Performance Review- The Punisher: One Last Kill

BACKGROUND:

The Punisher: One Last Kill is the third Marvel Studios Special Presentation (following Werewolf By Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special) and the first in nearly four years. Conceived and written by star Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle) and director Reinaldo Marcus Green (We Own This City), the special was filmed across 12 days in July 2025. Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood) served as the director of photography, and Kris Bowers (Secret Invasion) returned to the MCU to compose the score. Nick Koumalatsos, a 12-year veteran of the Marine Corps, also served as a consulting producer on the project. Jason R. Moore returns as Curtis Hoyle (last seen in the second season of The Punisher on Netflix in 2019), and Judith Light joins the MCU to round out the announced cast.

OPENING THOUGHTS:

The Punisher: One Last Kill is an ultra-violent showcase for Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle. Bernthal embodies the character in a way few other Marvel stars have. The story begins with Frank alone in an empty apartment, maybe as alone as he has ever been. It isn’t clear exactly where in the timeline this takes place, but he is popping pills (as he was in Daredevil: Born Again), and now he chases those pills with a bottle of liquor. Frank is having nightmares and hallucinating. He is in a bad place. The Gnucci Crime Family, last mentioned in the premier episode of The Punisher on Netflix in 2017, has been decimated. But when the family matriarch, played by Judith Light (Who’s the Boss?), steps into the picture, Frank finds himself in a fight for his life once more. The first half of the special is a Frank Castle character study as he grapples with his mental health, and the rest of the runtime is devoted to non-stop action, featuring a handful of stunts that rival the best work on Daredevil: Born Again.

SUPERLATIVES:

Let’s start with the obvious- Jon Bernthal’s performance is incredible here. After a decade of playing Frank Castle, this might be his finest performance. Every emotion that Frank experiences is etched on Bernthal’s face- the pain, sadness, anger, and rage. Frank is struggling to control his inner demons, seeing visions (including some wonderful cameo appearances) and visiting the graves of his family. Bernthal conveys that struggle often without any dialogue.

The last 20 minutes of the special are one epic, extended, visceral, violent action scene. This is Bernthal’s chance to show off his physicality, and Elswit’s cinematography elevates the entire sequence. The violence is designed to make you uncomfortable, and I found myself squirming in my seat during both of my viewings. The visual style is more akin to the Netflix era of Marvel Television than the Disney+ era, but it also reminded me of We Own This City, a Baltimore-set HBO series that also starred Bernthal and was directed by Green. It is not a spoiler to say that Frank Castle murders several people during this sequence. They are some of the most creative, gruesome, and savage kills we have seen from Frank, and it is a credit to Disney that they did not force the creative team to pull their punches at all.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:

There are two glaring weaknesses in The Punisher: One Last Kill, and they dovetail together. One is the writing from Bernthal and Green, and the second is the runtime. Because of the shortish runtime (~45 minutes), the story requires multiple exposition dumps to orient viewers who may not have any relationship with the character beyond his appearance in season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again. The first, a tried and true Marvel trope, is via news broadcasts on a coffee shop television. The second is delivered by Judith Light in a lengthy monologue (complete with flashbacks). It is Light’s one big scene, and the writing is clunky and forced. Light is an award-winning actress who does what she can with the material, but a better script would have allowed her talent to shine through more. I am a fan of the special presentation format (this one, more than Guardians or Werewolf By Night, reminds me of the “one-shots” that Marvel produced throughout phases 1 and 2), but it does create plotting and pacing issues.

THE FINAL WORD:

The Punisher: One Last Kill is the third live-action project from Marvel Television this year, following Wonder Man and Daredevil: Born Again. It fails to reach the heights of either of those projects, but there is enough depth to Bernthal’s emotional and physical performance to keep Marvel’s string of successes going. Bernthal’s writing is at its best when he is writing directly for Frank Castle, whom he knows intimately after playing the role for more than a decade. With the help of Green and Koumalatsos, the special effectively deals with the mature themes of PTSD and mental trauma. Elswit films the action masterfully, and Kris Bowers’ score adds to the tension. I am excited to see where Bernthal takes Frank Castle next in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and hopefully beyond.

7/10

-Greg