The Smashing Machine is a 2025 film directed, written, produced, and edited by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr, Emily Blunt as Dawn Staples, Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman, and Bas Rutten as himself. We follow Mark Kerr from 1997-2000 as he wins his first title in a Brazilian tournament before skipping forward to focus on a fight in Tokyo, Kerr’s tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend Dawn, his addiction to painkillers, and his participation in the Pride Grand Prix 2000 again in Tokyo where his former coach Mark Coleman might end up being his final opponent if he can win each round.

Timestamps

• (01:54) The Tooth Fairy
• (21:19) Find Me Guilty
• (34:35) Southland Tales
• (50:29) The Smashing Machine
• (1:26:36) Spoilers
• (1:53:41 ) Next Time!

Works Cited

• “All These Things That I’ve Done” (The Killers, 2005)
• Anarchy in the USA movie review (2007) (Roger Ebert, 2007)
• Be Cool (F. Gary Gray, 2005)
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Ang Lee, 2016)
• The Chronicles of Riddick (David Twohy, 2004)
• Code Unknown (J. Hoberman, 2006)
• Doom (Andrzej Bartkowiak, 2005)
• The Expendables (Sylvester Stallone, 2010)
• Fast Five (Justin Lin, 2011)
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Justin Lin, 2006)
• A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1991)
• Find Me Guilty (Sidney Lumet, 2006)
• Gotti (Kevin Connolly, 2018)
• INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)
• JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
• Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, 2024)
• Mr. Nanny (Michael Gottlieb, 1993)
• Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2000)
• One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025)
• Pain & Gain (Michael Bay, 2013)
• Pride and Glory (Jake Rossen, 2010)
• Race to Witch Mountain (Andy Fickman, 2009)
• Red Notice (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2021)
• Revelation (J. Hoberman, 2007)
• The Scorpion King (Chuck Russell, 2002)
• The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie, 2025)
• The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr (John Hyams, 2002)
• “The Smashing Machine” Pulls Its Punches | The New Yorker (Richard Brody, 2025)
• The Smashing Machine review: There’s a rock stuck in the gears (Jacob Oller, 2025)
• Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2007)
• ‘Southland Tales’: A Cannes flop readies for a big-screen rebirth (Dennis Lim, 2007)
• Southland Tales - The Pinocchio Theory (Steven Shaviro, 2007)
• Suburban Commando (Burt Kennedy, 1991)
• “Teen Horniness is Not a Crime” (Krista Now, 2007)
• Tooth Fairy (Michael Lembeck, 2010)
• Twelve Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957)
• Walking Tall (Kevin Bray, 2004)
• When Movie Stars Become Brands (Patrick H. Willems, 2024)

Find us elsewhere!

Ben Verschoor

• https://cinema-purgatorio.ghost.io/
• https://letterboxd.com/jamn4sure/
• @benverschoor.bsky.social

Steven Santana

• https://breakingarrows.substack.com/
• https://letterboxd.com/number8axel/
• @number8axel.bsky.social

Opening music is Root Beer Rag by Billy Joel

Closing music is G-Spot Tornado by Frank Zappa

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