Mel Gibson, the 69-year-old action icon whose career-defining turns in Lethal Weapon and Braveheart redefined macho heroism with a side of moral grit, is roaring back to his badass roots in Hunting Season, a taut revenge thriller hitting theaters and digital platforms on December 5, 2025, with a new trailer that drips with the kind of unapologetic, blood-soaked fantasy Gibson mastered decades ago—think grizzled survivor dispatching scumbags with improvised savagery, all while protecting the innocent in a world gone feral. Directed by newcomer Lena K. Vasquez in her feature debut, the film casts Gibson as Jack Harlan, a reclusive ex-Marine turned woodsman whose life of quiet isolation shatters when a mysterious young woman (newcomer Aria Voss, 19) washes up battered and bloodied on his riverbank, pursued by a ruthless drug lord (Oscar Isaac in a chilling pivot from his Dune stoicism) who will stop at nothing to silence her forever.
The trailer’s logline sets the stage for Gibson’s latest incarnation of the everyman avenger: “When a mysterious young girl joins the home of a feisty 12-year-old and her overprotective father, their lives are forever changed by the ruthless drug lord who will stop at nothing to kill her once and for all.” Jack, haunted by his past—flashed in quick-cut montages of war flashbacks and lost comrades—becomes an unlikely guardian to Voss’s enigmatic survivor, whose arrival unleashes a torrent of goons into the Pacific Northwest wilderness, forcing Jack to channel his “smoked too much” haze of regret into a frenzy of traps, ambushes, and improvised weaponry that harks back to The Patriot‘s guerrilla fury but with a modern, meth-laced edge. The 12-year-old, played with precocious fire by rising star Lila Voss (Aria’s real-life sister), adds heart, her “feisty” banter humanizing Jack’s descent into vigilante mode as they bond over survival skills and shared secrets in a cabin that becomes both fortress and funeral pyre for the invaders.
Vasquez, a former stunt coordinator on John Wick: Chapter 4, infuses the film with kinetic brutality—trailer highlights include Jack rigging a bear trap laced with rebar for a cartel enforcer, a chainsaw duel in the underbrush, and a rain-soaked standoff where Gibson’s Jack growls, “You came to my house—now it’s hunting season.” Isaac’s drug lord, Victor Reyes, is a chilling foil: suave in suits but feral in fury, his “stop at nothing” pursuit tipping the thriller into cat-and-mouse territory that echoes No Country for Old Men but with Gibson’s trademark redemption arc, where the grizzled vet finds purpose in protecting the vulnerable, his “too much” haze lifting as vengeance sharpens his aim.
Filmed in Oregon’s misty forests with a $25 million budget, Hunting Season marks Gibson’s first lead since 2022’s Father Stu, trading biopic piety for pulp revenge that critics previewing the trailer call “Gibson unleashed—Taken meets The Revenant with a dash of Deliverance.” Producer Basil Iwanyk (John Wick) praised Gibson’s “feral intensity,” while Voss, in her breakout, brings vulnerability to the “mysterious” girl, whose backstory—tied to Reyes’ cartel—unfolds in flashbacks laced with human trafficking horror.
As Gibson, post-The Passion‘s controversies, seeks resurgence, Hunting Season arrives with timely appeal amid 2025’s true-crime boom. “Jack’s not a hero—he’s a survivor who chooses to fight,” Gibson told Deadline. With Isaac’s star power and Voss’s fresh face, the film promises a December box office brawl against Avatar 3. In a genre glutted with reboots, Gibson’s grizzled gaze reminds us: the best revenge is the one that feels earned. Hunting season is open—and it’s Gibson’s time to roar.
