with wealth and fame, and the cultish embrace of wild-eyed prophecy. The idea that Joan and her followers believe a ritual sacrifice could appease a volcano says everything: if a volcano is going to erupt, it’s going to erupt. No cult can change that.

And yet, buried within the satire of Sacrifice is a question we can’t laugh off: what are we actually going to do about climate change? The evidence is already here—hotter summers, milder winters (except for the occasional polar vortex). Sadly, American leadership is once again absent as of earlier this year, especially after a convicted felon once again pulled the country out of the Paris Climate Accords. Credit, at least, to former New York City mayor and philanthropist Mike Bloomberg for stepping in to cover America’s share of contributions.

The primary characters in Sacrifice want to change the world but they all have their own ways of going about it. There’s the virtue signaling aspect, which feels all too real and relevant right now. And then there are those who want to change the world for their profound, radical, or illuminated reasons. And then we have the characters want to change the world solely for their own personal gain. I’m not a scientist so I wouldn’t even know the first place to start when it comes to combatting climate change other than doing my own part in lowering my carbon footprint.

The brilliance of Sacrifice is that it uses the language of spectacle to question whether any of us are really serious about change. Climate change may be the canvas here, but the film could just as easily apply its satire to politics, technology, or social movements. Either way, it leaves audiences with the uneasy sense that belief and performance are never as far apart as we’d like to think.

DIRECTOR: Romain Gavras
SCREENWRITERS: Romain Gavras & Will Arbery
CAST: Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, Ambika Mod, Sam Richardson, Jonatan “Yung Lean” Leandoer, Jade Croot, Miriam Silverman, Charli XCX, with John Malkovich and Salma Hayek Pinault

Sacrifice holds its world premiere during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations program. Grade: 3.5/5

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