Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with extensive experience. Collier, or “CJ” to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy, and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. With his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he’s tackled a wide variety of articles.
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2026 is chock-full of box office breakouts, but ***Spider-Man: Brand New Day ***and ***The Odyssey ***are the biggest winners. Christopher Nolan’s take on the iconic Greek epic recently became the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history, while the web-slinger’s latest adventure is on track to be the biggest movie of the year. Beyond critical and commercial success, both movies also feature **Tom Holland **and **Jon Bernthal **in key roles, further cementing them as part of Hollywood’s current A-list. What most movie fans might not know is that Holland and Bernthal first joined forces in a brutal historical epic nine years ago.
That epic is named Pilgrimage. Set in medieval Ireland, *Pilgrimage *follows a group of monks, including the young Brother Diarmuid (Holland), charged with bringing a holy relic to Rome. The monks’ journey is complicated by warriors who seek the relic, including the malevolent Raymond de Merville (Richard Armitage). Thankfully, the monks have a warrior of their own: a mute man (Bernthal) who possesses incredible fighting skills. Now that *Pilgrimage *is streaming, fans of Holland and Bernthal’s work can see their first movie.
*Pilgrimage draws its audience’s attention through scenes of escalating violence, as the monks and the Mute struggle to complete their mission. Much of this violence is committed by the Mute, who makes up for his lack of words with an abundance of bloodshed. Beyond that, the movie explores the nature of faith, specifically the great or terrible things people will do in its name. Most of the monks on the mission believe the relic holds its holy nature because it was struck by lightning yet remains intact. Merville, on the other hand, wants the relic for the King of England so that English forces can be bolstered by that belief. Director **Brendan Muldowney **said he was drawn to Pilgrimage *for its themes of faith, which mirrored his own upbringing.
“I think that themes dealing with faith and a belief in God are always relevant and never go out of date. I was brought up in a country that still had the church very firmly in control of society. Not so much now, but I saw the use of fear to control, and I also witnessed hypocrisy as certain revaluations came to light in recent years.”
In addition to its bloody violence and deep themes, Pilgrimage is carried by Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal, who deliver the best performances in the movie**. Bernthal has to stay silent for most of *Pilgrimage’*s runtime, but he lets his body and facial expressions do the talking. Whether it’s a grimace of pure rage or quiet contemplation, the audience can feel the emotions radiating off his body. Holland delivers a more nuanced performance, as Brother Diarmuid ultimately rejects the relic and takes a new approach to his faith. While Holland showed plenty of range in The Odyssey, *Pilgrimage *was the first movie that truly put his talents on display.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
While *Pilgrimage *had a limited theatrical rollout, it started a long tradition of Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal working together. In fact, it’s the movie that helped them land roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Bernthal was auditioning for ***The Punisher ***while Holland was in the running to play Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. Bernthal went into more detail when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, sayinghe advised Holland to show off his athletic prowess. Holland took his advice and landed the role of Spidey; nearly a decade later, the duo would join forces in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Much like Pilgrimage, Spider-Man: Brand New Daypits Holland and Bernthal against each other, with Holland playing a man struggling with his beliefs and Bernthal playing a man who excels at violence. The difference is that Bernthal’s performance as Frank Castle has him using far more words than he did in Pilgrimage, while Holland brings a new dimension to his performance as Peter Parker. Anyone who loves the duo’s dynamic in *Brand New Day *or *The Odyssey *should watch Pilgrimage.
*Pilgrimage *is available to stream on Pluto TV.
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Brendan Muldowney
Conor Barry, Aram Tertzakian, Nick Spicer, John Keville
