Aaron Taylor-Johnson's 2026 Heist Movie With A White Lotus Star Is A Must-Watch On HBO Max
by Joe Roberts · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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Aaron Taylor-Johnson proved his movie star chops by playing a jerk movie star in 2024's "The Fall Guy." He followed that up by leading Sony's stupid but entertaining "Kraven the Hunter," which didn't help his movie star status much. Thankfully, solid turns in "Nosferatu" and "28 Years Later" have kept him in the limelight. One recent Taylor-Johnson film you probably haven't heard too much about, however, is "Fuze," a 2025 crime thriller that also stars "The White Lotus" alum and fellow British heartthrob Theo James. Thankfully, you can now acquaint yourself with this somewhat overlooked entry in the Taylor-Johnson filmography courtesy of HBO Max.
"Fuze" has kind of a cool little premise. Brits will surely be used to seeing a familiar headline crop up every now and then. It typically involves someone finding an unexploded World War II-era bomb in Nana's back garden or something. But what if that bomb were found in Central London, and what if it were still ticking? It might be the perfect distraction if you were planning to, say, pull off a massive bank robbery in broad daylight? That's exactly what happens in "Fuze," wherein Taylor-Johnson plays a bomb disposal expert brought in to handle the unexploded ordnance, only to be drawn into something much bigger.
The movie was given a wide release in both the United Kingdom and the United States, but it failed to make much of an impact. As of September 4, 2026, however, you can stream it on HBO Max. It's well worth a watch.
Fuze is the latest crime thriller from a director with a great recent track record
You'd be forgiven for passing on "Fuze" based solely on the key art HBO Max uses, which, like many a skippable action B-movie, features lots of very serious-looking floating heads and rifles being aimed at nothing. But you'd be doing yourself a disservice, as the film is actually pretty good, as evidenced by a slew of positive reviews and a director with a very solid recent track record.
In fact, one of the main things "Fuze" has working in its favor is director David Mackenzie, who not only oversaw Taylor Sheridan's best movie, "Hell or High Water," but is responsible for the must-watch Lily James and Riz Ahmed crime thriller that's available to stream on Netflix, "Relay." Like that movie, "Fuze" has been criminally overlooked. It sees the Scottish filmmaker return to the heist genre ten years after "Hell or High Water," only this time he's traded in West Texas for Central London.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as British Army Major Will Tranter, who is called in after a construction crew unearths what appears to be a World War II-era bomb in Paddington. The surrounding area is immediately evacuated before Tranter arrives on the scene. Soon, he discovers the bomb is ticking. Meanwhile, a crew that includes Sam Worthington's "X" and led by Theo James' Giorgos "George" Karalis uses the evacuation to carry out a heist on the Bank Al Muraqabah in Edgware Road. But things quickly go awry, before a series of twists reveal that nothing is quite as it seems. Sounds alright, doesn't it? Well, the critics certainly enjoyed it.
Fuze is a critical hit that deserves more attention
"Fuze" currently bears a solid 72% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is to be expected, given that director David Mackenzie's last five films have all avoided a "Rotten" score (though the brutal historical epic "Outlaw King" of 2018 came close).
Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times was quite taken by the movie, writing, "'Fuze' hurtles along entertainingly and with no small amount of tension," while Randy Myers of the San Jose Mercury News praised the way in which Mackenzie "never takes the weight off the pedal" of what he described as a "twisty, hyper-efficient thriller." "Fuze" also made /Film's list of the best action movies of 2026 so far, with Bill Bria describing it as a "delightfully tense, engaging, and clever fusion of suspense thriller and crime film." Even the twists went down well with critics, making this yet another unmissable Mackenzie thriller.
Sadly, the movie didn't make much of an impression during its limited theatrical run in April 2026, grossing $5.6 million on an estimated $45 million budget. Now that the movie has hit HBO Max, it should manage to convert a few more fans, though it will hardly be enough to make up for it being overlooked upon its initial release. Meanwhile, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is gearing up for his role in "Nosferatu," director Robert Eggers' "Werwulf," which is sure to receive much more attention than "Fuze." But Mackenzie's thriller is still worth your attention, so why not stream it this weekend?