Major spoilers ahead for Novocaine. You’ve been warned.
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Imagine what you could do if you never felt physical pain. You could run without feeling shin splints. A day of physical labor wouldn’t kill your back or your knees. You could easily win one of those challenges where you have to eat insanely spicy food. But how far could you really go with it? Novocaine’s ready to show us.
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The flick begins with a day in the life of Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid). He gets up, showers, makes himself a smoothie and sits in gridlocked San Diego traffic. By the look on his face, it’s clear he’s just an average guy who longs for more in life, who’s lost in the fog of the daily grind. At his job as an assistant bank manager, he can barely pay attention to his boss, Nigel (Craig Jackson), prattling on about typical corporate crap.
The only bright spot in Nate’s boring life is Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a new teller at the bank. She’s beautiful and friendly and even asks Nate to lunch. She accidentally causes Nate to spill hot coffee on his hand – but he doesn’t react to it. Fearing the unknown, Nate politely turns her offer down.
But when he meets with an elderly customer, Earl (Lou Beatty, Jr.), who’s in arrears on his loan, Nate’s struck by Earl’s sad story. His wife has died, and he’s about to lose his home and his hardware store. And Earl is so downhearted that he just doesn’t know what to do anymore. Nate says he’ll sit on Earl’s paperwork until after the holidays, to give him some time to figure out what to do.
His conversation with Earl gives Nate the motivation to talk to Sherry and he agrees to go to lunch with her. But all he orders is a vanilla milkshake. Kinda weird. Then when Sherry tries to get Nate to try some cherry pie, he flat-out refuses. He admits to Sherry that he suffers from CIP – congenital insensitivity to pain. That’s why he didn’t feel the hot coffee burn.
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Nate tells Sherry his parents overly sheltered him, and he doesn’t eat solid food for fear of accidentally biting off his tongue. Wow. Sad. Sherry tries again with the pie, promising he won’t hurt himself. Nate takes a bite – and the world shifts on its axis. He can’t believe how good solid food can be. Sherry tells him he’s a superhero and invites him to an art show she’s going to be a part of.
Back at home, Nate plays video games with his internet buddy Roscoe (Jacob Batalon). Roscoe’s his only real friend, even though they’ve never actually met in person. He encourages Nate to go to the show, saying he’s got to take the chance. Nate goes to the show and sees Sherry’s work. She sells one of her pieces, which makes her happy.
They go to a bar afterward, and a drunk jerk (Tristan de Beer) Nate went to school with recognizes him. The guy (actually credited as “A**hole”) makes a big deal out of the fact that “Novocaine” is still alive before stumbling away. Nate tells Sherry how he used to get beaten up on a regular basis after all the kids found out about his condition. But Sherry just says that “Novocaine” is a badass name.
A timer on Nate’s watch goes off, and he excuses himself to use the restroom. He tells Sherry that if he doesn’t set the timer, he’ll forget to pee and might burst his bladder. When he comes back, he sees A**hole sitting with Sherry. She gets him and Nate to do a couple of shots – and seconds later, A**hole’s in major agony while Nate is just fine. The bartender reveals that they just drank ghost pepper sauce, and Sherry and Nate leave A**hole to suffer.
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Then they go back to his place, and Nate reveals one of his hobbies – tattooing himself. His entire chest and arms are covered in drawings, which Sherry realizes tell a sort of story. Then they get intimate and sleep together.
The next morning, Nate wakes up to find Sherry gone. But she left him a note with a drawing of a piece of cherry pie. Nate’s usual grind turns into joy as he sings at the top of his lungs on the commute and dances in his office. Then things suddenly go wrong as three guys dressed as Santa come in to rob the bank.
Nate’s in shock as he hits the floor, and robbers Simon (Ray Nicholson), Andre (Conrad Kemp) and Ben (Evan Hengst) shoot the place up. Manager Nigel bravely refuses to tell them the vault combination – and Simon shoots the poor guy in the head. Simon demands the combination from Nate, backhanding Sherry for emphasis – and Nate gives it up.
The police show up earlier than expected, so the robbers take the cash and Sherry as a hostage. The cops lower their weapons, but then the robbers shoot them all. As they take off in two cars, Nate runs out after them. Going on instinct, he takes one of the cop cruisers. He follows the robbers, who split up. Nate has to guess which car Sherry’s in and goes after Ben.
They turn into an alley and Nate crashes the cruiser while Ben gets held up with a dumpster in his way. Nate chases Ben into a restaurant kitchen (it’s always a restaurant kitchen), where they fight. Nate gets shot in the arm and then grabs a hot frying pan and takes a swing at Ben, who grabs it with both hands, burning them. The gun gets thrown into the fryer, and Ben kicks Nate’s butt enough that he realizes he’s got to go for the gun.
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Nate sticks his hand in the oil and grabs the gun, shooting Ben in the head. Mortified, he does what most people would do and pukes. He looks for Ben’s phone and takes a photo of the tattoo on Ben’s arm. Nate calls Roscoe and asks him to find out where he got the tattoo done.
Meanwhile, police detectives Mincy (Betty Gabriel) and Coltraine (Matt Walsh) show up at the bank. They hear what happened and figure that Nate was in on the robbery. They find out about Ben being dead and go to the restaurant, taking in the crazy scene. On a hunch, Mincy tries calling Nate’s phone – and being the nice guy that he is, Nate actually picks up.
Mincy tells him to turn himself and the money in. Nate explains he’s not part of the crew, that he’s just trying to save Sherry. He asks if Mincy has anyone she loves, and she says her daughter. Nate asks if she were in his situation, would she wait around for the cops to save her kid? Mincy has to admit he has a point, and Nate hangs up.
Nate goes to Earl’s hardware store, and Earl just stands there dumbfounded as Nate digs the bullet out of his arm with no reaction to the pain other than, “Hey! We got it!” He superglues the wound shut and then uses an EpiPen to inject himself with some extra adrenaline to keep him going. Then Nate gives Earl some of the bank money to help him cover his payments. Of course, Nate also suggests that Earl launder the money first.
The remaining robbers go to the auto shop where they work and wait for Ben. Andre’s worried about his brother and argues with Simon about giving him more time to get there. Simon then has a conversation with Sherry – who, it turns out, is his sister. Oooh. She was working at the bank and using Nate as a way to get the vault combination. She yells at Simon for unnecessarily killing Nigel, but Simon doesn’t really care because, well, he’s psycho.
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With help from Roscoe, Nate finds the tattoo artist Zeno (Garth Collins). Nate pretends to want some ink done and asks questions about Ben. When Zeno gets suspicious, Nate pulls the gun on him. But then they end up fighting, and being a huge guy, Zeno kicks Nate’s butt. He throws Nate into a mirror, which shatters. But then Nate gets his superhero on and punches his fists into the broken glass so the pieces stick out like spikes.
He leaps onto Zeno, raking the glass over his eyes. But Zeno still won’t give up, so Nate uses the tattoo gun and rakes it all over the swastika tattoo on Zeno’s neck. Then Roscoe calls with Ben’s address, and Nate, not having a pen and paper handy, tattoos the address on his hand.
Andre learns from Simon about Ben’s death. Simon heard it on the police scanners, and it wasn’t the cops who killed him. It was “some skinny guy in a suit.” Listening in, Sherry realizes they’re talking about Nate. A furious Andre storms out and Simon warns him that he won’t wait around much longer.
Nate breaks into Ben’s apartment, looking for any info about where Sherry might be. He finds a jacket that has the auto shop logo. But it turns out Ben rigged the place with booby traps. Nate walks into a tripwire and barely feels the giant mace that smacks him in the back. Then he goes into the kitchen and sets off another trap – a crossbow that nails him in the leg. Before he can leave, he steps into a snare trap that leaves him hanging from the ceiling.
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He calls Roscoe and begs him to come and help him. Roscoe’s reluctant to get any more involved, but Nate tells him he’s his only real friend. Roscoe gives in and says he’ll be there in 10, riding his Harley. Nate sets a timer on his watch for 10 minutes.
But of course, Andre shows up and kicks Nate’s butt. Then he tries torturing Nate by driving an arrow through his knee. Nate tries to act like he’s in pain, but he really doesn’t put on a convincing show. Andre tries pulling out some of his fingernails. Yikes. Finally, Andre comes at him with a knife, telling Nate he’s gonna take out his eyes and keep them on his mantle. CIP won’t save him from that.
Luckily, Roscoe shows up and bangs Andre in the head. As Nate and Andre struggle, Roscoe throws a knife to Nate – which ends up getting stuck in his hand. Nate stabs Andre in the foot. Then he gets Andre’s head between his legs, and Nate sends that arrow in his leg through Andre’s head and into his other leg. Yow.
Mincy and Coltraine show up, but Roscoe creates a diversion, allowing Nate to escape on his – Vespa. They arrest Roscoe, but he lets them know where Nate’s headed. Nate putts away on the Vespa and then gets to the auto shop. He pulls the gun on Simon – who outs Sherry and laughs about how Nate came to rescue her.
Simon decides to kill Nate by getting him down underneath one of the cars and lowering the hydraulic lift until one of the tires starts squashing his head. CIP won’t help with that, either. Mincy and Coltraine show up and shoot Simon. While Nate gets put into an ambulance – handcuffed – Simon suddenly pops up, fatally shooting Coltraine and nailing Mincy in her side.
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Simon shoots the paramedics, grabs the cash and loads it into the ambulance. Sherry helps Mincy, saying Simon’s headed for the docks. Mincy lets Sherry drive with Roscoe still in the backseat.
Nate wakes up in the back of the ambulance. He soon realizes that Simon’s driving and Simon realizes that Nate’s back there and tries to shoot him. As the ambulance swerves, Nate gets thrown off the gurney. But the only way he can get free of the cuffs is to break a thumb. Ow. Then he zaps Simon in the head with a defibrillator, and Simon crashes the ambulance.
Sherry drives up as the guys are fighting, and Simon breaks Nate’s arm, leaving a huge piece of bone sticking out. Wow. Simon tries to get at Sherry, but Nate manages to grab another EpiPen and shoot up some more adrenaline. He grabs Simon and impales him right through the jaw with his broken bone. Hard. Core. Sherry tries to keep him awake, but Nate finally passes out.
Cut to a month later, and Nate wakes up in a full-body cast in the hospital after being in a coma. Roscoe’s there to greet him and marvel at his state – he’s especially grossed out by the skin graft on Nate’s severely burnt hand.
Mincy arrives and lets Nate know that normally he would be in enough trouble to put him away for years. But since he saved her life and is “just some white dude who works at a bank,” the D.A. lets him off with six months’ house arrest. She also gives him a get-well card drawn by her daughter, with a drawing of him as “Super Nate.” Aww.
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Cut to a year later, and Nate’s online with Roscoe, slaying monsters. Then he cuts Roscoe off to go meet up with Sherry, who’s in prison. He brings her some of that cherry pie, and she says it’s only eight more months before she’s released.
Nate also shows her his latest tattoo, the end of the “story” – showing the princess and the knight saving each other. Aww. They share a quick kiss under the eye of the grumpy guard and then their 15 minutes are up. After Sherry leaves, Nate takes a bite of the pie and smiles.
***
I go into every screening hoping that I’ll love what I’m about to see, hoping that it exceeds expectations. Unfortunately, it’s pretty rare for a flick to deliver on what it promises. Too many times, I end up leaving the theater with nothing to say but “meh.” But Novocaine is that rare flick that actually is everything you were hoping for.
The only thing I do wish is that Novocaine’s trailer hadn’t given away so many of the best moments. I understand that you have to sell it, but it would’ve been nice if I hadn’t already seen the scene where Roscoe threw the knife through Nate’s hand, Andre torturing Nate or most of that kitchen fight.
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Luckily, though, there’s still enough to love about Novocaine that the trailer doesn’t spoil. The direction, writing and pacing are nice and tight, and the flick never drags or gets stupid or pretentious. But the main draw is Jack Quaid. I was worried that Nate would be nothing more than a clone of Hughie from The Boys. And while the variation between the characters is a slight one, Quaid really puts his all into making Nate the ultimate nice guy.
There’s great supporting work from Amber Midthunder, Jacob Batalon and Ray Nicholson. But Novocaine lives or dies on the strength of Jack Quaid’s performance. And wow. He really is fantastic. He carries the flick effortlessly, and that’s not easy to do. So even when The Boys finally makes its return, I can already say that I’ll be buying Novocaine on 4K and rewatching it frequently. It’s just that much fun. I have no problem saying that Novocaine is the first truly great flick of 2025, and I can’t even tell you how happy I am to finally come out of a screening loving what I just saw.
Directed by: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Written by: Lars Jacobsen
Release date: Mar 14, 2025
Rating: R
Run time: 1hr, 50min
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
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