Last Updated on February 21, 2026 by Monica Castillo
A very good film hides behind the survivalist coming-of-age thriller of writer/director Cinqué Lee titled: Last Ride. It is simply suspended between two half-told narratives.
Lee is a younger brother to director Spike Lee, who is also an executive producer in this film. Besides collaborating with Spike on the screenplay of “Crooklyn, and the Netflix version of Shes Gotta Have It, Lee has directed his own movies, co-directing Burn Out The Day and directing the sci-fi fantasy Window on Your Present and the zero-budget, docufictional film UR4 Given. Last Ride, however, is the first film Lee has directed in sixteen years. His storytelling rust shows.
The movie commits a fatal mistake at its beginning. His son (Samuel Paul Small) and his son dealer (Jasper Paeakkoen) wake up a drunken man (Gustaf Skarsgard) who has gone to sleep in the woods. The drunk man desires to drive the two to the top of a Norwegian mountain, and the reasons will be seen immediately. There we flashback to March 10, 1982. Three American children Devin (Roman Griffin Davis), Syd (Felix Jamieson), and Jamie (Charlie Price) are asking the cable car operator Øyvind (Kristofer Hivju) to drive them to the top of the mountain, you guessed it. He is at first worried about the prospects but then gives in as he finds that they are also Clash fans. Their ascending, which includes rocking out to London Calling, is interrupted by power outage. They are caught, hanging in a cable car way up above a precipice.
Owing to the introduction, you can pretty well guess how this is all going to get out. To make the viewer want to stick with the movie despite such information, one will need characters that are sufficiently interesting to overcome the predictability and the one-dimensional setting. In that respect, Last Ride is a tremendous failure. Lee takes advantage of the fact that these children are children. That is to say that they are not completely certain why they are stagnant. All they are aware of is that there is a dark town of Vargoy below. They just hope to be discovered by their parents. Meanwhile, they start fantasizing about zombies and other strange phenomena, such as a rare planetary conjunction, to occupy the emptiness of their loneliness.
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In some cases, our childish fancies reveal to us the reason why they are so sullen and cynical. Devin and Jamie, their moms, and their dads, for example, who are barely visible throughout the film, might be having a fling. Syd, in his turn, is struggling with his acre of trauma. Either way, there is a certain level of rapport between the three actors despite the fact that their characters, all of whom are not portrayed as Americans, are not particularly interesting. And though it can be celebrated that Lee never resorts to melodramatic tricks, these children do observe the northern lights and gradually come to be more understanding of each other; there is not enough story or emotion to keep one glued to it.
Nevertheless, Lee makes the visuals visually engaging by ensuring that the variety of possible cable-car and weather-patterning is as great as possible to put these kids into. The effects of the snow and wind give a true feeling of danger, and the environmental narration is furthered by the sounds of wheezing, clinks and clanks. To a significant extent, however, this effort turns out to be wasted since the film is leading to a predetermined conclusion. Such knowledge always draws you out of the story; you are just waiting the time before the winding sentence which is this film.
Last Ride (2026) Parents Guide
Not Rated by the Motion Picture Association (MPA)
Violence & Intensity: There is no conventional violence, but the film trades in sustained peril. Children are trapped in a cable car high above a Norwegian mountain during severe weather. The danger is environmental rather than physical: freezing temperatures, height, mechanical failure, and the persistent fear of falling. The tension is low-key and drawn out, more existential than visceral, though younger viewers may find the scenario unsettling simply due to its realism.
Language: Language is minimal and generally restrained. Mild profanity appears sporadically, mostly from adults. There are no slurs. The tone is subdued and somber, occasionally cynical, but never aggressive or crude.
Sexual Content / Nudity: There is no explicit sexual content or nudity. However, the film lightly implies adult infidelity through dialogue and subtext involving the children’s parents. These implications are vague and never dramatized, but perceptive viewers may pick up on the emotional undercurrent.
Drugs, Alcohol & Smoking: No drug use or smoking is shown.
Age Recommendations: Best suited for teens 13+, primarily due to its bleak tone, sustained anxiety, and adult themes of neglect, trauma, and emotional detachment. Younger children are unlikely to understand the subtext and may find the slow pacing and sense of danger more distressing than engaging.
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