Marvel Movie Review: The Punisher - One Last Kill [2026]

The Punisher: One Last Kill

This one is a 'Marvel presents' feature that is meant to bridge the gap between Daredevil: Born Again's first season and Spider-Man: Brand New Day*, because the Punisher appears in one, and then in the next, completely skipping out on all the crisis happening in Daredevil's second season. 

*I actually have Brand New Day reviewed maybe a month or so after its release, but the file actually got corrupted and I haven't had the energy to redo it. 

And... well, you're not getting much in terms of answers beyond a vague handwave of what he is doing. Which is a bit annoying for people who want more internationality between Marvel projects, but especially since Jon Bernthal's Punisher is easily one of the best things about Daredevil: Born Again and the Netflix-originated side of the MCU in general. 

Running just shy of an hour, The Punisher: One Last Kill does take its time to build up to the gratuitous gore and violence that you'd expect from an R-rated Punisher feature. And don't get me wrong, I am here for all the violence and action and gore in a Punisher flick. I'm happy about that, and for the fifteen to twenty minutes or so when Frank Castle finally stops moping, gets into full Punisher mode and start blasting, it was fun. 

The buildup to it is... a bit odd, and suspect. Jon Bernthal is a great actor, of course, but it is really strange. The movie shows Frank breaking down, but seem quite intent on pushing and making certain scenes feel like non-sequiturs if you haven't watched the Netflix shows. Moments with Frank's daughter could be handwaved as being 'universally' understandable, but the 'one penny, two penny' references, the sudden cameo of the ghosts of Curtis Hoyle and the hallucination of Karen Page, are all brought up... while nothing is mentioned about the AVTF and of Frank's escape from the AVTF compound. It feels just odd, coming straight to Frank being morose, suicidal, and ready to end everything from his crusade to his life. 

The plot is simple, of course. Frank almost gives up, doesn't, and one survivor of his old massacres from The Punisher's first season, Ma Gnucci, puts up a massive contract that sends a lot of the assholes living in the shithole part of town that Frank has found himself in. Frank initially doesn't care, but when his neighbours and the local shopkeepers -- particularly those with children -- get threatened, Frank finds the Punisher within himself. He goes around shooting and killing everyone, ultimately chooses to save people than to end Ma Gnucci, and ends the movie in the skull suit again. I just described the 45 minutes of the movie. The Gnucci plot is paper-thin, and honestly isn't quite resolved so much as they ran out of extras for Frank Castle to murder. 

It's just that... it's really not that much substance. The acting is great when Jon gets to act, and the action is pretty cool for what it is, but ultimately the movie is just a bit of a slog to get through. Now I appreciate that this is one of the few times that the MCU has experimented with pathos towards how horrible the world is and there is no optimism beyond, well, punishing the criminals. It's just not the most interesting in terms of either characterization or plot. For as well-done that Frank's breakdown was acted out, the buildup was lacking and if we're being honest it's not nothing we haven't seen before in the Netflix show or even the Born Again follow-up. 

With almost 20 minutes to build up to the non-stop action that caps off the second half of the movie, it is frankly quite surprising how little content we get. There are some attempts at trying to poke at some themes, at how Ma Gnucci's loss might parallel Frank's, or something about the mistreatment of veterans, but the plot threads are more or less introduced and not really brought up beyond that. 

I appreciate the effort, and I did enjoy the action, but this honestly isn't something I'm likely to revisit or really even recommend since other than the action scene there isn't much to it. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Gnucci crime family actually appeared among Frank's victims in episode 1 of The Punisher, season 1, but the matriarch of the family (who was the main antagonist in the comics) was conspicuously missing. 
• Frank's ally Curtis Hoyle was last seen in Netflix's The Punisher season 2, still alive on the last reckoning. Frank's family and the gravesite; the last argument Frank had with his daughter Lisa, and the One-Penny-Two-Penny madness mantra were all introduced in The Punisher. 
• While only named 'Barry' on-screen once, Ma Gnucci's bodyguard was identified by producers as being short for Barracuda, one of Punisher's major antagonists in the MAX continuity.