Peaky Blinders review: The Immortal Man leans heavily on the myth of Tommy Shelby
Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix/Robert Viglasky © 2025
★★★☆☆
Never let a war get in the way of doing business.
Opening in 1940, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (15A) begins with Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) in self-imposed exile.
Once the fearsome ‘King of the Gypsies’ and the leader of the infamous Birmingham-based mob, Tommy is rattling around a dilapidated country house, writing his memoir and haunted by the ghosts of his brother Arthur and his young daughter Ruby.
Back in Birmingham, meanwhile, Tommy’s son and heir Duke (Barry Keoghan) is being courted by John Beckett (Tim Roth), a Nazi spy with plans to destroy Britain’s war economy by flooding it with millions in counterfeit banknotes. Rooted in historical events, The Immortal Man — written by Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight and directed by Tom Harper — is feature-length coda to the TV series that concluded in 2022, and while it works as a standalone movie, it leans heavily on the myth of Tommy Shelby as a ruthless folk hero, a Robin Hood whose philosophy was forged in (or beneath, rather) the trenches of WWI.
Murphy’s performance is a little constrained here by the anti-hero’s mythology; while Tommy has been badly wounded by life, and suffers the tortures of a man who is complicit in the loss of his loved ones, his public persona requires a granite-like exterior that doesn’t quite allow for the nuances that Murphy generally exploits to devastating effect. Rebecca Ferguson is hypnotic as Kaulo, the Romany seeress who lures Tommy back to the fray, but Barry Keoghan is rather functional as the sociopathic Duke, his swagger and bluster falling flat — deliberately, perhaps — whenever the larger-than-life Tommy strides into frame, suited and booted and sporting the iconic flat cap.
The uninitiated will enjoy The Immortal Man as a solid historical thriller; Peaky Blinders fans, however, will likely consider it a satisfyingly logical conclusion to the Tommy Shelby legend.
- theatrical release
