What to Watch in May 2025

image: Silverback Films and Open Planet Studios/Keith Scholey

Your guide to all the best new films & TV shows coming your way this month

FILM

Ocean (May 8)

For anyone born later than 1954, when a young David Attenborough made his first televised broadcast for a BBC series named Zoo Quest, Attenborough’s voice has been a constant, comforting presence and a key component of some of the most incredible films ever made about the natural world. Fascinating and mesmerising in equal measure, his lifetime’s work has been dedicated to educating the nation about the environment - and the threats presented to it by human progress. Even at the age of 99, Attenborough is still on a mission to enlighten and his latest film, Ocean, gets the cinematic release it deserves this month, allowing us to view its stunning cinematography on the big screen where it belongs. 

As with all his documentaries, though, there is a serious message embedded among the stunning visuals of the vast, underwater world that surrounds us and Attenborough has described the one contained within Ocean as his most important yet; the ability of life under the seas to regenerate itself, if given the opportunity. While the man himself still shows no signs of considering retirement, there’s always the possibility that Ocean could be his last film, so don’t miss the chance to witness its beauty in a cinema while you have the chance.  

Hallow Road (May 16)

Sometimes you don’t need a large cast to create a film that’s gripping, and if proof of that were needed then there’s plenty on offer in this taut new thriller from British-Iranian director Babak Anvari. Hallow Road stars Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys as a married couple whose quiet evening is interrupted by a panicked phone call from their daughter, Alice (Megan McDonnell), after she accidentally hits someone who runs in front of her car. 

The pair suddenly find themselves facing a tricky moral dilemma as they frantically weigh the odds of reporting the accident to the authorities, or trying to fix the problem themselves in the hope of protecting their daughter from getting into trouble. But will their efforts make the consequences even more dire than they’d imagined? 

Set almost entirely inside a car, which only adds the constantly encroaching sense of claustrophobic panic (if you’ve seen Steven Knight’s 2013 film Locke you’ll get the idea), Hallow Road does an awful lot with very little, and Pike and Rhys both deliver performances that’ll leave you glued to the screen when the film arrives on May 16.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (May 21)

Tom Cruise returns once again for another stunt-fuelled turn as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the eighth film from the long-running Mission: Impossible series – but could it be his last? Everything about Final Reckoning seems to suggest so, and it was originally billed as a send-off for the main character, but since then both Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have revealed that there are ideas for further films in the series. Whether they become a reality remains to be seen, but if this does turn out to be Cruise’s final appearance in the series, it would certainly be a fitting way to end.

Originally to be titled Dead Reckoning: Part Two, the latest film picks up where its predecessor left off, with the world facing an existential threat from a sentient AI program known as ‘The Entity’ and Hunt doing everything in his power to prevent his arch-enemy, Gabriel, from getting his hands on it. Starring alongside Cruise are several returning cast members including Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell and Vanessa Kirby, to name a few. With a budget in the region of $400million and some of the most ambitious stunts ever committed to celluloid, The Final Reckoning will undoubtedly be a visual spectacle worth seeing.

The Salt Path (May 30)

Based on the autobiographical memoir of the same name by long-distance walker and author Raynor Winn, The Salt Path is a moving adaptation of Winn’s fascinating, true-life tale of adventure and heartbreak from first-time director Marianne Elliott. Starring Gillian Anderson as Winn and Jason Isaacs as her late husband Moth, the film recounts the double-catastrophe of Moth’s diagnosis with corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and the loss of their home as a result of a business deal with a friend turned sour.

Faced with homelessness and the knowledge that Moth has limited time before his condition worsens, the pair embark on a bucket list adventure of walking the 630-mile South West Coast Path, one of the UK’s longest natural trails. While permeated with a sense of impending loss, the film also serves as a joyous ode to making lemonade when life hands you a lemon – and to taking the plunge into adventure while you still can. Due to arrive in cinemas on May 30, this is well worth a watch for the scenery alone.

The Phoenician Scheme (May 30)

It’s always nice to end on a lighter note, and so for our final film pick this month what could be nicer than retreating into the whimsical, pastel-coloured and oddly symmetrical world of Wes Anderson?

His latest outing, The Phoenician Scheme, arrives in cinemas at the end of the month and stars a typically impressive cast that includes Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch Jeffery Wright and Richard Ayoade, among several others.

This time we’re treated to an espionage-fuelled black comedy (conceived together with Roman Coppola) which features del Toro as the wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda and his only daughter – who happens to be a nun (played by Mia Threapleton). When her father names her as the sole beneficiary of his estate, the pair find themselves targeted by assassins as Korda tries to embark on a new business venture. If all that isn’t enough to convince you, just take a look at the trailer below…

TV

The Handmaid’s Tale – Season 6 (Channel 4 / Prime Video, May 3)

Returning for a sixth and final outing, the series based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel reaches its concluding chapter this month and if, like many fans, you thought Season 5 was a little dull by comparison to its earlier instalments, fear not; it was all leading up to the fireworks contained in the show’s finale – and it’ll be worth the wait.

Elisabeth Moss once again leads the cast as Offred heads towards her fate, alongside all the other cast regulars such as Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Ann Dowd, Madeline Brewer et al. The Handmaid’s Tale’s final episodes begin airing on Channel 4 from May 3 – but you can watch the action unfold on Prime Video too if you prefer.

Murderbot (Apple TV+, May 16)

Apple TV’s obsession with dystopian sci-fi must be working out pretty well for them (in between each new series of Slow Horses, of course) – and to be fair to them, with shows like Severance to their name, who can blame them for making more? We’ve already done space (For All Mankind), alternate realities (Dark Matter), and aliens (Invasion), and so ‘this time it’s robots’ seems as logical a next step as any. 

Murderbot is the brainchild of the Weitz brothers – the pair behind a long list of films that includes American Pie and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – and stars Alex Skarsgaard as the titular robot, who has gleefully ditched every one of Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics and decided (perhaps not unfairly) that humans are stupid. Dangerously so, in fact - a situation that has only one solution by his calculations: they must die.

Also starring David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Noma Dumezweni and Tamara Podenski, this new sci-fi action comedy comes to Apple TV+ on May 16 in all its silly, murderous glory.

 The Bombing of Pan Am 103 (BBC One / iPlayer, May 18)

Coming in the wake of Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, which arrived last year and starred Colin Firth as the father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie air disaster in 1988, this new series offers a different angle on the story and comes from the studios behind Jed Mercurio’s hit show Line of Duty - it’s also set to occupy the same Sunday night slot on BBC One from May 18.

Starring Connor Swindells, Merritt Wever, Peter Mullin, Phyliss Logan and Tony Curran, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 details the story of the joint investigation conducted by Scots-US investigation into the incident, covering the initial search for evidence, the trial at Cap Zeist in 2000, and leading up to the forthcoming trial in the US. Highlighting the impact on both the victims’ families and the investigators themselves, the show also features an original soundtrack composed by Scottish band Mogwai. Written by Jonathan Lee, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 offers a timely insight into one of the most tragic events to occur in the UK, and its lingering aftermath.

Code of Silence (ITV May 18)

This intriguing new crime drama series from writer Catherine Moulton stars Rose Ayling-Ellis as a deaf worker in a police canteen who suddenly finds herself drafted in as an emergency lip reader for an investigation – but a romantic link to one of the suspects soon leads her into a tricky situation.

Directed by Diarmuid Goggins and also starring Kieron Moore, Charlotte Ritchie, Andrew Scarborough and Beth Goddard, Code of Silence makes its debut on ITV on May 18 - and could well be one of the channel’s best crime series in years.

Department Q (Netflix, May 29)

Our final TV pick this month might be familiar to anyone with Scandinavian connections, being based on the series of novels by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsson which have already been adapted into a highly successful series of Danish-language films. 

This new adaptation, however, takes the form of a new English-language TV series from Netflix, which transplants the action from Copenhagen to Edinburgh and stars Matthew Goode as the novel series’ protagonist; the emotionally-scarred former detective Carl Morck.

The series follows his exploits as he is coaxed out from early retirement and into running a new cold-case investigations unit, the titular Department Q.

Due to arrive at the end of the month, the new series is adapted for Netflix by Logan and Out of Sight writer Scott Frank, who serves as showrunner, and features a cast that also includes Kelly Macdonald, Chloe Pirrie, Mark Bonnar and Shirley Henderson. If you’re a fand of Scandi crime series, you won’t want to miss this.