The Uprising (2026)

Every so often a historical drama arrives that feels less like a costume piece and more like a pressure cooker. The Uprising, directed by Paul Greengrass and released in September 2026, takes one of medieval England's most explosive moments and turns it into a visceral, ground-level story of ordinary people pushed past breaking point. With Andrew Garfield leading a stacked ensemble and Greengrass's trademark kinetic camera at work, the film asks a simple question: what happens when the powerless finally say no?

What The Uprising Is About (No Spoilers)

The setup is stark. England in the 1300s is a country on its knees: war draining the treasury, plague emptying the villages, and a ruling class determined to squeeze the peasantry even harder. Against that backdrop, a humble ploughman, played by Andrew Garfield, finds himself at the center of something far bigger than himself when resentment among commoners boils over into open revolt.

What begins as a local act of defiance grows into a mass movement of farmers and townsfolk marching toward the seat of royal power. Along the way the film introduces the real historical figures of the period, including the firebrand priest John Ball and the rebel leader Wat Tyler, both of whom anchor the story in genuine history. The tagline, 'Rise or die,' captures the stakes neatly: this is a fight for justice and bare survival, not a romantic adventure.

Because the film is based on true events, longtime history buffs will know roughly where things are headed. The tension comes from watching how individual choices collide with forces far larger than any one person, and the movie keeps its cards close to its chest right up to the end.

The Cast: A Deep Bench of Character Actors

Andrew Garfield heads the film as the ploughman at the heart of the revolt, a role that asks him to play reluctance and resolve in equal measure. Cosmo Jarvis, fresh off attention-grabbing work in other historical dramas, plays Wat Tyler, the movement's most forceful personality, while Jamie Bell brings intensity to John Ball, the radical priest whose words help light the fuse.

The opposition is just as well stocked. Stephen Dillane plays Archbishop Sudbury, Tom Hollander is Treasurer Hales, and Jonny Lee Miller appears as Mayor Walworth, each representing a different face of the establishment the rebels are marching against. Stanley Townsend's Chief Justice Bealknap and Katherine Waterston's Countess round out the aristocratic side of the ledger.

There's also a striking bit of casting in Woody Norman as the young King Richard II, a boy monarch whose court must decide how to answer an army of commoners at the gates. Thomasin McKenzie, as a character named Alyce, provides the film's emotional anchor outside the leadership ranks, grounding the grand political sweep in personal cost.

Greengrass Behind the Camera

Paul Greengrass writes and directs, and his fingerprint is unmistakable. The filmmaker behind the Bourne sequels and several acclaimed real-event dramas has built a career on making audiences feel history happening in real time: shaky handheld camerawork, rapid cutting, and a documentary-style refusal to romanticize. The Uprising applies that sensibility to a peasant army, and the results are as immersive as you'd expect.

He also produces alongside Jason Blum and Gregory Goodman, an intriguing pairing that brings genre-film energy to a historical epic. Behind the lens, cinematographer Pål Ulvik Rokseth shoots the muddy, firelit world of medieval England, editor William Goldenberg keeps the pace relentless across the film's 128 minutes, and composer Volker Bertelmann provides a score that favors raw percussion over sweeping strings.

The production comes from Supernix, Thank You Pictures, the Electric Shadow Company, and FilmNation Entertainment, a German-American co-production shot in English.

Themes, Tone, and Style

This is a film about power and who gets to have it. The keywords attached to the project tell the story: rebellion, plague, vindictive, cautionary. Greengrass is less interested in swords-and-castles pageantry than in the mechanics of collective anger, how grievance becomes organization, and how quickly a movement can outrun the people who started it.

The tone is tense and often grim, but not hopeless. There's genuine warmth in the scenes of ordinary people finding their voice, and the film treats its peasant protagonists with dignity rather than condescension. At the same time, the 'cautionary' label is earned: the story never pretends that defying a king comes cheap.

Visually, expect a grounded, tactile Middle Ages. Mud, smoke, sweat, torchlight. The action sequences are chaotic and immediate rather than choreographed ballet, which suits a revolt fought by farmers with improvised weapons against professional power.

Who Should Watch It

Fans of grounded historical dramas will find a lot here, particularly viewers who liked recent gritty medieval fare or Greengrass's earlier real-event films. If you enjoy stories about underdogs taking on corrupt systems, this is squarely in your lane.

It's also a strong pick for anyone drawn to ensemble acting. With names like Garfield, Bell, Jarvis, McKenzie, Hollander, and Dillane on the call sheet, nearly every scene features a performer worth watching. Fair warning for the squeamish: the film's depiction of plague-era hardship and violent confrontation is unflinching, so this is not a light weekend watch.

Where to Watch

For viewers in the United States, The Uprising is available digitally. It can be purchased or rented through the Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, and YouTube. Both buy and rent options are offered on all five platforms, so you can choose whichever storefront you already use. No subscription is required; all listings are digital transactional releases.

Similar Titles Worth Exploring

If The Uprising works for you, several other films scratch the same itch. Greengrass's own filmography is the obvious first stop, since his real-event dramas share the same urgent, you-are-there style. Viewers drawn to the medieval setting should seek out other ground-level takes on the period that favor mud over glamour.

Rebellion dramas about commoners confronting entrenched power are a durable genre: stories of uprisings, labor revolts, and revolutions offer plenty of company. Fans of Cosmo Jarvis and Thomasin McKenzie will also find both actors have built reputations on this kind of tense, physical historical filmmaking, and their earlier work makes a natural double feature. Finally, viewers who respond to Volker Bertelmann's percussive scoring style can hear more of it across his other collaborations with major directors.