The Immortal Man brings Tommy Shelby back to Birmingham six years after the television series appeared to give him a chance at a new life, dragging the legendary gangster into another violent conflict involving his son Duke, Nazi conspirators, counterfeit money, and the ghosts of everything Tommy has spent years trying to escape. Some movies simply should not be made, and this is one of them.
The success of Peaky Blinders as a television series does not automatically justify turning its final chapter into a feature film, and The Immortal Man often feels like an unnecessary extension of a story that already had its moment.
Cillian Murphy returns as Tommy Shelby, and his performance remains the strongest reason to watch. Tommy is older, physically slower, and emotionally exhausted, living in isolation while writing his memoir and surrounded by reminders of Arthur, Polly, and the violence that shaped his life.
Murphy understands the character so completely that even a small change in his expression communicates years of trauma. Barry Keoghan joins the story as Duke, Tommy’s illegitimate son, taking over the role and giving the younger Shelby a mixture of anger, insecurity, and desperation to prove himself.
The problem is that the film never provides these characters with enough space to justify their return. Steven Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders and the writer behind the original series, turns the story into a much louder cinematic continuation, but the result frequently feels like an expanded episode rather than a movie that needed to exist. The central Nazi conspiracy and counterfeit-money plot eventually transform the film into a conventional gangland heist, replacing the complicated moral conflicts that once made Tommy such an interesting character.
There are still moments when the Peaky Blinders identity comes alive. Tommy’s return to Birmingham, the violent reunion at The Garrison, and several scenes involving Duke and Ada have atmosphere and emotional weight. The cinematography also delivers some striking images, particularly during sequences involving rain, dark tunnels, empty streets, and the visual memories of Tommy’s past. The soundtrack remains one of the franchise’s strongest weapons, using familiar musical choices to immediately recreate the mood that fans associate with the series.
The action is more cinematic than what the television show usually delivered, with gunfights, gang violence, and the escalating heist giving the second half greater momentum. However, the spectacle does not solve the fundamental problem. The action feels like an excuse to continue Tommy Shelby’s story rather than a natural progression of it, while the movie’s attempts at finality are sometimes so heavy-handed that they remove the subtlety the character deserved.
Peaky Blinders became successful because it developed Tommy, his family, enemies, and world over many hours of television. A feature film cannot simply borrow Cillian Murphy, the flat cap, the music, and Birmingham locations and expect that same magic to return. Murphy is excellent, but even his performance cannot completely justify another chapter.
Fans who simply want to see Cillian Murphy wear the flat cap again will find enough familiar atmosphere, violence, music, and nostalgia to enjoy. For everyone else, The Immortal Man feels like proof that some successful television shows are better left finished, because the popularity of the original series has little connection to whether its movie continuation actually needs to exist.
