Row (2025) – You Can’t Outrun What’s Inside

She set out to conquer the ocean—but it’s her own mind she must survive

Row (2025) is an intense, atmospheric survival thriller that turns the open water into a prison—and the past into a predator. Set almost entirely on a sleek but isolated racing shell, this taut film explores ambition, obsession, and the psychological toll of pushing the body to its absolute limits. With raw performances and minimalist suspense, Row strips everything down to one woman, one boat, and the storm she carries within.

At the center is Mia Turner (Florence Pugh), a fiercely determined Olympic rower training solo for a world-record endurance challenge across the Atlantic. Haunted by the recent death of her twin sister and rowing partner, Mia’s journey is not just physical—it’s spiritual, emotional, and borderline self-destructive. What begins as a tribute to her sister quickly becomes a descent into solitude, guilt, and hallucination.

The film unfolds in near-real time, with long, hypnotic stretches of rowing broken only by brief flashbacks, radio static, and the disorienting silence of the sea. Director Julia Ducournau (Titane) brings her signature style of visceral, bodily storytelling. Every blister, cramp, and gulp of salt water is felt. The ocean becomes a mirror, reflecting Mia’s trauma back at her—relentless, shifting, and unknowable.

As Mia rows further from land, strange things begin to happen. Equipment fails. Voices whisper across the wind. Her sister appears in dreams—or are they hallucinations? Is Mia being followed? Hunted? Or is she simply breaking under the weight of grief and the ocean’s unforgiving isolation?

The genius of Row lies in its ambiguity. It flirts with psychological horror, survival drama, and even the supernatural, but never commits fully to any one genre. The result is a film that feels like treading water in a rising tide of dread. Mia’s journey may be heroic—or suicidal. Her endurance may be strength—or denial. Either way, she keeps rowing.

And in the final minutes, as the horizon blurs and the body gives out, Row asks its most haunting question: What if you reach the finish line and there’s nothing left of you to arrive?